SoylentNews is people
SoylentNews
from the a-Republican-speaking-sense-to-other-Republicans-and-others dept.
The Center for American Progress reports:
Arnold Schwarzenegger posted a note on Facebook on [December 7] that made a very good point about climate change and renewable energy: It really doesn't matter what you believe.
The former California governor addressed people who think climate change is a conspiracy or a hoax, and asked them whether the deaths from pollution are acceptable, whether fossil fuels will last forever, and--to paraphrase greatly--what kind of world they want to live in. This excerpt pretty much sums up his argument to climate deniers.
There are two doors. Behind Door Number One is a completely sealed room, with a regular, gasoline-fueled car. Behind Door Number Two is an identical, completely sealed room, with an electric car. Both engines are running full blast.
I want you to pick a door to open, and enter the room and shut the door behind you. You have to stay in the room you choose for one hour. You cannot turn off the engine. You do not get a gas mask.
I'm guessing you chose the Door Number Two, with the electric car, right? Door number one is a fatal choice--who would ever want to breathe those fumes?
It's a strong point, but even more importantly, it's a bipartisan point. We are in an era where addressing climate change is largely split down party lines, especially in Congress. Moderate Republicans like Schwarzenegger, who believe a healthy environment and climate are public goods, haven't yet been able to sway people who think that clean energy is going to kill the economy.
But Schwarzenegger should know that a green economy can work. As governor of California, he worked with the Democratic-led legislature to enact the nation's first comprehensive greenhouse gas emissions reduction law and the nation's first low-carbon fuel standard. Now California is the nation's leader in both solar installations and solar jobs.
2 nitpicks: If it's electric, it's called a motor, not an engine. "Power plant" would have been more apt.
The electric car would need a way to allow the wheels to turn without the car going anywhere.
...and if the gasoline car's engine is "running full blast", you'll need a load (dynamometer).
Otherwise: Brilliant.
(Score: 3, Interesting) by VanessaE on Monday December 14 2015, @04:49AM
Ok let's take this to its logical conclusion:
Assume you've pushed a brand spankin' new, fully-built, fully-equipped, ready-to-operate car into each room, with all of the accessories each would ordinarily come supplied with on the retail market (e.g. the electric comes with its charge cable, the ICE comes with a set of jumper cables, etc). There is one caveat: both cars are empty -- the ICE has zero fuel and the electric has a totally flat battery. Further assume the two rooms have dynos so that the cars can both be run at maximum (safe) load., and that both have lots of windows and skylights (and low-power electric service for nighttime lighting).
Now, you have to put everything into those rooms that is necessary to get those cars running and keep them going until they break down, someone dies, or the test is otherwise declared "finished".
Both cars of course need tires, battery electrolyte, and perhaps brake fluid, but we can safely assume both cars use these at the same rates (if at all). The electric car presumably needs a fluid-based battery cooling system, but those are sealed and hence non-consumable.
Since none of the machinery is turned on and no fuel or electric is allowed to be produced until the rooms have been sealed, you aren't allowed to vent any waste gasses out of the room.
Your ICE will need fuel, so lets go as green as possible: let's put in one of those bio-diesel production devices (the ones the size of a conventional "gas pump"), a supply of cooking oil and chemicals to process it, and storage areas for the byproducts and waste from that production process. Like the electric car, we're allowed to take as long as we want to produce the fuel, and one of those standalone generators surely doesn't use much power, so let's use solar concentrators at the windows, Stirling engines, and conventional generators to run it. You'll probably need some engine oil eventually, but it can be made from vegetable oil also, so let's do a little hand-waving and say that the bio-diesel device makes it as a side effect of its fuel-production process.
The electric car doesn't consume any of the above petroleum products. What it still needs, however, is in-the-room power facilities, as with the ICE room. We're not allowed to draw from the room's electric service, but since we're allowed to take as long as we want to get the car running, we can also go with the same solar/Stirling/generator set-up as the ICE room has.
Now start/initiate both cars and stomp on the accelerator.
The electric is just...running. About all it's producing as "waste" is heat.
The ICE, meanwhile, is producing carbon monoxide, carbon dioxide, low levels nitrogen oxides, a tiny amount of soot, and a lot of heat.
No matter how far down the production chain you go, the electric is still cleaner.