I have an attachment in my pickup that converts DC to AC quite easily. A neighbor has a roof on his house that produces DC that is easily converted for household use. Do a google search on 'electric (or jet) airplanes, and see what comes up. Will we old timers see electric passenger jets? We might. And yes, batteries are an environmental problem if they are not recycled. When I buy a new auto or lawn tractor battery from the auto supply store, it pays for the old one. Most are recycled; all should be.
In previous posts on this thread, (#37, #38, #40) I'd included several links to articles about innovations in plastic recycling, bio-battery research, and currently-feasible solar panel usage. Of course this research (which is only the tip of the possibility-iceberg) is still (as I've already said elsewhere on this thread) in the Model T phase of development. Imagine if automobiles had never come into wide usage because they 'scared the horses,' and their earliest motors had to be cranked! Imagine if development had been suffocated in its cradle by people lacking vision and hope! Sure, cars are massively polluting in their current form, but this nasty phase is rapidly moving into the next stage, which will hopefully be nicer. Here's a video about electric planes, if anyone's curious --- Will full-size electric airliners ever become a reality? The chances look good! Probably not in my lifetime, but that's beside the point. Of course I'm not a scientist or even a futurist, so any request that I explain the research and prove its useful applications is just silly. None of us here can have a full grasp of the impending science. But we can all cultivate a sense of wonder, rather than automatic negation. Bottom line --- and the only point I've been trying to make --- 'green' research is abundant and hopefully unstoppable. And the information is everywhere online to seek out and examine for yourself! . (As an aside, it seems to me that the attitude here toward anything 'green' is all muddled up with antipathy toward the political party most inclined to support the research. Just an observation!)
Yes James that electronic device that converts DC to AC is an invertor. To convert AC to DC is simple and done with a simple rectifier. The conversion turning DC to AC is more complicated and less efficient and requires the manufacture of numerous electronic parts which equals more fossil fuels burned. Solar for individual household use has been around for years and while more efficient inverters and batteries have been developed, it isn't possible to power the world without fossil fuels. The first problem in discussing "green" is that it is an ambiguous term. It is impossible to make "green" products using "green". As the old saying goes you can't have your cake and eat it too. Green started from the idea that green grass and trees are a good thing, but brown grass and trees are bad. Stop and consider this is the cycle of life. If one wants green year around, then move to the tropics and to further the "green," live like the natives of the area did 200 years ago. What, you want all the modern conveniences? Well, there is a price to pay for such living. Do a study. Look around you and study how everything is made. There is lots of info out on how things are made including TV documentries. Do you have any idea what it takes to make the clothes you wear? What it takes to make the GMO free bread you eat? What is involved in organic farming? How metal is mined and processed? What was involved in making those synthetic shoes you wear? What is involved in making all the medical equipment that is life-saving? How about something basic like just mining and processing salt and getting it to market? What the hell does retrofit mean? What would be involved in retrofitting just one house, one business, how about retrofitting the White House or the many Bernie Sanders mansions? So far I can't get a consensus on just what is meant by retrofit as proposed by those with little or no scientific knowledge. Science and politics don't mix. To return to a point Ken brought up in the opening post, composting is a great way to garden more naturally. I have used it in the past with much success. The only problem I have is where I live in town, the water is outrageously expensive, and growing even a small garden is not cost-effective when we have many organic farms where I can buy produce for half what it would cost me to raise it and also no work on my part. Most can't afford to keep their lawns even small ones green, even the "green" advocates. In fact, the "green" advocates have dead or no lawns because they are being an example of conserving water. We have plenty of water it is just expensive because of all the processing required. So the green becomes brown because they won't put their money where their mouth is.
Faye, looks to me as though you're overly interested in condescending to 'green'-friendlies and 'punching down' on them with reams of verbiage intended to shut off their response and quell any sort of useful dialog. Just an observation!
I am not against advancement in cleaner ways to live. In fact, that is one of my life's researches. The point I make is we have a politically motivated movement to legislate new technologies before they exist. The politicians live in extravagance but tell us to cut back and make changes. I have always had a sense of wonder and love electricity and have always chosen it over fossil fuels when practical. I am not negating anything just trying to put a sense of reason to the madness that divides us. If you want to discuss electric planes that is great, but if discussion of them is politically motivated to justify this "green" ambiguity, then I am not interested. I love to discuss science if it can be done other than just posting links and parroting other people's ideas or research. Since the topic here is about what SOC members do that is environmentally friendly, I wish to return to that topic. What have you done personally that applies to The Seniors Only Clubs Green New Deal? I have my entire house on LED lights and keep my all-electric house at 68 degrees year-round. I have a highly efficient AC and furnace. I replaced my heat pump because it was very inefficient and ran almost continually. Heat pumps in my experience are the opposite of energy-efficient. My power bills dropped noticeably when I quit using the AC in reverse as a heat pump. It also extended the life of my AC at least double. Heat pumps fail as being environmentally friendly in my experience. My power comes from a hydroelectric dam 5 miles away, that has a massive bypass system set up for the salmon. My monthly power bill is less than my cell phone bill on average and about half of what I pay for high-speed internet, TV, and landline phone.
Really? Give me one example. Explain what "green" is? I would put my environmentally friendly history up against anyone anywhere anytime. I am disgusted with the internet experts that promote the ambiguous term green for political gain or easing their own guilt for the lifestyle they live. Are you "green" friendly? Please give examples of what you do. It seems to me you are the one that is quelling any meaningful dialog. If not then engage in some useful dialog that has some scientific basis. Dialog that is just parroting others is not useful. All I have asked is for someone to explain how these "green" ideas can be reality. So far I haven't even received a reply explaining what green really means to you and what are you doing personally to further the cause of enviromental science.
A lot of words here! I will boil them down a bit, and return to the original topic, and tell everyone that I use LED bulbs, and have not yet used the furnace this season. I have cancelled trash pickup and now compost peelings and crusts, and shred junk mail to use as mulch. Which I don't find very interesting or impactful! More fun for me to read up on the science and find informed articles to share, information that seem compelling and hopeful. Used to be, back in the old forums of the late 90's, some members welcomed links and shared their impressions and opinions in well-thought-out comments. Other members would go through an article point by point, and challenge each sentence at length, interrogating the person who had shared the information, as though he or she were the actual author of it. That got pretty tiring, and wasn't really any sort of conversation --- but at least you knew they'd bothered to read the thing! That's what it used to be like. But of course times have totally changed! (-:
Thank you, Janice. This is what I was getting at. From several of Ken's former posts, I get the idea that he wants to see more original ideas and discussions setting this forum apart from all the rest current or in the past. He once mentioned us as seniors compiling our experiences and thoughts in the style of the Foxfire books. When people searched they would find info here rather than just links and copy and paste. It is interesting to read about possible new technologies and anyone can do that. What interests me is if a member reads about something and then shared it in their own words and understanding and remains open to others' ideas and expertise. If it is presented as "green" then all participating in the discussion must be on the same page as to what "green" refers to or at least know how each poster understands it. For me, environmental science is interesting but differs from "green" which is politically motivated. When I lived in the mountains, I had a solar panel and iron-nickel batteries that I found worked better than the lead-acid deep cycle. To also charge the batteries I had a wind generator and water wheel that drove an alternator. To pump water I used a hydraulic ram. The thing is no one cares to discuss this practical environmental science but rather the political green movement that deals not in advancing known science but trying to defy science with pie in the sky theories and claims of free energy being censored by the controllers. Just like the thread on the free energy tower that Marconi supposedly invented. When it was explained why it couldn't have ever worked to supply free household 120V AC electricity, no one would engage in knowledgeable discussion.
What I find very interesting is that way out there in the vacuum of space, in the absence of perceivable matter, there might be an infinite amount of power just wafting around. How to prove that it's there! How to harness it, in an unimaginably strange Future, as Humankind sets forth to claim the Universe! All science, green or otherwise, is 'pie-in-the-sky' until it's manifested into reality. Seems as though the first step to that reality would be to set aside Right/Left quibbling about the climate provisions in the bill the Democrats want to pass. Maybe focus on enthusiasm for the new jobs that will be created as our current, limited, new technology is imperfectly under construction! It's a transition, and transitions are messy and painful and expensive. Who cares about Bernie Sanders' houses, or all those hypocritical virtue-signalers! Who cares whether it's the Libs and/or business-focused Conservatives who come up with an axe to crack the Status Quo, and move us on along, and out of the the deadly stalemate we're now in!
Yes, new jobs for China to produce all the materials needed. The jobs lost in the USA will outnumber the few new ones created. Just like all the wind farms around here and all those that were hired to enter this new exciting field and had hopes of a future doing maintenance, and now most have been long laid off and many windmills left to decay. Many repairs were made using helicopters and the cost was way more than what they produced.
OK then, nothing will ever work, and all efforts at progress will fail in the end, and we will all be dragged down by entropy into the Pit.. Stupid China! Stupid Libs! Why won't they just leave us alone!!!
Catch 22. Gasoline engine drivers can keep an extra can of gas in the trunk. Electric car drivers could keep a 120V generator in the trunk. Electric generators need gas, ergo…… Electric car drivers who have generators in their trunk might need to carry an extra can of gas.