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Solar Energy Becoming More Pervasive
TheUploader writes "RenewableEnergyAccess is reporting that Solatec LLC has released a stick-on solar panel kit that charges your hybrid while parked. In related news, the world's largest photovoltaic system will be built, not on the roofs of Priuses, but on the ground of Nevada, and will provide clean energy for the US military."
Let's triple or quadruple the cost of petrol, for instance, perhaps due to a stagnant American economy or an American attack on Iran. Now you may just see some benefits to such a system. Of course, if the prices rise quickly on such an essential commodity, things might change relatively fast. You may not have a job to drive to, for instance.
Cyric Zndovzny at your service.
Thats all well and good if all you use oil for is fuel. We use oil heavily in the production of all sorts of products, including plastics and a whole plethora of petrochemicals. We should curtail our oil user as a fuel now so that we can continue to use oil for its other users without having to pay 5 times the current price for a plastic toothbrush.
A closed mouth gathers no foot.
Yes, a particular product today may require oil. But as the price of oil increases due to increased scarcity, manufacturers will instead switch to relatively cheaper non-oil alternatives. So often times you'll end up getting the same products, but they'll be made of a different, cheaper material.
It's happened with coins, for instance. While certain coins one contained large amounts of copper, they now are made mostly of zinc with a thin coating of copper.
Remember, plastic is only used so often today because it is so cheap. Once the price of plastic rises, people will switch to other materials which are relatively cheaper.
I lived a good portion of my life before plastic became widespread. We used glass bottles instead of plastic bottles for many drinks, for instance. Somebody who grew up only using plastic might have a difficult time accepting the idea of not using plastic products. But it's more than possible, and was reality even just a few decades ago.
Cyric Zndovzny at your service.
Why are people even buying cars in the first place? If you city has good public transit, you could take the bus back and forth to work each day, and rent a car for the weekends for less then the price of owning a car. $15 a day to rent a car, plus $15 a day for insurance, that's $30 a day, times 8 days for weekends in a month, and you at $240 a month. That covers insurance, and your car. You'd never have to pay for repairs, and you'd never have to worry about your car breaking down. You probably don't even need a car every weekend, so your costs go down. If you just rented a car every time you really needed to use a car, you'd probably spend a lot less. I realize that some people need to commute long distances to get to work, but there's plenty of people who don't. If you don't need your car to get back and forth to work every day, you probably don't need a car at all.
Anthropic principle: We see the universe the way it is because if it were different we would not be here to see it.
It isn't being superficial...it is getting what I want. Life is way too short not to do and get what you want to make your life happy.
That sums up everything that is wrong about modern consumer society in two sentences.
If it's for-profit but free, you're not the customer -- you're the product (e.g., the Slashdot Beta's "audience").
That figure of "0 battery packs replaced in prius ever" is misleading. Toyota is quick to make this claim...but it's based on some tricky definitioning. I have seen several accounts in different forums of people getting their battery packs replaced in the prius under warranty. Toyota claims that no batteries have been replaced for being "worn out". The way they get away with this is by labelling all the batteries they have to replace as "defective" instead of "worn out". I find it difficult to believe though that someone could have their car a year and put 70 - 100,000 miles on their car before deiscovering that their battery pack is "defective". Linakage: http://www.hybridcars.com/discussion/discussthread .php?thread_id=254&replies=9