Date:         Fri, 18 Sep 2009 21:00:50 -0400
Reply-To:     Michael Snow <slowmachine82@GMAIL.COM>
Sender:       Vanagon Mailing List <vanagon@gerry.vanagon.com>
From:         Michael Snow <slowmachine82@GMAIL.COM>
Subject:      Re: Hydrogen cars. Was: Re: waterboxer pinging
In-Reply-To:  <813903.57735.qm@web180115.mail.gq1.yahoo.com>
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Oh, how we love the Frydays :)

Depending on who you talk to, we humans have been on this earth for
thousands, tens of thousands, hundreds of thousands, or even millions
of years.  Air conditioning has been around for less than 100.  I have
lived for months at a time in various deserts and tropical jungles
around the world.  Neither I nor the indigenous peoples had any air
conditioning.  It is not a NEED, anywhere.  People live in some truly
awful climates without our luxurious modern climate control systems.
They are acclimated to their locales.  We would do the same if we
could just forego the luxuries for long enough (which is not very
long) to allow our bodies to respond to the natural climate where we
live.

Heat?  Well, that's a different story.  Batteries need heat.  If cars
were equipped with  plutonium generators, like in the many satellites
that orbit our planet, that would pretty much solve the problem.

Ridiculous?  I think no more ridiculous than the suggestion that
hydrogen or electric cars will dethrone an incumbent technology that
has shaped infrastructure development for 100 years.  Petroleum will
be the dominant energy source for global transportation until it is
simply no longer physically or economically feasible.  Hopefully, we
will have figured out a suitable replacement that fits within the
existing liquid fuel distribution infrastructure before that happens.
I'm betting that I won't live to see it.

What non-petroleum, safe-to-handle fuel has high enough energy density
to power a commercial tractor-trailer, let alone a jumbo jet?

P.S.  Why don't we have nuclear-powered railroad locomotives?

--
Michael Snow
1982 Westfalia 1.9TD
http://slowmachine82.blogspot.com/