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.
Hydrogen is good in that it reduces noxious emissions in cities (excepting that water vapour is a major greenhouse gas, it'd be interesting to see how much came back down in increased rainfall and such, though). It's bad in that it's not that much more energy efficient to extract than oil, and we haven't had decades of technology refinement to make it so. I'd be all for more nuclear plants, personally. But those take a long time to build, and no one wants one in their backyard.
The walk everywhere philosophy is all about building old-school neighbourhoods, that modern zoning laws actively discourage. E.g. neighbourhoods with people of different income levels, basement apartments, apartments over shops....basically making sure the service workers can live near the 'high class' workers. This is what the Bay Area got horribly, horribly wrong, and what OCRI & co. are doing a reasonable job to make sure doesn't happen in Ottawa.
I used to rent a room from a doctor and his wife in the Glebe, who works at the Glebe centre. They drove a Volvo, but didn't really need too. Except for possibly going to the ridiclously located Corel Centre.
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.
Hydrogen is good in that it reduces noxious emissions in cities (excepting that water vapour is a major greenhouse gas, it'd be interesting to see how much came back down in increased rainfall and such, though). It's bad in that it's not that much more energy efficient to extract than oil, and we haven't had decades of technology refinement to make it so. I'd be all for more nuclear plants, personally. But those take a long time to build, and no one wants one in their backyard.
The walk everywhere philosophy is all about building old-school neighbourhoods, that modern zoning laws actively discourage. E.g. neighbourhoods with people of different income levels, basement apartments, apartments over shops....basically making sure the service workers can live near the 'high class' workers. This is what the Bay Area got horribly, horribly wrong, and what OCRI & co. are doing a reasonable job to make sure doesn't happen in Ottawa.
I used to rent a room from a doctor and his wife in the Glebe, who works at the Glebe centre. They drove a Volvo, but didn't really need too. Except for possibly going to the ridiclously located Corel Centre.
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