Plastic bags, climate change, renewable energy,

Nambra

Definitely should have gone to specsavers
Come on, give the tuckshop mum a break. She's planning for a cycleway - that's showing off her green credentials...

354436
 

Flow-Rider

Burner

Binaural

Eats Squid
Adani demands names of CSIRO scientists reviewing groundwater plans
http://www.abc.net.au/news/2019-07-16/adani-requests-names-of-csiro-scientists/11308616
Their names will be on the report, they can wait until then. No legitimate reason to know before that time other than to try and apply professional pressure to improperly influence the outcome.

Federal environmental department said:
A department spokeswoman said it "consulted with CSIRO and Geoscience Australia about Adani's request" but did not provide the names "as the advice on the plans was received from CSIRO and Geoscience Australia, rather than individuals within those agencies".
"We are a professional scientific organisation and don't simple throw unreviewed stuff out the door, we have standards and management takes responsibility, as they should. The department kindly request that you go and fuck yourselves".
 

Binaural

Eats Squid
That's dangerous, I wonder if they will try and drag them through court. There was a secret court hearing about rail capacity up there at one of the ports that an engineer I know was engaged to give calculation theories and evidence in a court hearing.
I don't know what your friend was involved in, but there's a high legal bar to try and involve an engineer against their will in these sorts of proceedings. It sounds as if he was paid to be an expert witness to explain his reasoning, which meant he would have faced no personal liability. Simply providing a technical report or input for an area in which you have expertise can only get you in trouble if you are really careless. Even then, you generally have no duty of care for third parties whose businesses may be negatively affected by your findings. At most they can dispute your findings with their own experts, but they can't require you to defend your work in court.
 

Flow-Rider

Burner
I don't know what your friend was involved in, but there's a high legal bar to try and involve an engineer against their will in these sorts of proceedings. It sounds as if he was paid to be an expert witness to explain his reasoning, which meant he would have faced no personal liability. Simply providing a technical report or input for an area in which you have expertise can only get you in trouble if you are really careless. Even then, you generally have no duty of care for third parties whose businesses may be negatively affected by your findings. At most they can dispute your findings with their own experts, but they can't require you to defend your work in court.
He had to give calculations and expert opinion to prove whether the structure would work to capacity or not and actually had some type of indemnity signed. He had no involvement with the initial engineering of the structure but someone was to blame for the engineering fuck up.

Anyway that's besides the point that Adani are looking for an escape goat.
 

Haakon

Keeps on digging
He had to give calculations and expert opinion to prove whether the structure would work to capacity or not and actually had some type of indemnity signed. He had no involvement with the initial engineering of the structure but someone was to blame for the engineering fuck up.

Anyway that's besides the point that Adani are looking for an escape goat.
Lol. Amusing mental image of a bunch of bank robbers running out and getting on saddled goats and escaping at a leisurely rate ...
 

SummitFever

Eats Squid
Very interesting. One thing I couldn't find in the article is what they used for the battery pack life? Will one Tesla pack actually make it to 150,000km? Assuming it uses the big pack and gets the claimed 600km range then 150,000km will require 250 charges which a good battery should do.

However, if an EV needs a new battery pack, that's a whole stack of extra CO2 emissions in one big hit, even if you barely drive it. If you barely drive your aging thirsty ICE the environmental impact may be far less.
 

Jim Junkie

Used to sell drugs, now he just takes them
Please read this:

https://www.carbonbrief.org/factcheck-how-electric-vehicles-help-to-tackle-climate-change

Then look at this:

View attachment 354586

Average Euro ICE car is average, something like my Polo would be better than a Tesla Model 3 if the EV was fuelled anywhere other than France or Norway.

Insane.

And we still think EVs are the solution.

But check out the embedded CO2 emissions in battery production.

Mental.
I don't disagree that there is a significant energy investment in EV's, but the first few lines of the article you linked state:
  • In countries with coal-intensive electricity generation, the benefits of EVs are smaller and they have similar lifetime emissions to the most efficient conventional vehicles – such as hybrid-electric models.
  • However, as countries decarbonise electricity generation to meet their climate targets, driving emissions will fall for existing EVs and manufacturing emissions will fall for new EVs.
So yeah, EV's aren't the solution on their own, but they can certainly be part of it, hence the rather large error-bars in that graph.

There are also the unquantifiable's; how will battery tech mature over time? Presumably the number of charge cycles will go up over time, as it is a relatively immature technology. Thermal efficiency for an ICE though is much more mature and not as likely to make any big leaps. Consumables on an EV are also lower, such as filters, oils, engine wear & so on, which would all contribute to the carbon footprint over it's lifetime. That they compare for a fully mature technology vs. an emerging one is something on it's own.

Then again, I think we should all just ride bikes everywhere. My commute could do with a few more berms & drops though.
 

hifiandmtb

Sphincter beanie
Your words match the graph, you needn’t have bothered typing

Yeah, a decarbonised electricity grid results in CO2 improvement but as SF stated, what if 150k travel needed two battery packs?

And have another look in the article, it is possible to manufacture less CO2 embedded battery packs but I bet the fuck the world doesn’t.

Lowest cost, maximum CO2 emissions during manufacture unless mandated otherwise.

So much focus on tailpipe emissions, so little focus on the big picture.
 

Jim Junkie

Used to sell drugs, now he just takes them
Your words match the graph, you needn’t have bothered typing

Yeah, a decarbonised electricity grid results in CO2 improvement but as SF stated, what if 150k travel needed two battery packs?

And have another look in the article, it is possible to manufacture less CO2 embedded battery packs but I bet the fuck the world doesn’t.

Lowest cost, maximum CO2 emissions during manufacture unless mandated otherwise.

So much focus on tailpipe emissions, so little focus on the big picture.
Well, based on current warranties offered by a lot of manufacturers, which is 100,000 miles, 150,000km would only need 1 battery pack.

There's also the argument that publicity can aid in promoting change in manufacturing methods & materials; Tesla for example make a point of saying they use ethically sourced materials to produce their batteries. Not the same as reducing the carbon footprint of the batteries but where that to become a selling point, I'm sure manufacturers would see value in that.

There'll always be a lowest cost manufacturer, but there'll also be other mainstream brands who want to push the green agenda. Once EV's are mainstream, the next game of one-up could very well be on the green credentials of the car from manufacturing. It's already getting some noise because people are arguing against EV's, so why not address it?

Small steps. First the tailpipe, then the smokestack.
 
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