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Well old Rush spells out pretty good here what libs are all about.
"My grandfather was born in 1893. And he saw more advancement in human technology, quality of life in the first 50 years of his life than had happened in all of human history prior to it.
"
Ridiculous. Technological change starts out small in new areas of discovery. It took a while to go from punch-card systems to microcomputing, but advancements in microprocessors came about with each iteration of computer models. In terms of alternative energy vehicles, we cannot expect to have the best machines right out of the gate. As better batteries develop...perhaps one day cold fusion process is discovered...or as hydrogen cells become more practical and safe...we will have more efficient means of travel than the internal combustion engine. The fact that early computers were inefficient did not stop companies from using them. The same phenomena will occur with hybrid and electric cars...some people will buy them now, others will buy them in the future as technological advances are made.
The first few iterations of technological advances usually nowhere near peak potential. Give it time.
I don't see how in the future some other alternative-powered vehicle is "wussy"...I see it as ingenuity and intelligence winning out...and it will in the end. Whereas 200 years ago change might have come through "muscle" and "brawn", today it comes through brains.
The best engineered cars to date are still only about 25% efficient, i.e. 75% of the money you spend on a tank of gas is wasted as heat, and not on motion of your vehicle. I see plenty of room for improvement on the outdated and completely obsolete internal combustion engine.
I am amazed how few people think that electric cars are GREEN and produce no pollution. Do people not understand that the electricity still has to be produced in a power plant? 50% of the U.S. electrical power comes from filthy COAL, and even if you scrub the massive amount of pollutant toxins from the smokestacks, you still have to put the endless flow of millions of tons of toxic pollutants SOMEWHERE.
Back to the "green" electric car--after the electricity is produced in a power plant (almost 80% by burning fossil fuels ), it must be transmitted with significant loss over power lines, then stored chemically in the car battery, before being converted back into energy to power the car. How does this process compare in efficiency to simply burning gasoline to power a car?
Is this simply too complicated for the average American to understand?
I am amazed how few people think that electric cars are GREEN and produce no pollution. Do people not understand that the electricity still has to be produced in a power plant? 50% of the U.S. electrical power comes from filthy COAL, and even if you scrub the massive amount of pollutant toxins from the smokestacks, you still have to put the endless flow of millions of tons of toxic pollutants SOMEWHERE.
Back to the "green" electric car--after the electricity is produced in a power plant (almost 80% by burning fossil fuels ), it must be transmitted with significant loss over power lines, then stored chemically in the car battery, before being converted back into energy to power the car. How does this process compare in efficiency to simply burning gasoline to power a car?
Is this simply too complicated for the average American to understand?
Yes, it is too complicated. All they see is that they do not need to fill the car with gas. Beyond what they actually SEE, they know nothing.
See electricity just gets created out of nothing.
Maybe today it's not efficient...but imagine 100 or 200 years in the future if we are converting energy from renewable, non-burning sources into stored energy for transportation. That's the point...we are still closer to beginning point than to end point...which is far beyond our lifetime.
I don't understand why people love to resist technological change and advancement.
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