Almost a 100 years and what have we learned?
Have we learned yet that it is all related?
Check out this NPR report from the 2007 Detroit Auto show about the Chevy Volt (GMs new electric concept car) scheduled to be on the market 3 to 4 years from now. Then read the rest of this post.
Over the holidays I was finally able watch a bunch of movies that various time sapping activities have gotten in the way previously. One of them was the documentary Who killed the electric car. You know the plot already, GM makes and markets an electric car called the EV1 in California. It is efficient and marketable and unfortunately destined for the scrap heap to be eventually replaced with SUVs and ultimately Hummers. GM gets more profits, LA keeps their smog.
If you haven’t seen it watch it.
So, it got me thinking about how it is all tied together. Killing the electric car wasn’t news to me. Which electric car was killed? The one in the movies or this one?
Several years ago safe in my cocoon of apolitical bliss we went on a family outing to Rhinebeck Areodrome. If you or your kid has a remote interest in early aviation or automobiles then head to Rhinebeck, NY. Just go.
So, there is a parade of early automobiles and out comes the Baker 1911. A battery operated car able to travel 20 to 50 miles on a single charge. The fact that someone in 1911 was actually thinking of electric cars simply amazed me at the time. Check out their early advertisements for Bakers here and here.
So history comes alive and we see that the electric car has been around since the early 20th century. If you look at the electric car web site you can click the timeline and will learn that rechargeable batteries were invented in 1834. So more than 150 years since and what do we have?
Well, You know the rest, the internal combustion engine took off. Car and tire companys eventually bought up mass transportation and dismantled the infrastructure driving more car purchases. LA becomes smog infested, people moved out of LA to the suburbs to escape the smog and to find affordable housing. Driving longer commute times (more cars) and taking wealth out of LA. Let’s not forget the the health risks associated with the smog just look at the asthma rates.
Everything is related.
Rising seas just swallowed an island in the Indian Ocean once home to a population of 10,000. Gee, wonder what is behind that?
How natural has the weather been in Rochester this winter?
Add your comments below.
Holy crap! A whole island of 10k people disappearing? The sad thing is, most Americans will shrug. My father-in-law likes to joke about the American media: “A huge earthquake in Asia killed 18 kajillion people, but no Americans were harmed so it’s ok.”
That said, even some folks around here shrugged when Katrina devastated New Orleans and killed so many people. I remember one co-worker continually growling “They were warned!”
Because, you know, people without cars, a place to stay, or money to rent a hotel room had a lot of options getting out. Riiiight.
I’m not sure it’s possible to directly blame the disappearance of a low-lying island in the Ganges delta on rising sea levels. Global warming might be the culprit, but it’s much more likely that the island was washed away by wave action or storm surges associated with typhoons. Low-lying islands in delta areas change their shape or vanish all the time due to erosion. Last I heard, global sea levels were only up by a few inches.
I’m also skeptical about this report because the Independent article is the only place I’ve heard it reported. If the story was legit, it would get a lot more play in the scientific press.
It’s really concerning when we as a nation aren’t aware of stories such as the island in the Indian Ocean. I read that article a few weeks ago, (also from the British Independent) and I really can’t believe CNN and Fox News still refuse to cover this type of material.
Does anyone know why the British Press seems to be the only one (written in English) to really cover global warming? Time for Scott Hetsko to stop being a wuss and cover the real story rather than “the global, ah, trend in…warming.”
http://rochesterturning.com/2007/01/02/global-warming-gets-local-scott-heskos-freudian-slip/
My bad… Foxnews did have a tiny article… there are a bunch of other places that covered it Thomas…
http://www.foxnews.com/story/0,2933,238634,00.html
http://www.hindustantimes.com/news/181_1891781,0008.htm
http://science.netscape.com/story/2006/12/25/-disappearing-world-global-warming-claims-tropical-island/comments/1
Point being… it’s not just the independent covering it… however it makes d and f priorities for Fox and CNN
Remember, None of this electric car stuff is new and 3 to 4 years from now GM will deploy the Chevy Volt. Assuming GM is still in business. No GM, Detroit isn’t looking too good economically and so on.
Remember - everything is related
The island story is significant because it was the first populated land to disappear.
Not to be contrarian, but you can’t blame the early car makers for killing the electric car. In many respects, at the turn of the 20th century the internal combustion engine was vastly superior to electric or steam engines of comparable size. The power-to-weight ratio of an internal combustion engine is better than that of an electric or steam engine and a tank of gasoline or diesel is more compact than a bank of acid-lead batteries or water and fuel for a steam engine.
Furthermore, at the time, gasoline was cheap. It was considered to be a waste product left over after crude oil was refined for kerosene (lamp oil), tar and mineral oil. It was sold in jars in drug stores as a cleaning fluid or just burned off at the refinery.
No but you can blame GM for taking the highly successful EV-1, introduced in 1996, off the market, revoking the leases and crushing the cars.
Even now they’re billing the EV-1 as a failure as they announce “The Volt”.
Agreed. Not only was GM’s move cynical it was also short-sighted. Ten years later, Toyota is poised to become the biggest automaker in America, largely due to the success of Low-Emission and Hybrid cars. Meanwhile, GM is posting record losses. If GM had put even a fraction of its marketing and financial clout into making the EV-1 a success things might have been different.
No one is blaming the early car makers for killing the electric car. If you got that from my post then I didn’t state it correctly.
100 years ago, we had electric cars. if you read the advertisements and such you will see that one of the selling points was no exhaust and of course no smell. This was a big deal in the sprawling cities.
However, in 100 years we are now discovering the benefits of an electric car. And Yes, the electric car needs to be recharged so it draws power from somewhere but one would think that 100 years of American scientific prowess would have made some significant strides in this area.
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