In Between Times 6-22-2023
Oliver Stone's Nuclear Now, Where Americans agree on the debt deal, Calculating your daily carbon footprint, "Duped" on EVs?
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Many of these charging stations will be in areas where charging stations are few and very far between, in rural America. As the EV transition gains more steam Walmart has just made a huge commitment. It is these kind of moves, by big players like Walmart, that will continue to move the needle toward more sustainable transport. Let's show that we care.
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Walmart plans to install new electric vehicle (EV) fast-charging stations at thousands of Walmart and Sam’s Club locations across the country
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Watch Oliver’s Stone’s new (full length) documentary, Nuclear Now, here
Your editor grew up very skeptical, as many of us did, of nuclear technology. For many of us it represented doomsday, death, pollution. But as I found myself in middle age I began to reflect more on nuclear. Indeed, most of my life in Virginia has been powered by nuclear energy. It is very likely that your life has been powered by it too, particularly if you live on the east coast.
All this energy is and was produced carbon-free.
Are the risks so great that this revolutionary and generally clean (in comparative terms) technology should continue to carry the stigma that is has? Oliver Stone explored this question below in the full-length documentary.
Where Americans agree on the debt ceiling package
Generally speaking both left and right agree that they don’t generally like the deal and didn’t get enough. But that is the nature of bi-partisanship. Nobody really wins but that is the point. It’s ugly sausage making.
One note from your editor.
This debt ceiling charade will continue periodically until it can’t. We likely have many more years that Washington can technically push the debt without the wheels coming off. But it is likely that if and when the wheels do start coming off in the world debt market, where the US dollar is not seen as the world reserve currency any longer, the potential pain for the country will be immense.
But we Americans do like to wait until a crisis is on our doorstep.
(From Allsides)
Half of Americans believe neither side “won” the negotiations — an Ipsos (Center) poll found 50% of Americans think “neither Republicans nor Democrats were winners in the debt ceiling fight.” Only 38% of Americans were satisfied with the deal, while 37% were neither satisfied or dissatisfied, and 25% were unsatisfied. Despite bipartisan compromise on the bill, Americans do not feel like they are winning, neither did many on Capitol Hill.
Click here for the article.
The Guardian: I love electric vehicles – and was an early adopter. But increasingly I feel duped
The EV equation is a difficult one. Above we celebrate that Walmart is installing thousands of new charging stations for the ever increasing fleet of electrics. We celebrate their lack of pollution on the road. EVs are part of the transition to a less carbon intensive global economy. But as Rowan Atkinson (yes Mr. Bean, who is also an electrical engineer) points out in the attached op-ed, EVs have a long way to go if we are to consider them sustainable.
(From The Guardian)
As you may know, the government (UK) has proposed a ban on the sale of new petrol and diesel cars from 2030. The problem with the initiative is that it seems to be largely based on conclusions drawn from only one part of a car’s operating life: what comes out of the exhaust pipe. Electric cars, of course, have zero exhaust emissions, which is a welcome development, particularly in respect of the air quality in city centres. But if you zoom out a bit and look at a bigger picture that includes the car’s manufacture, the situation is very different. In advance of the Cop26 climate conference in Glasgow in 2021, Volvo released figures claiming that greenhouse gas emissions during production of an electric car are nearly 70% higher than when manufacturing a petrol one. How so? The problem lies with the lithium-ion batteries fitted currently to nearly all electric vehicles: they’re absurdly heavy, huge amounts of energy are required to make them, and they are estimated to last only upwards of 10 years. It seems a perverse choice of hardware with which to lead the automobile’s fight against the climate crisis.
Unsurprisingly, a lot of effort is going into finding something better. New, so-called solid-state batteries are being developed that should charge more quickly and could be about a third of the weight of the current ones – but they are years away from being on sale, by which time, of course, we will have made millions of overweight electric cars with rapidly obsolescing batteries.
Rowan is absolutely correct on the need for solid state batteries. For EVs to become sustainable such batteries would need to be widely adopted and they likely will be. In past letters we’ve explored such batteries. But we may be still a decade from such adoption.
Additionally, there is interesting work being done on hydrogen and synthetic fueled vehicles which in theory would have a much smaller impact carbon-wise than current EVs.
EVs are a step forward no doubt. But are they the LAST step forward? Is it the final automotive “killer app”? (To borrow a phrase from the 90s.) Almost certainly not. And that bodes well for humanity.
Now how do I buy one of those wind generated synthetic fueled Porches?
Click here for the article.
Porsche begins production of ‘e-fuel’ that could provide gas alternative amid EV push
Is it possible to calculate a daily carbon footprint?
New trees are no substitute for old trees
The slopes of the Blue Ridge Mountains just to the southwest of Washington DC are a pretty special place. Some parts of it are overrun by Washingtonians seeking some respite from the urban insanity. But much of it is pretty wild even though it’s only 100 miles from the great northeastern megalopolis that stretches from DC to Boston.
More weekends than not I am hiking the trails of Shenandoah National forest which is a stone’s throw from my home. (We long ago checked out of daily DC life.) For me it is a peaceful place that is in a constant state of change. There is wide variation in the flora and fauna. There are parts of the Blue Ridge that technically are even temperate rain forest. I watch the green go up the slopes in the spring, and the red and yellow creep down the slopes in the fall. Trees are something I know a little about, and yes old trees are something special.
They are bigger after all, so from a climate perspective they sequester more carbon than little trees. It is amazing to ponder the system that is a 120 foot tall poplar tree, with all the life running through it.
As the attached article notes, there are climatological reasons for leaving mature forests alone. But maybe we should leave them alone just because they are beautiful and add to the world. We will still be able to get timber if we let the mature, and old growth forests to do their thing.*
And maybe we should start really getting serious about making things out of bamboo and hemp which are very strong and grow quickly. Seriously. As any good enviro-hippie can explain, practically anything can be made from hemp. (Or bamboo.)
(From Politico)
Most people understand that trees and forests play an important role in reducing climate change — that’s one reason there are so many popular efforts aimed at planting trees. But what many people don’t understand is that not all forests are alike, and that using our forests to mitigate climate change is a lot more complicated than just planting more trees.
It turns out the age and composition of forests makes a big difference in what role they play in preventing wildfires and storing carbon. Old growth forest is the best at both, but there is very little old growth left in either the western or eastern United States.
But a large amount of the forests on public lands is what foresters call “mature” forest, which is nearly as good as old growth and in fact is on the brink of becoming old growth.
Click here for the article.
*In the west particularly we should let forests burn too. Human intervention, the stopping of small fires, greatly contributes the the mega-fires we see each summer. There is too much fuel on the ground.
Karl Rove says; “Trump invited his indictment
In Between Times Podcasts
Event
June 29 @ 10:30 am - 11:30 am MDT
The Future of Work Conversation
Location: Online
For huge numbers of people jobs provide income and a sense of purpose. We are fast approaching a time when artificial intelligence and robots will be trusted do a better job than humans at everything from driving to diagnosing medical conditions and more. But our economy is structured to thrive with a robust engaged workforce. What happens when the nature and number of jobs change substantially? Do we have more leisure time to enjoy our families, contribute to our community and deepen our creative and spiritual practices? Do we find a way to share the benefits of these technological advances or does homelessness and poverty grow? If we think together now can we create a future we all want to embrace?