Sent 12/30/21:
LETTER TO MY FRIENDS
Hello Dear Friends:
Homo sapiens have been around for ~300,000 years and billions have been born, lived and died. “Humans have a large and highly developed prefrontal cortex, the region of the brain associated with higher cognition. They are intelligent, capable of episodic memory, flexible facial expressions, self-awareness and a theory of mind. The human mind is capable of introspection, private thought, imagination, volition and forming views on existence. This has allowed great technological advancements and complex tool development possible through reason and the transmission of knowledge to future generations. Language, art and trade are defining characteristics of humans. Long-10distance trade routes might have led to cultural explosions and resource distribution that gave humans an advantage over other similar species.”-Wiki They also are the only animal species on earth that we know of that have developed religion, with often a belief in the afterlife. Humans also have an understanding of the concept of time much more evolved than other animals.
Many of the deceased humans throughout history were greatly loved by their parents, spouse, siblings, fellow soldiers, children, etc. Don’t you find it odd that there is no scientific evidence or public proof that EVEN ONE of them has ever come back to let their people know what is on the other side or how they are getting along there?
I only know of people saying one person did and that is by faith unless you’re one of the several hundred people mentioned in the New Testament who actually saw Jesus after the resurrection. If that resurrection happened, as recorded by the writers of the New Testament, then we of course know about life after death just by reading the New testament. But again this would all have to be by faith for us living 2,000 years later.
So either people die and that is it, OR there is life after death but it is impossible to re-enter this space-time continuum. Seems to me if there was life after death, the dead would try to come back and communicate with their loved ones.
The Old Testament warns about trying to communicate with the dead. And yes, I know many people say they have felt, or seen, or somehow been affected by their loved ones that have died but NOT ONE of these cases can be scientifically proven so these experiences are very subjective and could be blamed on the mental state, emotions, imaginations and even religious beliefs of these people.
For consideration, what IF there is an evil entity/entities that exist on earth, whether it is called satan & demons, or an evil life form or life forms or even some alien life that has/have been living on this earth alongside Homo Sapiens (maybe the cause of UFOs/UAPs and paranormal activity and weird events throughout human history?) then couldn’t it/they pretend to be someone that has died could they not? Just to mess with us?
The whole thing seems weird to me. Maybe when we die we are just…dead?!
What do YOU think? Thanks.
Shawn
p.s. I have avoided sending this to anyone that I know has strong and rigid religious beliefs as I already know what they believe based upon their choice of religion so there is no need to ask them these questions and I do not wish to get lectured by them, or worse, in an argument with them.
(I got only a few replies. Robyn told me that people don’t like to think of their death. Probably quite true. Of the ones I got back maybe two were completely secular and scientific while the others had shades of faith in various post death happenings that could not be proven and thus required faith.) I was amazed at how dissimilar they were from each other.
I sent this out on 3/15/22:
Covid-19 Vaccinations:
Dear Friends & Family:
All of the attached studies were recently published in the prestigious New England Journal of Medicine. Many thousands of people studied. Many doctors were involved from multiple countries. Authors’ affiliations are shown at the end of articles. Studies are controlled studies. All studies based on actual people except one that was in-vitro. That study from Japan was for comparing therapeutic monoclonal antibodies treatment against Omicron Ba.2 variant and was not vaccine related.
Conclusions
1) People with immunity from having been infected: Our immune system response wanes over time. It forgets about how to identify Covid-19 over time.
2) People vaccinated and even boosted-SAME. Booster helps but 5-6 months out from booster they all have pretty low efficacy. Especially with Omicron. There are now 4 variations of Omicron. One is more contagious than the other 3. [Update: Numerous Omicron variants.]
3) People can and do get reinfected.
4) Proper masking and distancing helps to minimize the probability of viral infection, or shedding of virus to others.
5) Viral load during successful infections is decreased with proper masking and distancing. True for a person wearing a mask or for ones around them. If both are wearing masks then even less viral load and less probability of infection.
6) Mask mandates have been shown to decrease the spread of Covid-19in a community.
7) N95 type masks are better than other types.
8) Masks with exhaust valves are harmful to those around since virus is exhaled out to the environment nearby.
9) Vaccines have SO FAR continued to help to reduce the need for hospitalization and have also reduced deaths when vaccinated groups are compared to unvaccinated groups. Large differences are seen even out to 8+ months. When this stops, then time for some new vaccines and treatments! I believe they are being worked on even now as I type.
One study concluded and then suggested that a newer broader range vaccine needs to be developed rather than using our current ones over and over. I agree. There will be new variants too…
Covid is not over. Sad fact. Even now somewhere in the world a new variant may have already emerged that will overtake the other types. Not science fiction, just science fact. New mutations might be better or might be worse for humans but covid has not left our planet as long as new cases continue anywhere in the world. Every new covid infection provides the opportunity for a mutation to occur. Since many countries have had fewer vaccinations, it is more likely they will be a source of those mutations.
Posted on Facebook 4/2/22:
THESE PEOPLE
Yesterday we took our dog to have his annual check up and PARVO vaccination. Why did we do this? Because we love him!
Why do some members of the Cult of Trump or Anti Vaxxers R Us not allow their family members to be vaccinated for a deadly virus called Covid? What reality do they exist in? Which Bible do they read? Where is the love of God, the love of Jesus which they often proclaim with self-confident righteousness?
These people are fed and led by fear, misinformation, and often hatred towards Democrats, intellectuals, and the non-ultra right media. They fear those of a different color, of a different religion, of a different sexual orientation, of those wanting autonomy over their bodies, and indeed anything at all that is different from how they believe. Part of this is human nature as we have seen throughout history and part of it is their flawed belief system. There is none other than their ‘truth’.
They often fear science as it might conflict with their beliefs that give them comfort and in which they have been nurtured and in what some might say, they have been brainwashed.
These same people believe they can watch a few YouTube videos and listen to their leadership/teachers and suddenly know more than doctors, scientists and educators, indeed those professionals that have spent thousands of hours over many years of study using the scientific method but paradoxically this same flawed illogical minority must still rely on intellectuals, scientists, and engineers to design their modes of transportation and forms of communication so they can propagate their belief systems and condemn those that don’t go along with them.
These people are very selective in what little logic they possess. Their source of indoctrination is formed by faux news and ultra-right news sources. To these unreasonable people anything outside of their bubble is leftist and false.
These same people are secure living in their bubble safely away from the tough questions and harsh realities of this world in which we find ourselves.
These people often merge nationalism with their religious faith. One need only look at human history to see what terrible atrocities will eventually happen from this dangerous mixture.
This realization is a warning to those of us that choose not to live under such a bubble but to boldly go on to enjoy the life and freedoms we currently have in this world, in this country, while using science to move forward through the unknown uncertainties of the future.
So let us boldly go forward with singleness of heart along with human compassion, love, empathy, honesty and lack of fear. Let us stamp out every bit of prejudice, every injustice, every falsehood, every lie, every misinformation we come across while proudly proclaiming truth, logic, justice and mercy as our esteemed goalposts.
-Shawn Jipp
April 2, 2022
A conservative (unvaxed) senior acquaintance sent this email to me so I quickly replied as I did not agree with things in the article. Here is his email:
Common sense v. dogmatic nonsense
You will never look at a battery again in the same way you did before you read this article.This is a neat article that makes you think.
Batteries
Some amusing lagniappe with some
good information on the subject.
Anonymous (couldn’t locate the author)
When I saw the title of this lecture, especially with the picture of the scantily clad model, I couldn’t resist attending. The packed auditorium was abuzz with questions about the address; nobody seemed to know what to expect. The only hint was a large aluminum block sitting on a sturdy table on the stage.
When the crowd settled down, a scholarly-looking man walked out and put his hand on the shiny block, “Good evening,” he said, “I am here to introduce NMC532-X,” and he patted the block, “we call him NM for short,” and the man smiled proudly. “NM is a typical electric vehicle (EV) car battery in every way except one; we programmed him to send signals of the internal movements of his electrons when charging, discharging, and in several other conditions. We wanted to know what it feels like to be a battery. We don’t know how it happened, but NM began to talk after we downloaded the program.
Despite this ability, we put him in a car for a year and then asked him if he’d like to do presentations about batteries. He readily agreed on the condition he could say whatever he wanted. We thought that was fine, and so, without further ado, I’ll turn the floor over to NM,” the man turned and walked off the stage.
“Good evening,” NM said. He had a slightly affected accent, and when he spoke, he lit up in different colors. “That cheeky woman on the marquee was my idea,” he said. “Were she not there, along with ‘naked’ in the title, I’d likely be speaking to an empty auditorium! I also had them add ‘shocking’ because it’s a favorite word amongst us batteries.” He flashed a light blue color as he laughed.
“Sorry,” NM chuckled, then continued, “Three days ago, at the start of my last lecture, three people walked out. I suppose they were disappointed there would be no dancing girls. But here is what I noticed about them. One was wearing a battery-powered hearing aid, one tapped on his battery-powered cell phone as he left, and a third got into his car, which would not start without a battery. So, I’d like you to think about your day for a moment; how many batteries do you rely on?”
He paused for a full minute which gave us time to count our batteries. Then he went on, “Now, it is not elementary to ask, ‘what is a battery?’ I think Tesla said it best when they called us Energy Storage Systems. That’s important. We do not make electricity – we store electricity produced elsewhere, primarily by coal, uranium, natural gas-powered plants, or diesel-fueled generators. So to say an EV is a zero-emission vehicle is not at all valid. Also, since forty percent of the electricity generated in the U.S. is from coal-fired plants, it follows that forty percent of the EVs on the road are coal-powered, do you see?”
He flashed blue again. “Einstein’s formula, E=MC2, tells us it takes the same amount of energy to move a five-thousand-pound gasoline-driven automobile a mile as it does an electric one. The only question again is what produces the power? To reiterate, it does not come from the battery; the battery is only the storage device, like a gas tank in a car.”
He lit up red when he said that, and I sensed he was smiling. Then he continued in blue and orange. “Mr. Elkay introduced me as NMC532. If I were the battery from your computer mouse, Elkay would introduce me as double-A, if from your cell phone as CR2032, and so on. We batteries all have the same name depending on our design. By the way, the ‘X’ in my name stands for ‘experimental.’
There are two orders of batteries, rechargeable, and single-use. The most common single-use batteries are A, AA, AAA, C, D. 9V, and lantern types. Those dry-cell species use zinc, manganese, lithium, silver oxide, or zinc and carbon to store electricity chemically. Please note they all contain toxic, heavy metals.
Rechargeable batteries only differ in their internal materials, usually lithium-ion, nickel-metal oxide, and nickel-cadmium.
The United States uses three billion of these two battery types a year, and most are not recycled; they end up in landfills. California is the only state which requires all batteries be recycled. If you throw your small, used batteries in the trash, here is what happens to them.
All batteries are self-discharging. That means even when not in use, they leak tiny amounts of energy. You have likely ruined a flashlight or two from an old ruptured battery. When a battery runs down and can no longer power a toy or light, you think of it as dead; well, it is not. It continues to leak small amounts of electricity. As the chemicals inside it run out, pressure builds inside the battery’s metal casing, and eventually, it cracks. The metals left inside then ooze out. The ooze in your ruined flashlight is toxic, and so is the ooze that will inevitably leak from every battery in a landfill. All batteries eventually rupture; it just takes rechargeable batteries longer to end up in the landfill.
In addition to dry cell batteries, there are also wet cell ones used in automobiles, boats, and motorcycles. The good thing about those is, ninety percent of them are recycled. Unfortunately, we do not yet know how to recycle batteries like me or care to dispose of single-use ones properly.
But that is not half of it. For those of you excited about electric cars and a green revolution, I want you to take a closer look at batteries and also windmills and solar panels. These three technologies share what we call environmentally destructive embedded costs.”
NM got redder as he spoke. “Everything manufactured has two costs associated with it, embedded costs and operating costs. I will explain embedded costs using a can of baked beans as my subject.
In this scenario, baked beans are on sale, so you jump in your car and head for the grocery store. Sure enough, there they are on the shelf for $1.75 a can. As you head to the checkout, you begin to think about the embedded costs in the can of beans.
The first cost is the diesel fuel the farmer used to plow the field, till the ground, harvest the beans, and transport them to the food processor. Not only is his diesel fuel an embedded cost, so are the costs to build the tractors, combines, and trucks. In addition, the farmer might use a nitrogen fertilizer made from natural gas.
Next is the energy costs of cooking the beans, heating the building, transporting the workers, and paying for the vast amounts of electricity used to run the plant. The steel can holding the beans is also an embedded cost. Making the steel can requires mining taconite, shipping it by boat, extracting the iron, placing it in a coal-fired blast furnace, and adding carbon. Then it’s back on another truck to take the beans to the grocery store. Finally, add in the cost of the gasoline for your car.
But wait – can you guess one of the highest but rarely acknowledged embedded costs?” NM said, then gave us about thirty seconds to make our guesses. Then he flashed his lights and said, “It’s the depreciation on the 5000 pound car you used to transport one pound of canned beans!”
NM took on a golden glow, and I thought he might have winked. He said, “But that can of beans is nothing compared to me! I am hundreds of times more complicated. My embedded costs not only come in the form of energy use; they come as environmental destruction, pollution, disease, child labor, and the inability to be recycled.”
He paused, “I weigh one thousand pounds, and as you see, I am about the size of a travel trunk.” NM’s lights showed he was serious. “I contain twenty-five pounds of lithium, sixty pounds of nickel, 44 pounds of manganese, 30 pounds cobalt, 200 pounds of copper, and 400 pounds of aluminum, steel, and plastic. Inside me are 6,831 individual lithium-ion cells.
It should concern you that all those toxic components come from mining. For instance, to manufacture each auto battery like me, you must process 25,000 pounds of brine for the lithium, 30,000 pounds of ore for the cobalt, 5,000 pounds of ore for the nickel, and 25,000 pounds of ore for copper. All told, you dig up 500,000 pounds of the earth’s crust for just – one – battery.”
He let that one sink in, then added, “I mentioned disease and child labor a moment ago. Here’s why. Sixty-eight percent of the world’s cobalt, a significant part of a battery, comes from the Congo. Their mines have no pollution controls and they employ children who die from handling this toxic material. Should we factor in these diseased kids as part of the cost of driving an electric car?”
NM’s red and orange light made it look like he was on fire. “Finally,” he said, “I’d like to leave you with these thoughts. California is building the largest battery in the world near San Francisco, and they intend to power it from solar panels and windmills. They claim this is the ultimate in being ‘green,’ but it is not! This construction project is creating an environmental disaster. Let me tell you why.
The main problem with solar arrays is the chemicals needed to process silicate into the silicon used in the panels. To make pure enough silicon requires processing it with hydrochloric acid, sulfuric acid, nitric acid, hydrogen fluoride, trichloroethane, and acetone. In addition, they also need gallium, arsenide, copper-indium-gallium- diselenide, and cadmium-telluride, which also are highly toxic. Silicon dust is a hazard to the workers, and the panels cannot be recycled.
Windmills are the ultimate in embedded costs and environmental destruction. Each weighs 1688 tons (the equivalent of 23 houses) and contains 1300 tons of concrete, 295 tons of steel, 48 tons of iron, 24 tons of fiberglass, and the hard to extract rare earths neodymium, praseodymium, and dysprosium. Each blade weighs 81,000 pounds and will last 15 to 20 years, at which time it must be replaced. We cannot recycle used blades. Sadly, both solar arrays and windmills kill birds, bats, sea life, and migratory insects.
NM lights dimmed, and he quietly said, “There may be a place for these technologies, but you must look beyond the myth of zero emissions. I predict EVs and windmills will be abandoned once the embedded environmental costs of making and replacing them become apparent.
I’m trying to do my part with these lectures. As you can see, if I had entitled this talk “The Embedded Costs of Going Green,” who would have come? But thank you for your attention, good night, and good luck.”
NM’s lights went out, and he was quiet, like a regular battery.
In God We Trust
—
Reagan Multimail
So I then replied with this on December 12, 2021:
Thank you for this article but unfortunately part of it is FAKE NEWS!
Have you ever chosen to own and operate alternative energy transportation vehicles? I have.
I owned an electric car back in the early 90s. It was a converted Volkswagen Cabriolet. It operated on 120V and used 10 Trojan 85 pound lead acid batteries that were charged mostly at night when the energy companies had abundant access to supply and the power grid was at a low usage level. Each battery was 90+% recyclable. I also owned a 2007 Honda Civic for 5 years that ran only on cleaner CNG (Compressed Natural Gas) of which the United States has abundant supply without needing to be at the mercy of foreign governments.
The article did not mention how much energy and petroleum is required to produce plastic or that how plastic is for the most part not recycled.
The article did not mention lithium or lithium polymer batteries and this dates itself. It was obviously an older article that someone added the Elon Musk reference to! Clever.
Our energy companies out here in eastern New Mexico and Texas are into energy. Energy is our main output/export. We have a refinery about 55 miles from our door. Our area is full of oil wells as one heads out of town to the South towards Texas. This is because millions of years ago the ocean covered most of New Mexico and parts of Texas. Our area is heavily pro oil and is mostly politically ‘Red’, probably more so than your county in Arizona. Google it.
There were some true facts in your article but the fact remains that the oil companies out here are putting up wind turbines and throughout the summer months you can see giant turbine blades being brought through the center of towns as the companies understand this is the future. Our energy company here is Excel. Excel supplies energy for parts of Texas, New Mexico and about four other states. Excel plans to be carbon neutral by the year 2050 (as far as energy production is measured as let’s face it even a kid with a lemonade stand is not completely carbon neutral!)
I used to work in semiconductor manufacturing and yes, we used various dangerous chemicals and gasses. If humanity does not have an industry that requires us to use dangerous chemicals at all, then you would have no electronics, no cars, no aircraft, no modern medicine, and therefore nothing made from dangerous materials. I don’t think you are willing to switch to a prep-industrial, pre-vaccination, starving, smallpox and polio ridden civilization. I am quite sure none of your other conservative friends would be either!
The embedded cost in the article was a valuable concept to realize as everything we buy uses various chemicals and metals and plastics, in manufacturing and packaging and transportation to your store (or Amazon depot). That was the best point of the article! Every time you go to McDonald’s for a hamburger there is an embedded cost of how it will cost humanity. The same applies to every time you take an airline flight or every time you get gas at the pump and drive across your city spewing out emissions (especially from older cars.) Every time you buy a Teflon coated appliance, every time you buy bleach to be used around your house, every time you buy imported electronics from Asia or Mexico, or food from other parts off the world, Etc. These costs are things we must all acknowledge and bring into consideration. Also we must consider how much precious clean water that animals must use before they are slaughtered for meat which is very non-efficient. I believe it’s over 600+ gallons per cow and that does not consider all the water that went into the grain the cow must eat as it grows until it is slaughtered. So then we should also be conscious of our food choices too and what it took to get it to our mouths. We only have one earth to live on and regardless of our religious beliefs, we should be mindful and responsible for the caretaking of it. We must wake up.
The concern and compassion of the writers of your article also make note of deplorable mining and manufacturing conditions in other countries, the deplorable use of any child labor, and the need need for companies to be socially and morally responsible with their use of human workers. If I didn’t know better, I would think they were closet union supporters!
Based on these revelations of our footprint upon the earth, I would say that the authors of your article are only partially woke. But if they continue to look at the big picture and continue looking at the alternatives of internal combustion engines and other high carbon footprint items, and realize how all of the auto companies are no longer going to be producing non-electric cars in just a few more years, they will realize that the move away from high carbon footprint transportation is just what the doctor ordered for planet earth (just like doctor ordered vaccination saves lives considering the alternative). Yes, it may even be the authors will one day wake up completely!
Shawn Jipp 2021
(feel free to distribute to your friends if my name remains attached to my unedited original reply)
On 3/14/22 I received this from his friend:
You might find this interesting.
What is a battery?’ I think Tesla said it best when they called it an
Energy Storage System. That’s important.
They do not make electricity – they store electricity produced
elsewhere, primarily by coal, uranium, natural gas-powered plants, or
diesel-fueled generators. So, to say an EV is a zero-emission vehicle
is not at all valid.
Also, since forty percent of the electricity generated in the U.S. is
from coal-fired plants, it follows that forty percent of the EVs on
the road are coal-powered, do you see?”
Einstein’s formula, E=MC2, tells us it takes the same amount of energy
to move a five-thousand-pound gasoline-driven automobile a mile as it
does an electric one. The only question again is what produces the
power? To reiterate, it does not come from the battery; the battery is
only the storage device, like a gas tank in a car.
There are two orders of batteries, rechargeable, and single-use. The
most common single-use batteries are A, AA, AAA, C, D. 9V, and lantern
types. Those dry-cell species use zinc, manganese, lithium, silver
oxide, or zinc and carbon to store electricity chemically. Please note
they all contain toxic, heavy metals.
Rechargeable batteries only differ in their internal materials,
usually lithium-ion, nickel-metal oxide, and nickel-cadmium. The
United States uses three billion of these two battery types a year,
and most are not recycled; they end up in landfills. California is the
only state which requires all batteries be recycled. If you throw your
small, used batteries in the trash, here is what happens to them.
All batteries are self-discharging. That means even when not in use,
they leak tiny amounts of energy. You have likely ruined a flashlight
or two from an old, ruptured battery. When a battery runs down and can
no longer power a toy or light, you think of it as dead; well, it is
not. It continues to leak small amounts of electricity. As the
chemicals inside it run out, pressure builds inside the battery’s
metal casing, and eventually, it cracks. The metals left inside then
ooze out. The ooze in your ruined flashlight is toxic, and so is the
ooze that will inevitably leak from every battery in a landfill. All
batteries eventually rupture; it just takes rechargeable batteries
longer to end up in the landfill.
In addition to dry cell batteries, there are also wet cell ones used
in automobiles, boats, and motorcycles. The good thing about those is,
ninety percent of them are recycled. Unfortunately, we do not yet know
how to recycle single-use ones properly.
But that is not half of it. For those of you excited about electric
cars and a green revolution, I want you to take a closer look at
batteries and also windmills and solar panels. These three
technologies share what we call environmentally destructive embedded
costs.”
Everything manufactured has two costs associated with it, embedded
costs and operating costs. I will explain embedded costs using a can
of baked beans as my subject.
In this scenario, baked beans are on sale, so you jump in your car and
head for the grocery store. Sure enough, there they are on the shelf
for $1.75 a can. As you head to the checkout, you begin to think about
the embedded costs in the can of beans.
The first cost is the diesel fuel the farmer used to plow the field,
till the ground, harvest the beans, and transport them to the food
processor. Not only is his diesel fuel an embedded cost, so are the
costs to build the tractors, combines, and trucks. In addition, the
farmer might use a nitrogen fertilizer made from natural gas.
Next is the energy costs of cooking the beans, heating the building,
transporting the workers, and paying for the vast amounts of
electricity used to run the plant. The steel can holding the beans is
also an embedded cost. Making the steel can requires mining taconite,
shipping it by boat, extracting the iron, placing it in a coal-fired
blast furnace, and adding carbon. Then it’s back on another truck to
take the beans to the grocery store. Finally, add in the cost of the
gasoline for your car.
A typical EV battery weighs one thousand pounds, about the size of a
travel trunk. It contains twenty-five pounds of lithium, sixty pounds
of nickel, 44 pounds of manganese, 30 pounds cobalt, 200 pounds of
copper, and 400 pounds of aluminum, steel, and plastic. Inside are
over 6,000 individual lithium-ion cells.
It should concern you that all those toxic components come from
mining. For instance, to manufacture each EV auto battery, you must
process 25,000 pounds of brine for the lithium, 30,000 pounds of ore
for the cobalt, 5,000 pounds of ore for the nickel, and 25,000 pounds
of ore for copper. All told, you dig up 500,000 pounds of the earth’s
crust for just – one – battery.”
Sixty-eight percent of the world’s cobalt, a significant part of a
battery, comes from the Congo. Their mines have no pollution controls,
and they employ children who die from handling this toxic material.
Should we factor in these diseased kids as part of the cost of driving
an electric car?”
I’d like to leave you with these thoughts. California is building the
largest battery in the world near San Francisco, and they intend to
power it from solar panels and windmills. They claim this is the
ultimate in being ‘green,’ but it is not! This construction project is
creating an environmental disaster. Let me tell you why.
The main problem with solar arrays is the chemicals needed to process
silicate into the silicon used in the panels. To make pure enough
silicon requires processing it with hydrochloric acid, sulfuric acid,
nitric acid, hydrogen fluoride, trichloroethane, and acetone. In
addition, they also need gallium, arsenide, copper-indium-gallium-
diselenide, and cadmium-telluride, which also are highly toxic.
Silicon dust is a hazard to the workers, and the panels cannot be
recycled.
Windmills are the ultimate in embedded costs and environmental
destruction. Each weighs 1688 tons (the equivalent of 23 houses) and
contains 1300 tons of concrete, 295 tons of steel, 48 tons of iron, 24
tons of fiberglass, and the hard to extract rare earths neodymium,
praseodymium, and dysprosium. Each blade weighs 81,000 pounds and will
last 15 to 20 years, at which time it must be replaced. We cannot
recycle used blades. Sadly, both solar arrays and windmills kill
birds, bats, sea life, and migratory insects.
There may be a place for these technologies, but you must look beyond
the myth of zero emissions. I predict EVs and windmills will be
abandoned once the embedded environmental costs of making and
replacing them become apparent. “Going Green” may sound like the
Utopian ideal and are easily espoused, catchy buzz words, but when you
look at the hidden and embedded costs realistically with an open mind,
you can see that Going Green is more destructive to the Earth’s
environment than meets the eye, for sure.
If this had been titled … “The Embedded Costs of Going Green,” would
you have read it
I replied on 3/15/22:
Dave:
I just read it. The embedded costs to the environment are well known and is a great point. Going anywhere in any car has embedded costs to the car owner and to the environment of planet earth! Many don’t seem to consider this. His comments on car batteries are not totally accurate, depending on vehicles. For example the Toyota Prius does not have a 1,000 pound 6,000 cell battery. “The 4.4 kWh lithium-ion battery developed for the Prius Plug-in fits under the rear cargo floor and weighs 80 kg (180 lb). As a comparison, the nickel-metal hydride battery of the third-generation Prius, which has a capacity of only 1.3 kWh, weighs 42 kg (93 lb).” Everything he mentioned has been considered many years ago by scientists and engineers. The Tesla Model 3 (wish I could afford one!: ) “Tesla has managed to pack the 4,416 cylinder cells (2170) in to four modules that weigh around 1054 lbs”
What he failed to state is that the benefit of electric cars is that most will charge from the power grid at night when use is low and costs are lower. It is also proven to be more efficient and beneficial for the power plant (even if coal fired) to charge multiple vehicles than to have each with an internal combustion engine requiring fueling and spewing out carbon emissions (which are directly proportional to miles/gallon). Remember tankers must bring the gasoline/diesel to stations and one must then drive to them. Sometimes their underground tanks leak. Nothing is perfect in the world.
This book is quite dated IF he is referring to the solar cell manufacturer in Fremont, California that the government subsidized and eventually went bankrupt because it could not compete against solar cells made in China. Sad but true. I often drove past that plant and like many others had high hopes for it.
Granted if people all switch to mostly electric powered transportation we will need better batteries that are more recyclable and mining operations of precious metals must be safe. Cars will need to improve. This is called progress. The world is not black and white but is full of grays. No transportation method except maybe bicycling or skateboarding is without its dangers. Walking is best but is impractical for long distances and not all age groups are equally capable.
The author looks at negatives and does not compare to the negatives of NOT going more towards green energy sources. Why? Does he have an agenda?
-Shawn
3/15/22
using WordPress and Kubio.