Again, this hydrogen has to be extracted from somewhere. We have some reasonably efficient ways to do it, but all involve at least some degree of putting energy into the chemical process to get the pure hydrogen out. Oh, and apparently North America is reaching a natural gas peak (one possible source), too, and it's much harder to ship from overseas than oil
( ... )
i have to agree with you. we need to change our philosophy on how we set up neighbourhoods, particularly suburban ones. they are designed for cars and not people, and render people dependent on them. there is no such thing as a main street in modern suburbia like you see in older towns, which should be one of the first things changed... making sure there is a main economic vein that runs through the town, not scattered strip malls.
Look up the "New Urbansim". Kunstler even has some problems with them, because he's a bit of an extremist nutbar, but he was formerly associated with them. They're on the trolley. I especially like the idea that building codes should be pictures, not stacks of numbers.
instead of expanding the never-ending highways, passenger rail should be vastly increased across north america.
in reference to the hydrogen issue: 1) no source of energy is as efficient as oil, 2) you can't just plop hydrogen into "gas-stations", all the infrastructure involved in transporting (which is another issue entirely) the source of energy will need to be updated, 3) as kunstler points out in "the long emergency", p. 111, "The problem is that hydrogen is not exactly a fuel. It's more accurately the a "carrier" of energy than a fuel. It takes more energy to manufacture hydrogen than the hydrogen itself produces." i'm pretty sure MM is getting at this with the allusion to nuclear power, but as he says NIMBY!
Oh man, I'd swim next to a pebble bed reactor or a CANDU-II. But a) I can't swim; and b) we live in a society where we had to rename NMR (Nuclear Magnetic Resonance) to MRI (Magnetic Resonance Imaging).
But yeah, I recently got into Kunstler's blog and it's pretty entertaining and informative (once you wade through the hyperbole and the-end-is-nighism).
You sure do have a way of making controversial posts, eh?
might as well be controversial.. too many people have unknowingly fallen into complete and utter complacency.
i don't think kunstler would say that, generally, the end is nigh; but rather that industrial economies as we know them cannot continue to operate as they do given their reliance on cheap and abundant oil. i can't get enough of his writings. it's about time someone pulled their head out of the (oil) sand.
I like Kunstler in the same way I like Michael Moore...I wouldn't want him running everything, but you need extreme views to get a compromise that's actually in the centre.
My current favourite controversial blog is slacktivist's coverage of the Left Behind novels. This horrible, not-even-actually-Christian dreck has sold like 55 million copies, and the guy making the video game gets to hang out with Mel Gibson. It's also just horribly written. This guy (actually very Christian, but anti-Bush) is just dismantling it page by page. Hilarious and scary. Start from the bottom, if you have the time.
"The grossly obese and slovenly Moore is a poster child forWalMart shoppers everywhere, for their childish addiction to cheap goodies and lack of impulse control. Like the public he represents, Moore has no cognizance of the larger problems behind the churn of recent events, for instance the public's own surrender of its allegience and personal sovereignty to giant corporations and the cheap blandishments they offer in return for slavish loyalty. All you get from Moore is shopper's remorse. He's never gotten over the fact that his hometown of Flint, Michigan, sold its soul to General Motors, and eventually got fucked for doing it."
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Oh, that's right, new, 'clean' coal power plants!
Whoops.
The only solution (as Kunstler doesn't fail to shut up about) is rebuilding our cities the correct way, so people can actually walk to shit.
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in reference to the hydrogen issue: 1) no source of energy is as efficient as oil, 2) you can't just plop hydrogen into "gas-stations", all the infrastructure involved in transporting (which is another issue entirely) the source of energy will need to be updated, 3) as kunstler points out in "the long emergency", p. 111, "The problem is that hydrogen is not exactly a fuel. It's more accurately the a "carrier" of energy than a fuel. It takes more energy to manufacture hydrogen than the hydrogen itself produces." i'm pretty sure MM is getting at this with the allusion to nuclear power, but as he says NIMBY!
Reply
But yeah, I recently got into Kunstler's blog and it's pretty entertaining and informative (once you wade through the hyperbole and the-end-is-nighism).
You sure do have a way of making controversial posts, eh?
Reply
i don't think kunstler would say that, generally, the end is nigh; but rather that industrial economies as we know them cannot continue to operate as they do given their reliance on cheap and abundant
oil. i can't get enough of his writings. it's about time someone pulled their head out of the (oil) sand.
Reply
My current favourite controversial blog is slacktivist's coverage of the Left Behind novels. This horrible, not-even-actually-Christian dreck has sold like 55 million copies, and the guy making the video game gets to hang out with Mel Gibson. It's also just horribly written. This guy (actually very Christian, but anti-Bush) is just dismantling it page by page. Hilarious and scary. Start from the bottom, if you have the time.
Reply
"The grossly obese and slovenly Moore is a poster child forWalMart shoppers everywhere, for their childish addiction to cheap goodies and lack of impulse control. Like the public he represents, Moore has no cognizance of the larger problems behind the churn of recent events, for instance the public's own surrender of its allegience and personal sovereignty to giant corporations and the cheap blandishments they offer in return for slavish loyalty. All you get from Moore is shopper's remorse. He's never gotten over the fact that his hometown of Flint, Michigan, sold its soul to General Motors, and eventually got fucked for doing it."
etc, etc.. http://www.kunstler.com/mags_diary10.html
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