331–340 of 519 posts
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Call me cynical but climate change, the biggest threat to mankind right is right in front of us. We will also face the biggest threat to what made our civilization and our democracy possible, which is cheap quasi-unlimited access to energy (petrol in our case). Combine both and I don't see democracies as being able to efficiently navigate us out of this combined nightmare to come. As you said, autocracies are efficie…
1°C rise per century. 1 foot ocean rise per century. Threat?
Unimitigated, the forecasts are around 3-7 feet sea level rise this century.
Both of these massively increase the probability of non linear disasters including the release of methane from permafrost and ocean floors, or the disruption of the Gulf stream which would disrupt global agriculture even worse than a 5 degree temperature rise.
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Autocracies are only short-term efficient. Once their initial aims are met, they become terribly inefficient, then corruption sets in, and then they must be forcibly removed. It's good for other nations who can benefit from their trailblazing, but bad for the nation itself because they're basically fucked in the future when the bill comes due. Centralization is long-term the worst kind of governance, inevitably becom…
As opposed to... what? Democracy? You think that democracies are long-term efficient? Democracies don’t have corruption? Democracies don’t become self-serving? I mean, I prefer to live in a democracy because of individual freedoms but it’s not terribly well-organized.
They sure do, but the distributed leadership means there's hopefully someone pushing against corruption, even if it's inconvenient for other goals of the government. Even if they don't succeed, at least they keep shining some light on it. (I'm looking at your Aussie government blocking the anti-corruption group)
> Democracies don’t become self-serving?
Same. There's always going to be some inefficiency, but the closer we are to actual democracy and the less biased it is, the better it seems at ejecting the self-serving members of the government.
Man I wish they'd sell an electric car without all the cameras, tracking and self driving stuff.
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In the Miami area after Hurricane Irma in 2017, we couldn’t find gas for our cars for about a week. I think the pumps for gas stations require electricity (which was also out) plus deliveries were disrupted by downed trees, traffic signal outages, etc. Just an anecdote that gasoline is not always available during crises. We did have electricity at home but neighboring buildings and neighborhoods had outages for a wee…
And even if gasoline is available, it will most likely be prioritised for logistics first. Trucks moving actual goods, buses, ambulances etc. Also: People coming in with their Ford F-one-million with an umpteen-gallon fuel capacity and hogging all the fuel.
(In most countries so do the ambulances, but the US might be an exception here.)
'Global sales' I hope everyone understands in China it is very hard to get a licence plate, the government allows you to get a licence plate if you buy a heavily subsidised electric car. The aim is to stimulate demand to develop an industry. Large cities also banned motorbikes and scooters, with the same aim. This is no way market driven demand, BYD is a very interesting company to look into. It is my understanding t…
There is a five year plan in China to basically take over the entire global automotive sector by making electric cars. They are not interested in completing with ICE cars by selling cheap ICE cars, it is all about upping the game to a better product that is BEV. Europe had better watch out. The US can defend their market with tariffs so everyone there drives a truck. But the longer they do that then the more out of t…
You should check out what VW has been doing lately - the ID.3 is an EV-only platform and is selling quite well in Europe - much more impressive than their past efforts.
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The only cars having actual battery issues so far are older Leafs (shit thermal management for the battery) and Priuses (they're just old). No other EV has had major battery issues yet, so there really hasn't been time to develop a viable 3rd party battery replacement industry. Even the actual car manufacturers tend to quote insane prices for full battery replacements because they really don't have a process in place…
Some older Model S with 60kWh batteries also experience problems (slow acceleration, limited fast charging). The degradation is nowhere near as bad as the old Leafs, though.
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To be fair there are heavy subsidies for electric cars in Germany.
They existed years ago and I am skeptical that they are significant enough to make the average person even consider a new electric car. They are still too expensive for what they offer, even with heavy subsidies. However, what I do see in Germany, are more and more electric cars in car sharing, rentals and company fleets. Upper middle class is going pretty electric as well to appear cool/caring about climate. Several…
However, in 5-10 years we should start to see a mature market for good quality used EVs, making them much more accessible. At that point, better reliability, better driving experience, much lower operating costs, etc will make EVs the obvious choice for many, if not most, buyers.
Earlier quoted context omitted.
Call me cynical but climate change, the biggest threat to mankind right is right in front of us. We will also face the biggest threat to what made our civilization and our democracy possible, which is cheap quasi-unlimited access to energy (petrol in our case). Combine both and I don't see democracies as being able to efficiently navigate us out of this combined nightmare to come. As you said, autocracies are efficie…
1°C rise per century. 1 foot ocean rise per century. Threat?
It's absolutely a bigger threat than the terrorism that everybody was so eager to throw away their freedom for 19 years ago.
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Where would it be illegal to store petrol? It might be unwise if you live in an apartment, but illegal?
In UK its illegal to store over 30 liters, and only in special container. https://www.hse.gov.uk/fireandexplosion/petrol-storage-club-... Also it goes off after like 6 months if you are not using it. https://www.rac.co.uk/drive/advice/know-how/does-fuel-go-off... .
Even above 275L, it says you need a license - it doesn't say it's illegal.
Fuel does go off, but if you have reason to store it, you probably have a use for it, so as long as you cycle the fuel, you can store an emergency supply indefinitely.