TheAlbatross Posted:

Even if it is just an energy carrier, it would still decrease CO2 emissions overall. Its nothing we could use for a short term fix cuz its expensive but eventually it will become readily available.

No it won’t. There’s not a bunch of hydrogen lying around. The only emissions that will be decreased are the ones from making the batteries. Even then, you have to build all the infrastructure for moving hydrogen, and you’re going to be pumping greenhouse gases into the atmosphere to manufacture the cells.

BeBoBli Posted:

Also everyone ****ing about how the US has cheap prices by comparison, I want you to ask yourself how if you really need to ****ing drive. Most of Europe has it a hell of a lot better public transportation-wise. Where I live it’s impossible to get anywhere on anything other than a car. No public transportation, and I tried tried tried for a good half year to bike everywhere, but it’s simply a pain in the bum.

It’s definitely true. I can spend twenty minutes walking and an hour on the bus and pay $3 or more, or I can use half a gallon driving for half an hour and pay like $1.90.

Am I the only person not willing to trust information gotten through a geocities-level dance school’s website?

I stand corrected, only in part- I don’t disagree with the evidence, just the analysis and context. There’s a danger of ‘other’-ing these countries, much as we have other groups in the past. Only a part of the population benefits from the oil trade in those countries, same as here.

My personal solution is I bought a bike. No, not a woman's genitals bum bicycle. A motorcycle. I’m getting about 45 mpg and it costs $15 or so to fill up the tank. I get to split lanes in traffic, so I’m not stuck on the freeways for hours. Plus, my girlfriend likes the vibrations and that saves time on foreplay.

Longer term, I’m looking at going diesel/biodiesel. Algae derived bioD isn’t there yet, but for the moment used cooking oil is free. No need to modify the engine since I’m in So Cal (warm temps means no preheating necessary) and I’m the DIY type (I can set up filters and a centrifuge for removing debris and glycerides, making the vegetable oil into “real” diesel). Even when too many people catch on and used cooking oil is no longer available for free, I imagine it will still be cheaper than gasoline.

Corn ethanol is a boondoggle, and we’re getting raped twice, once when we subsidize it with our taxes and again when we pay higher prices for fud. It’s not helping the American Farmer, since there are no farmers left. It’s all Big Ag, such as Archer Daniels Midland that is benefitting from Corn Ethanol. Cellulose based ethanol might be a possibility, but ethanol in general has many drawbacks, regardless of its source. (Example: Can’t be transported by pipeline due to volatility, so it must be transported by truck or rail.)

One more thing: I don’t commute. I work either at home or near home. I buy local and locally produced when I can.

Oh, and one more thing I should mention about Bio D from algae. The production process is scalable, meaning an individual could make it in his backyard, you could form or join a neighborhood coop, small businesses can get in on it, various levels and branches of government can make their own, and yes, even big business conglomerates can participate. In other words, Big Oil would be ****ed and we’d win.

Marcos El Malo Posted:

Where the ****ing hell is the Arctic? Have they already written off the Articians? I know some Polar Bear Furries that will weep.

We sand devils don’t believe in the artics.

BeBoBli Posted:

Also everyone ****ing about how the US has cheap prices by comparison, I want you to ask yourself how if you really need to ****ing drive. Most of Europe has it a hell of a lot better public transportation-wise. Where I live it’s impossible to get anywhere on anything other than a car. No public transportation, and I tried tried tried for a good half year to bike everywhere, but it’s simply a pain in the bum. When I biked to work everyday my fatbum co-workers showed not a sign of sympathy. In fact it could have been cluelessness. ‘People tired these days…? Don’t you have a car?’

As a eurofabulous person, it’s really hard to have any sympathy for the situation that the US has gotten itself into by bumuming that gas will always be cheap and plentiful and that it’s really OK for half the population of the country to drive 30 minutes a day to their work. I don’t hate on anyone in particular, because I know it’s not your fault that the world is not continuing to match up to the way you were led to believe it would be when you were brought up, and I know it’s not your fault you were brought up somewhere that requires a car. But the situation as a whole is ludicrous and it WILL change with time – it’ll have to. Ultimately that means bringing the work out to you, or you moving closer to where you work – either or. Your country is founded on the idea of free enterprise, so public-transport’s only going to improve when it becomes so expensive to run a car that people need a viable alternative. Sucks2BU. See my above guide for dealing with that situation.

Even with our REALLY-sky-high gas prices in England it’s still cheaper to drive to many places if you have a pbumenger compared to getting the train, although the train’s a lot more comfortable. (London’s the main exception: it’s usually cheaper and almost always quicker to get the train in to central london than to drive, like it is in New York, except London’s 4x the area of NYC).

I don’t drive, because I live close to central London, but ironically I mbumively pollute because I get like 12 or more flights a year due to DJ commitments. I guess that’s not going to last too long either…