Friis
Full Access Member
Inspired by Earth Day, here's some thoughts about environment and our favorite toys.
I love my SD. I always wanted one, and I recently got it. I also love the Earth, and want to do my part in securing a healthy planet for generations to come. Somehow those two things combined doesn't seem to make any sense. As the years go on, more and more CO2 is being released and Al Gore recently proved to anyone still in doubt, that this is a seriously bad thing. In my country, every politician is urging us to cut down on all of our consumes. This means driving in puny cars to avoid releasing CO2 and always remembering to turn off the TV and computer, so you don't use too much electricity, made at the CO2-emitting powerplant. We are constantly reminded to cut back on everything and live smaller lives. In Denmark, an extra tax has even been placed on large vehicles for private use, to prevent people from buying them.
But here's my point. We need to use the right kind of energy, rather than cutting back on the wrong. I you have to go to somewhere, but are heading in the wrong direction, then you need to turn around, not just go slower!
So how do we turn around? Simple, actually. We use clean, sustaining energy. While we are waiting for the technologically advanced clean energies such as hydrogen and fission to be developed, the wind and the sun provides us with all the energy we can dream of spending. No need to cut back, just consume and enjoy life!
We just need to harness this energy. Wind mills and ocean-based wave generators can provide us with electricity, and plants (powered by the sun), producing vegetable oil, can make our trucks run clean (and cheaper than regular diesel). Sure, the internal combustion engine emits CO2 no matter what we fill in the tank, but remember that the plants that made the oil absorb the same amount of CO2, so running on SVO is in theory CO2-neutral (in theory because producing the oil costs electricity, but that's where the wind mills enter...).
But, hey, isn't fossil fuels also composed of ancient plants and animals? Yes, but that was a far longer process taking place millions of years ago, and we are releasing all that CO2 in an instant, making a giant build-up which causes global warming.
SVO isn't the perfect solution, due to the somewhat bad ethics of running our trucks on a food source when there is still starvation in many countries of the world, along with the problem of driving food-prices up as vegetable oil becomes a popular commodity, but we have got to start somewhere. And if you run on used oil from the local burger joint, noone can blame you at all, as you are actually recycling thrash.
I guess that all I'm saying is this: make your own small contribution. Don't just slow down... turn around completely.
I'm ordering my SVO kit tomorrow.
-Regards
Friis
I love my SD. I always wanted one, and I recently got it. I also love the Earth, and want to do my part in securing a healthy planet for generations to come. Somehow those two things combined doesn't seem to make any sense. As the years go on, more and more CO2 is being released and Al Gore recently proved to anyone still in doubt, that this is a seriously bad thing. In my country, every politician is urging us to cut down on all of our consumes. This means driving in puny cars to avoid releasing CO2 and always remembering to turn off the TV and computer, so you don't use too much electricity, made at the CO2-emitting powerplant. We are constantly reminded to cut back on everything and live smaller lives. In Denmark, an extra tax has even been placed on large vehicles for private use, to prevent people from buying them.
But here's my point. We need to use the right kind of energy, rather than cutting back on the wrong. I you have to go to somewhere, but are heading in the wrong direction, then you need to turn around, not just go slower!
So how do we turn around? Simple, actually. We use clean, sustaining energy. While we are waiting for the technologically advanced clean energies such as hydrogen and fission to be developed, the wind and the sun provides us with all the energy we can dream of spending. No need to cut back, just consume and enjoy life!
We just need to harness this energy. Wind mills and ocean-based wave generators can provide us with electricity, and plants (powered by the sun), producing vegetable oil, can make our trucks run clean (and cheaper than regular diesel). Sure, the internal combustion engine emits CO2 no matter what we fill in the tank, but remember that the plants that made the oil absorb the same amount of CO2, so running on SVO is in theory CO2-neutral (in theory because producing the oil costs electricity, but that's where the wind mills enter...).
But, hey, isn't fossil fuels also composed of ancient plants and animals? Yes, but that was a far longer process taking place millions of years ago, and we are releasing all that CO2 in an instant, making a giant build-up which causes global warming.
SVO isn't the perfect solution, due to the somewhat bad ethics of running our trucks on a food source when there is still starvation in many countries of the world, along with the problem of driving food-prices up as vegetable oil becomes a popular commodity, but we have got to start somewhere. And if you run on used oil from the local burger joint, noone can blame you at all, as you are actually recycling thrash.
I guess that all I'm saying is this: make your own small contribution. Don't just slow down... turn around completely.
I'm ordering my SVO kit tomorrow.
-Regards
Friis
Last edited:
- Sorry moderators, I just realized this is in the Bio section. & is most likely considered political anyway. - 
