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It's so bad people focus only on CO2. Focusing only on one gas will likely boost solutions that promote generation of other not great for environment gases like

It's so bad people focus only on CO2. Focusing only on one gas will likely boost solutions that promote generation of other not great for environment gases like NO2. That has already happened with diesels. Diesel emits much more NO2 (~4x) and PM (up to 20x) than standard engine.

NeedMoreTea 8y ago
They don't. There's been plenty of information, study and discussion of the other greenhouse gasses, especially methane. As CO2 is the main contributor it's reasonable it gets most of the focus. What would you focus on?
- polskibus 8y ago
  Regarding focus for each technology, evaluate its environmental impact in full - total toxicity on all stages - obtaining raw resources, initial production, deployment, use, maintenance over 10-20 years, lastly decomissioning/deactivating. There's been too many wrongdoings by good intentions. Focus on diesels that at least used to emit much more NO2 and PM than gasoline cars [1]. Or biofuels that were proven to be energy-negative overall and contributed much to the increase of food prices, also boosting burning forests to grow corn in South America. [1] http://theconversation.com/fact-check-are-diesel-cars-really-more-polluting-than-petrol-cars-76241 http://theconversation.com/fact-check-are-diesel-cars-really... I'd love to read data that diesels didn't pollute more than gasoline cars. It's been a huge thing in EU some time ago when governments had to switch their incentives due to those findings. Are you saying it was all a hoax?
  - shubb 8y ago
    Seems like he's talking about climate change, whereas you are talking about polution more generally. NO2 isn't really relevant to global warming, but isn't healthy. In the case of diesel cars, as I recall, the manufacturers built sports diesel engines that were much more polluting than normal older diesel engines. They then lied that they were still okay due to 'technology' which turned out to be detecting by GPS that the car was at a government test center and making it run like an old engine. Total fraud. When the fraud was found out, all those diesel sports cars were treated as super polluters because they were. But NO2 and small particles are a big short term problem rather than an apocalypse, so we should look at them differently. You are quite right in suggesting that, especially with a lot of lobbying going on, we should look critically at all proposals. The popularity of biofuels maybe being linked to the farming lobby.

NeedMoreTea 8y ago

They don't. There's been plenty of information, study and discussion of the other greenhouse gasses, especially methane. As CO2 is the main contributor it's reasonable it gets most of the focus. What would you focus on?

polskibus 8y ago
Regarding focus for each technology, evaluate its environmental impact in full - total toxicity on all stages - obtaining raw resources, initial production, deployment, use, maintenance over 10-20 years, lastly decomissioning/deactivating. There's been too many wrongdoings by good intentions. Focus on diesels that at least used to emit much more NO2 and PM than gasoline cars [1]. Or biofuels that were proven to be energy-negative overall and contributed much to the increase of food prices, also boosting burning forests to grow corn in South America. [1] http://theconversation.com/fact-check-are-diesel-cars-really-more-polluting-than-petrol-cars-76241 http://theconversation.com/fact-check-are-diesel-cars-really... I'd love to read data that diesels didn't pollute more than gasoline cars. It's been a huge thing in EU some time ago when governments had to switch their incentives due to those findings. Are you saying it was all a hoax?
- shubb 8y ago
  Seems like he's talking about climate change, whereas you are talking about polution more generally. NO2 isn't really relevant to global warming, but isn't healthy. In the case of diesel cars, as I recall, the manufacturers built sports diesel engines that were much more polluting than normal older diesel engines. They then lied that they were still okay due to 'technology' which turned out to be detecting by GPS that the car was at a government test center and making it run like an old engine. Total fraud. When the fraud was found out, all those diesel sports cars were treated as super polluters because they were. But NO2 and small particles are a big short term problem rather than an apocalypse, so we should look at them differently. You are quite right in suggesting that, especially with a lot of lobbying going on, we should look critically at all proposals. The popularity of biofuels maybe being linked to the farming lobby.