Juggling Dynamite

After pig-headedly ripping its EV-1 electric cars off adoring customers in 2003 and crushing them up (believe it or not), 15 years later GM is finally renewing its attention on electric car production. Thanks to Elon Musk for leading the world’s major car producers kicking and screaming into a much-needed emission-free future.  But the world remains far behind where we could and should have been in this evolution.

While climate change seems too generalized a phenomenon for most individuals to wrap their heads around, toxic air and the myriad of related health problems is becoming immediate enough to demand attention.

Plagued by horrific air quality in many cities, China finally has a sense of urgency on this transition. Its government has mandated that starting in January, all major manufacturers there must meet new-energy vehicle production minimums and this is helping to accelerate the country’s EV producers.  Meanwhile, with western demand turning down on highly indebted households and super-extended auto loan terms, GM and other car makers are now drowning in antiquated ICE (internal combustion engine) inventories and racing to recalibrate by closing plants and laying off workers.

A huge head start was wasted through complacency and status quo myopia, and the unnecessary costs of this to our environment, health and productivity will compound for years to come.  Hopefully some lessons can be learned here.

See China is leading the world to an electric car future.  Here is a direct video link

The next recession and financial crunch will reveal how harmful conventional wisdom has been and afford yet another opportunity to implement the reforms and fresh thinking that should have followed the 2008 blow up.

Market fundamentalism’s ideological tyranny is metastasizing, afflicting the young, silencing politicians and hoodwinking the media. Too few progressives have a handle on the powerful arguments that can be made to counter market fundamentalism. It’s time to confront the myths with compelling empirical reality that deconstructs and destroys the plutocratic hoax. A roundtable recorded at the Carnegie Institution of Washington DC, on October 19, 2018.  Here is a direct video link.

Once humans commit to finding them, there are no problems only solutions.

In the quest to go green, Scotland is way ahead of the rest of the UK, with nearly all electricity produced by wind power.  In October, 98% of Scotland’s electricity was produced by wind turbines, with the devolved government on track to produce all of its electricity from renewable sources by 2020.  Watch a video report here.

Also see this amazing plane that flys with no pollution, moving parts, or noise, just electrodes ionizing and accelerating air particles to create wind.

Researchers from MIT have flown a plane without moving parts for the first time. It is powered by an ‘ion drive’ which uses high powered electrodes to ionise and accelerate air particles, creating an ‘ionic wind’. This wind drove a 5m wide craft across a sports hall. Unlike the ion drives which have powered space craft for decades, this new drive uses air as the accelerant. The researchers say it could power silent drones. Here is a direct video link.