Happy presidents day. Abraham Lincoln was born on February 12th in 1809. My son Zack was born 200 years to the day later in Washington State. George Washington was born on February 22nd, 1732. We celebrate these and other presidents' birthdays on the third Monday of February.
I'm a practical person. I realize that the likelihood of blogging with Google's Blogger platform to get elected president is about as likely to work as shouting at the rain will get the clouds to part and the sun to come out... So why am I doing it? Because I can. Even if a handful of people only ever read this, it still is a nice way to spend some time organizing my thoughts and reflections about what might make America and the world a better place.
I enjoy freedoms like driving my car - I recently sold my 2013 Nissan Leaf to buy a 2019 Chevy Bolt EV. Is it good for the environment? No. Not really. A bicycle would be the best choice I could make. The entire system where we manufacture a 2,000 lb monstrosity to "safely" drive 60 MPH consumes a lot of resources. The energy to move myself and a ton of mass is significant. The electricity to charge that battery comes from some kind of generator at a loss, and the battery itself is made from chemicals that will need to be recycled or disposed of in an environmentally sound manner some time in the future... So why did I buy a battery-powered electric car? A few reasons:
1) I believe in the overall utility of getting away from fossil-fuel based resources - there is a limited amount of gasoline, and it's not good for the air I breathe or my family breathes or our neighbors breathe.
2) Driving an electric vehicle is fun. It accelerates quicker. Even if it's heavy, it's safer than driving a motorcycle, and I'm responsible for driving my family around, so a car that seats 4 and gets me to work fits the bill.
3) My employer (among many others) provides free charging.
4) Other benefits - federal tax break, California Carpool access for Clean Air Vehicles with stickers. Special parking spots for EV charging.
What did I sacrifice for these, or what were the downsides of this choice?
1) Trunk space. It has a smaller trunk than similarly sized cars.
2) Range. It goes 238 miles on a charge (that's generous -- if you're driving in warm-ish weather with no air conditioning you can get more, otherwise you're likely to get less - as many articles pointed out that in Canadian winter, you're likely to get only half of that). FWIW, my leaf had a range of 68 practical miles when I traded it in. My wife's 2018 Prius averages 55 MPG for about 600 miles to a full tank. We traded in her 2011 Prius which did somewhat closer to 50 MPG. Your mileage may vary. I try and drive these vehicles efficiently and fast - leaving room to slow down via regenerative braking vs disc braking for example. My wife drives slow and cautiously.
3) Expense. New BEVs are not cheap, and they maybe don't hold their value as well as gasoline powered cars - especially if the range drops after a few years of use. They say the 2018 / 2019 model years have a longer life... I'll get back to you in 5 years if the market agrees...
4) Range convenience. It takes 10 hours to recharge (or about 1.2 hours on a fast DC charger for ~$20). My wife's Prius gains 10 gallons of fuel to go from 50 miles to 600 miles of range in about 2 minutes for $35. Any trip over 100 miles where we need to stop for under 4 hours, and we're going to be dependent / waiting on charging infrastructure at our destination.
Anyone who would be president is going to be faced with complicated decisions about how we proceed with policies and what tradeoffs to make. I like to understand the complexity of a situation before making a decision like this.
Monday, February 18, 2019
Monday, January 7, 2019
War on climate change
It seems to me that if you want to spend a whole generation's money chasing after a goal with no end in sight, and no exit strategy, that the thing you are supposed to do is declare war on an abstraction. "War on drugs" and "war on terrorism" are my examples.
Why not declare war on climate change?
Why not declare war on poverty?
Why not declare war on diseases?
I want to use our resources to solve the kind of problems we can't otherwise chase.
So much of our political news is about fear mongering and the other side of the world. I just spent my winter break with my family travelling to Southern Europe and Northern Africa. Beautiful cities and hard-working people can be found in these places. The world is a vast and amazing place, and humans have conquered it.
Rather than fighting amongst ourselves, we need to organize and mobilize all of humanity to ensure our future prosperity. That means locking down best practices for stewardship over our shared home and our species long term survival across the universe.
Why not declare war on climate change?
Why not declare war on poverty?
Why not declare war on diseases?
I want to use our resources to solve the kind of problems we can't otherwise chase.
So much of our political news is about fear mongering and the other side of the world. I just spent my winter break with my family travelling to Southern Europe and Northern Africa. Beautiful cities and hard-working people can be found in these places. The world is a vast and amazing place, and humans have conquered it.
Rather than fighting amongst ourselves, we need to organize and mobilize all of humanity to ensure our future prosperity. That means locking down best practices for stewardship over our shared home and our species long term survival across the universe.
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