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And? It does not follow that we should make the situation worse given that we already messed it up badly by our previous ignorance.

adrianN 10y ago
Well, if carbon nanotubes give us much better batteries, we might be able to shut off the coal plants and diesel engines sooner.
- eveningcoffee 10y ago
  Yes, but if this happens by increasing the risk of serious contamination of the environment? I think that we should not just ignore this. The same thing happened with the CFL bulbs that contain mercury - how many of them were disposed correctly? Luckily for us these will be replaced by LED bulbs very soon.
  - ZenoArrow 10y ago
    I don't know why you're being downvoted, we should consider potential side effects in using a material, even if just so we can minimise potential downsides.
  - kevhito 10y ago
    ... as compared to the known, ongoing and serious contamination of the environment due to coal plants, of course. Do you have a citation for the CFL concern? I'm not expert in this area, but my quick checking only reveals this [1]: > Even if the mercury contained in a CFL was directly > released into the atmosphere, an incandescent would > still contribute 4.65 more milligrams of mercury into > the environment over its lifetime. Basically the same info from the EPA as well, here [2]. [1]: http://www.popularmechanics.com/home/reviews/a1733/4217864/ http://www.popularmechanics.com/home/reviews/a1733/4217864/ [2]: https://www.energystar.gov/ia/partners/promotions/change_light/downloads/fact_sheet_mercury.pdf https://www.energystar.gov/ia/partners/promotions/change_lig...
    - mrfusion 10y ago
      But we're not talking about the atmosphere. That mercury goes directly into landfills.
  - kalleboo 10y ago
    In his specific examples, it's grid-scale and cars, and neither of those are really disposed of the same way lightbulbs are (especially for grid-scale you can really crank up the regulation) Putting them in phones would be a problem though.

adrianN 10y ago

Well, if carbon nanotubes give us much better batteries, we might be able to shut off the coal plants and diesel engines sooner.

eveningcoffee 10y ago
Yes, but if this happens by increasing the risk of serious contamination of the environment? I think that we should not just ignore this. The same thing happened with the CFL bulbs that contain mercury - how many of them were disposed correctly? Luckily for us these will be replaced by LED bulbs very soon.
- ZenoArrow 10y ago
  I don't know why you're being downvoted, we should consider potential side effects in using a material, even if just so we can minimise potential downsides.
- kevhito 10y ago
  ... as compared to the known, ongoing and serious contamination of the environment due to coal plants, of course. Do you have a citation for the CFL concern? I'm not expert in this area, but my quick checking only reveals this [1]: > Even if the mercury contained in a CFL was directly > released into the atmosphere, an incandescent would > still contribute 4.65 more milligrams of mercury into > the environment over its lifetime. Basically the same info from the EPA as well, here [2]. [1]: http://www.popularmechanics.com/home/reviews/a1733/4217864/ http://www.popularmechanics.com/home/reviews/a1733/4217864/ [2]: https://www.energystar.gov/ia/partners/promotions/change_light/downloads/fact_sheet_mercury.pdf https://www.energystar.gov/ia/partners/promotions/change_lig...
  - mrfusion 10y ago
    But we're not talking about the atmosphere. That mercury goes directly into landfills.
- kalleboo 10y ago
  In his specific examples, it's grid-scale and cars, and neither of those are really disposed of the same way lightbulbs are (especially for grid-scale you can really crank up the regulation) Putting them in phones would be a problem though.