Wildlife crossings like the one shown here are common in many parts of the world.
Here in California, we’re just about to get one on the 101 Freeway a bit north of Los Angeles.
Better late than never, of course, but obviously, they’re cheaper and easier to construct when the road itself is originally put in.
The answer to the question at left is that there is an entire industry that has formed over the last half century whose purpose is to sew doubt into the public mind regarding the validity of anthropogenic global warming. In the absence of this doubt, the Earth’s citizens would be demanding a swift phase-out of the use of all fossil fuels, because the consequences of greenhouse gas emissions are so catastrophic (floods, droughts, wildfires, etc.) that the public consciousness would insist upon a change.
What we have now is a world (at least a country, the United States) in which the poorly educated believe what they’re told, i.e., where scientists can send a rocket into space and land it back on Earth on something the size of a table lamp, anything associated with the climate is “junk” science, designed to destroy the U.S. economy.
It’s pathetic, but it’s fantastically effective.
A reader notes:
Here’s an ad that got my attention:
It wouldn’t be hard to look at the photo below and conclude that all Americans are swine.
Fortunately, as Trump and his supporters are about to find out in November, these hogs do not represent anywhere near the majority of the U.S. population.
It’s been almost 30 years since O.J. Simpson went on trial for murder in one of the highest profile criminal cases in U.S. history.
What’s about to happen here and now with the 91 felony counts against Donald Trump, however, will dwarf the Simpson affair. A former president. A candidate for re-election. A huge conspiracy to overthrow the federal government.
Brings me smiles too.
In response to the remarks of Marjorie Taylor Greene, one of our U.S. representatives, a reader writes, “Lol, God is “sending” an eclipse that we can predict hundreds of thousands of years in advance? So sad….”
Yes, it’s sad, but remember that her constituency is made up of people at the very bottom of the pile in terms of education. If you want people like this to vote for you, you’d better not be speaking about geology and astrophysics.
Love the cartoon below.
Seriously, however, people of good character boycott organizations that engage in oppressive business practices.
For me, that includes Amazon, Walmart, ExxonMobil, Chevron, Hobby Lobby, and Home Depot, as well as Chick-fil-A.
Question: It appears that battery EVs have won out those powered by hydrogen fuel cells. In the U.S. in 2023, a total of 1.2 million battery EVs were sold. How many times more was this than the total hydrogen propelled vehicles?
Answer: Can be found at Clean Energy Answers.
In 2010, when I wrote my first book: “Renewable Energy–Facts and Fantasies,” I wanted a chapter on hydrogen fuel-cell vehicles, and so I turned to the local expert on the subject, Honda’s Steve Ellis. Steve was anxious to promote his “baby,” the Honda FCX Clarity, and he figured that my book was as good a place as any to make that happen.
Yet I wasn’t convinced that hydrogen had a future, due largely to the lack of fueling infrastructure. Where battery EV owners can unplug their toasters and plug in their cars, this is anything but the case with hydrogen.
And now, not to boast, but my prediction has come true: hydrogen-fueled cars are flailing in the market. From Bloomberg:
Despite billions of dollars of investment, fuel cell cars in the US are disappearing in the rearview mirror, overtaken by battery-electric models and stalled by hydrogen shortages and soaring fuel prices. Last year, drivers bought just 3,143 hydrogen cars in California — the only state that sells them — compared with 380,000 BEVs.
Hydrogen’s proponents aren’t throwing in the towel. Toyota and Hyundai are pushing fuel cell models, albeit at heavy discounts, and Honda just announced a hydrogen hybrid version of its best-selling CR-V. California continues to build new infrastructure. But for drivers and would-be car buyers, the practical experience of going hydrogen-electric is bad and getting worse.
My suspicion, and it’s not an original idea, is that the fossil fuel industry has been using hydrogen as a red herring for the last half century. The oil embargo in the 1970s created an imperative for an alternative to petroleum, then Big Oil (without any sincerity whatsoever), immediately began promoting its “commitment” to the “hydrogen economy.” Now, 50 years later, check out your social media feed and what ExxonMobil claims to be doing in this space.
It’s nauseating. In terms of honesty and decency, these people make Donald Trump look like Mahatma Gandhi.
