Is there a way to counteract the effects? Especially if you live in a large city?
Air pollution linked to “huge” reduction in intelligence
131–140 of 188 posts
Re: Air pollution linked to “huge” reduction in intelligence
#132Earlier quoted context omitted.
And they are still using coal to produce electricity.
From a pollution perspective, is it better to have 1 coal plant generating electricity for an electric bus fleet, or to have a fleet of buses that run on hybrid-electric diesel or CNG?
It's not a simple calculation. It depends whose numbers you use for the calculation. First off, do you only care about CO2, or are you interested in other by products of coal consumption like NOx? Which kind of coal plant, how efficient is it? What kind of coal is in use? Then, on the consumption side, it depends on your electric busses' efficiency, leakage of CNG into methane emissions, honestly there are too many specific parameters left unspecified in your question.
Re: Air pollution linked to “huge” reduction in intelligence
#133Electrification of surface transport is the most obvious way to improve air quality in dense cities. This needs to be a priority.
I would argue that priority has to be 'de-urbanization' itself. Pollution is just one problem that will be solved by de-urbanization.
Re: Air pollution linked to “huge” reduction in intelligence
#134Electrification of surface transport is the most obvious way to improve air quality in dense cities. This needs to be a priority.
I would argue that priority has to be 'de-urbanization' itself. Pollution is just one problem that will be solved by de-urbanization.
How will pollution be solved by de-urbanization?
Urban citizens have better access to low carbon transportation (Walking, Biking, Mass Transit).
Urban citizens are easier to reach in many last mile problems. Power lines can be shared by more users. Less network cable needs to be laid per user. Fewer miles of water pipes are required.
Apartments common in urban areas are more fuel efficient for heating/cooling than stand alone houses commonly seen in suburbs and rural areas.
Re: Air pollution linked to “huge” reduction in intelligence
#135Earlier quoted context omitted.
I would argue that priority has to be 'de-urbanization' itself. Pollution is just one problem that will be solved by de-urbanization.
How will pollution be solved by de-urbanization? Urban citizens have better access to low carbon transportation (Walking, Biking, Mass Transit). Urban citizens are easier to reach in many last mile problems. Power lines can be shared by more users. Less network cable needs to be laid per user. Fewer miles of water pipes are required. Apartments common in urban areas are more fuel efficient for heating/cooling than st…
If you think of pollution not as an issue with the total quantity, but instead spikes of concentrated, it makes sense.
Re: Air pollution linked to “huge” reduction in intelligence
#136Earlier quoted context omitted.
Depends on the pollutants you're looking at. From a CO2/efficiency standpoint, you're correct. A modern EV powered purely by coal power plants puts out less CO2 than a gasoline car, largely because of the efficiency difference between large power plants and ICE. From a SO2/NO2 standpoint, EVs powered by coal would be far far worse, assuming gasoline. Gas/Diesel these days is ultra low sulfur, which reduces SO2 signif…
Does it produce less CO2 than a coal plant? Yes big plants are more efficient than ICEs, but petrol and diesel have a lot of energy in hydrogen bonds, whereas coal is almost pure carbon, so I’d expect the CO2 emissions for a coal plant to be worse despite the efficiency boost.
Gasoline engines top out at about 50% efficiency these days, but the average car does much worse. That’s not even including losses from the transmission, etc.
According to the 2015 DOE analysis, the wheel to wheel emissions from EVs was less than half that of ICE cars. Even in WV, a coal heavy state, EVs produced less emissions than gasoline cars.
https://www.energy.gov/eere/vehicles/fact-950-november-7-201...
Re: Air pollution linked to “huge” reduction in intelligence
#137Earlier quoted context omitted.
If by "electrification" you mean "switch to public transportation," I agree with you. If by electrification you mean "burn dinosaurs four miles away," then I don't agree with you.
This argument is dead wrong and impeding progress. As other commenters have mentioned, stationary sources are much easier to filter. They're also more efficient than thousands of small internal combustion engines. They also produce pollution away from where people are breathing it. Electrification of surface transportation is a huge win for people regardless of how the electricity is generated.
The argument for public transportation is not dead wrong nor impeding progress. Expanding bus systems is something communities can do today in order to reduce their carbon footprint and their traffic levels.
Re: Air pollution linked to “huge” reduction in intelligence
#138I know a certain framework creator that will be all over this - and has been vocal on twitter about it.
I went looking, this seems like a pretty good air quality monitor: https://www.amazon.com/AirVisual-Quality-Monitor-Accuracy-Pa... (~$400)
There are cheaper ones too; but do your research, as accuracy (and ideas about what constitutes accurate) can vary from manuf. to manuf.
https://medium.com/@dhh/air-quality-matters-but-dont-trust-f...
also apparently, a box fan + filter ain't so bad. https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=kH5APw_SLUU
Re: Air pollution linked to “huge” reduction in intelligence
#139Earlier quoted context omitted.
And they are still using coal to produce electricity.
From a pollution perspective, is it better to have 1 coal plant generating electricity for an electric bus fleet, or to have a fleet of buses that run on hybrid-electric diesel or CNG?
An electric bus doesn't produce particulates and NOx right where people live and work. So it has the least effect on local air pollution.
CNG is at least way better than diesel.
If you have to use fossil fuels a combined cycle natural gas plant generating electricity and electric buses is your best option.
That said I tend to discount arguments that compare things to coal since coal just needs to go away.
Re: Air pollution linked to “huge” reduction in intelligence
#140Earlier quoted context omitted.
In economic terms, the biggest impact from air pollution is particulate matter in densely populated areas, not CO2. Burning dinosaurs four miles away (more accurately, 40+) has a huge positive impact, because the worst of the particulate matter falls to the ground by then.
As someone who works in filtration - one of the primary ways to reduce pollution - stationary sources are easier to filter. Vehicles have limited under the hood space and are distributed.
Yeah you can use electrostatic scrubbers and wet scrubbers on stationary plants. Can't do that with a car.