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How about the freedom to set your own travel plans, efficiencies in travel with all the attendant economic benefits and vital tool in improving real estate qual

by brc 12y ago

How about the freedom to set your own travel plans, efficiencies in travel with all the attendant economic benefits and vital tool in improving real estate quality? The road-and-traffic free utopia you seek cannot exist. >leading us inexplorably down a path of global climate destruction and natural resource exhaustion You forgot creating runny noses and ingrown toenails. Rhetoric is a tad overblown.

metaphorm 12y ago
clearly we need the ability to travel. allowing every person on the planet (with sufficient money anyway) to ride around in their very own 3 ton machine, moving at 80 mph is not the right way to do it. a better world would have different vehicles than cars. global climate destruction and natural resource exhaustion are realities. this is not overblown rhetoric. we are removing millions of years of fossilized plant-collected sunlight, previously sequestered deep in the crust of the Earth, and burning it at a rate so fast that the biosphere of the planet cannot keep up with the changes in the climate. there are other fossil fuels as well that contribute to this besides just the petroleum burned by cars, but petroleum burned by cars is a huge factor here. seriously, you shouldn't be dismissive of these problems. there is a basic need to provide transportation to people. we have done a terrible job of finding a good solution to that needs. what we do now with cars is one of the most destructive and unsustainable ways possible to solve the problem.
- chc 12y ago
  > global climate destruction and natural resource exhaustion are realities. this is not overblown rhetoric. we are removing millions of years of fossilized plant-collected sunlight, previously sequestered deep in the crust of the Earth, and burning it at a rate so fast that the biosphere of the planet cannot keep up with the changes in the climate. there are other fossil fuels as well that contribute to this besides just the petroleum burned by cars, but petroleum burned by cars is a huge factor here. These are not problems with cars, though. These are problems with internal combustion engines. Over the next half a decade, electric cars are going to take off in a big way, as EVs with low prices, long ranges and good performance characteristics become common (so far we know about the Model 3 and the Chevy Bolt, both coming in two years, and a significant range bump on the Leaf is likely by then too).
  - metaphorm 12y ago
    electric motors are more efficient than gasoline powered motors, so there is some real gain to using cars of that type. however, the electric energy still has to be generated by something, and frequently that something is a coal, gas, or oil burning power plant. its still better than burning the gasoline in the car engine directly but not a fundamental solution. the fundamental solution is to drive less, to carpool more, and to reorganize our communities to make effective public transportation a focus instead of an afterthought. we have to find ways to meet the transportation needs of people without using so much energy to do so.

by brc 12y ago

metaphorm 12y ago

clearly we need the ability to travel. allowing every person on the planet (with sufficient money anyway) to ride around in their very own 3 ton machine, moving at 80 mph is not the right way to do it. a better world would have different vehicles than cars. global climate destruction and natural resource exhaustion are realities. this is not overblown rhetoric. we are removing millions of years of fossilized plant-collected sunlight, previously sequestered deep in the crust of the Earth, and burning it at a rate so fast that the biosphere of the planet cannot keep up with the changes in the climate. there are other fossil fuels as well that contribute to this besides just the petroleum burned by cars, but petroleum burned by cars is a huge factor here. seriously, you shouldn't be dismissive of these problems. there is a basic need to provide transportation to people. we have done a terrible job of finding a good solution to that needs. what we do now with cars is one of the most destructive and unsustainable ways possible to solve the problem.

chc 12y ago
> global climate destruction and natural resource exhaustion are realities. this is not overblown rhetoric. we are removing millions of years of fossilized plant-collected sunlight, previously sequestered deep in the crust of the Earth, and burning it at a rate so fast that the biosphere of the planet cannot keep up with the changes in the climate. there are other fossil fuels as well that contribute to this besides just the petroleum burned by cars, but petroleum burned by cars is a huge factor here. These are not problems with cars, though. These are problems with internal combustion engines. Over the next half a decade, electric cars are going to take off in a big way, as EVs with low prices, long ranges and good performance characteristics become common (so far we know about the Model 3 and the Chevy Bolt, both coming in two years, and a significant range bump on the Leaf is likely by then too).
- metaphorm 12y ago
  electric motors are more efficient than gasoline powered motors, so there is some real gain to using cars of that type. however, the electric energy still has to be generated by something, and frequently that something is a coal, gas, or oil burning power plant. its still better than burning the gasoline in the car engine directly but not a fundamental solution. the fundamental solution is to drive less, to carpool more, and to reorganize our communities to make effective public transportation a focus instead of an afterthought. we have to find ways to meet the transportation needs of people without using so much energy to do so.