Tesla cars

[RagnarDa]

I've heard about the same thing as Riptide wrote about, only it wasn't above a certain latitude but rather in the context of planting trees in the desert (Africa, Australia...). To me it sounds plausible that the desert sand would reflect heat and vegetation would trap heat, but how big is the effect?

[Yurgon]

I've heard about the same thing as Riptide wrote about, only it wasn't above a certain latitude but rather in the context of planting trees in the desert (Africa, Australia...). To me it sounds plausible that the desert sand would reflect heat and vegetation would trap heat, but how big is the effect?

 

If it's only a few palm trees, I guess the effect would be hard to measure beyond a very local scale, and if we're talking forests of trees, wouldn't the cost of supplying water, both economically and ecologically, far outweigh any heat trap effect?

[sobek]

I've heard about the same thing as Riptide wrote about, only it wasn't above a certain latitude but rather in the context of planting trees in the desert (Africa, Australia...). To me it sounds plausible that the desert sand would reflect heat and vegetation would trap heat, but how big is the effect?

 

Desert sand does not reflect a lot of heat. Try walking barefoot on any beach (which doesn't have blindingly white sand) on a hot day. Have fun.

 

Snow/ice on the other hand is an excellent reflector.

[Cali]

Smug alert!

 

Are you a Prius owner?

[NineLine]

http://www.spiritscienceandmetaphysics.com/this-car-runs-for-100-years-without-refuelling-the-thorium-car/

 

As a side note, I'll wait till they make a Thorium 64 Impala... This one looks like they were trying to hard to make it look futuristic....

Edited March 15, 2014 by NineLine

[Cali]

^ I wonder how much will that cost!

[EtherealN]

As a side note, I'll wait till they make a Thorium 64 Impala... This one looks like they were trying to hard to make it look futuristic....

 

Yeah, Thunderf00t did a fun teardown of that one. :)

Not that one is really needed when on a site called "spirit science and metaphysics". :D

 

[Kuky]

Electric cars are fine and ready already... the thing is those richo's don't want to invest in them yet as there is s**t load of money left to earn for them from the common people from fossil fuels... once they run out they will start making alternatives... it's all about the money... but for the rich only.

[EtherealN]

Desert sand does not reflect a lot of heat. Try walking barefoot on any beach (which doesn't have blindingly white sand) on a hot day. Have fun.

 

Snow/ice on the other hand is an excellent reflector.

 

Don't you mean reflect "light" (as in, visible light)? The key being that snow reflects light in the same wavelengths they came in at ("white"), being also the wavelengths that do not get trapped by atmospheric gases (doh, since they did come in). The big deal with grenhouse gases is that they capture the radiation emitted from the earth, rather than the radiation incoming from the sun or reflected from the sun (like Snow does).

 

The deal with CO2 (and some others, like methane) is that light comes in from the sun straight through them, gets absorbed (not reflected) by materiel on the ground, then gets re-emitted in a different wavelength ("heat") which in turn gets absorbed by the CO2, causing the energy that came in to "stay" longer. That is, there's a very key difference between reflection and re-emission.

[muamshai]

wait till the clowns in governments will come up with some excuse to keep the flow of taxes running for their salaries and outrageous benefits....

 

..such as taxing by per km/mile usage :D

[RagnarDa]

I doubt the level of taxation has any relation with the salaries of top politicians. It's not like Margaret Tatcher cashed in any less than Tony Blair. For all other public employees like nurses and teachers it's another story though.

[Griffin]

wait till the clowns in governments will come up with some excuse to keep the flow of taxes running for their salaries and outrageous benefits....

 

..such as taxing by per km/mile usage :D

 

Thats already happening in Finland. They are planning a GPS based system and I think it even had some extra rush hour fees. Taxing the gas does exactly the same thing (without the rush hour fees) but I suppose they are trying to be early adapting the taxation model before electric cars will be the norm. You can imagine what the public thinks of that... The gas already costs 1.6€ per liter ($8.4/gallon) and diesel 1.5€. The system will cost millions to develop and tax payers will be paying for it. Then theres the GPS tracker that has to installed.

[Supersheep]

@Sobek, did you manage to get hold of that source for the hummer lifecycle cost?

I almost used that argument in a discussion today, but just in time noticed that I couldn't have backed it up...