So, Where Do I Plug In My Car?
Earth Talk answers the ultimate question about electric vehicles. Very exciting stuff.
But this quandary still lingers: how does the pollution of generating electricity compare with that of gasoline? Zero emissions vehicles are awesome, but they still generate pollution when you plug them in (think coal power plants). Is it still better than the old system?
8 Responses to “So, Where Do I Plug In My Car?”
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joonitree
mark was just telling me how so often when people come up with alternate ways to generate power, that the new way often ends up impacting the environment negatively. i thought that was interesting. as he said, humans just never think of every possible thing. we aren’t smart enough.
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Mandy
I wonder if it’s possible to generate ANY energy without some kind of pollution? I mean, fire, the most basic energy source, totally pollutes. I suppose it’s a matter of the earth’s ability to reuse/recover from said pollution…
I’ve got a Twitter message into EVcast about the car pollution question. They podcast relevant news about electric vehicles.
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Ty
This is my issue. I drive a Ford Explorer. Not the most energy conscious choice, right? At one time, I was tempted to trade it in for one of those little roller skates that plug in to my wall, but I was torn. Really torn. Do I trade in my comfy, leather covered couch-on-wheels that also doubles as a make-shift hotel for camping… or do I do the sensible thing?
I lost sleep….
So I like waaaay over compensated. I kept the Explorer but installed energy efficient light-bulbs in our home (which are very dim, by the way), started hard-core composting complete with tiger worms and I am an obsessive recycler. I have been known to terrorize my church home group by threatening to ex-communicate them if they throw their Wendy’s cup in the wrong can.
We eat organic. Buy earth-friendly. Grow our own vegetables, plant trees and measure our carbon foot-print for proper off-setting. We don’t eat white flower, overly-processed foods, Twinkes or Apple juice made in China.
I push for clients to use FSC certified paper and encourage sustainable design as much as possible.
I freakin’ buy American.
For real….
Tell, me the truth, Al Gore. Am I really all that bad for holding on to my big green pollution spewing monster? If you ask grover, monster’s need love too.
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Ty
All kidding aside, this topic is always of great interest to me. I have been wondering lately how you can measure electrical pollution? I would think the damage from electrical pollution which is easily dissipated cosmically (right?), has to be less from pollution that directly effects the planet. I am not saying that we should not be cosmically-conscious, but I guess I am just weighing the consequences.
I know some are hard-core believers that electrical pollution is a major cause of health-problems, an idea I find difficult to wrap my head around. I even read about a man once who had become “electrically-sensitive” claiming that he could sense when his body had gotten over-exposed.
I am reluctant, though, to throw the possibility that we are all being electrically contaminated out the window. After all, it wasn’t too long ago that people scoffed at the notion that smog was harmful.
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Mama Dalton
I’m with Ty on the light bulb thing. I’m still trying with that…they ARE way too dim. I thought it was just me, because I do have some vision issues…and I’m STILL trying to figure out what to DO with the darn things when they give up the light. They are full of mercury for gosh sakes! (Well…maybe not FULL of mercury, but you can’t just pitch them in the glass recyclables, now can you.)
And I was one one of the original recyclers-who-wouldn’t-couldn’t-give-up even after they stopped recycling 20 years ago (yes…I recycle the paper tags off the tea bags), and I remained a saver-of-all-things-because-surely-SOMEONE-could-use-this-can! I was thrilled when they started recycling steel again (thank GOODNESS…I had bags of cans ready to go!).
But I digress…
I think Mandy has hit on it. We really can’t generate energy without some form of pollution. The problem is that no one is ready to admit that we are ALL generating too much WASTE in general, and pollution is just a large part of that. We have become too dependent on disposal to realize that we are on the brink of actually disposing our entire precious world.
It’s not just about whether we plug in or not, or how we heat our homes, or where we get our ‘gas’ or what it’s made of. It is whether we care about how we use ALL the resources we have and whether we even think about where they come from and how interconnected they all are.
It seems that it is only when we are forced into action by a CRISIS of LACK that we begin to think of what might be…what might work…how this might affect that…if this happened here, then what would happen there…maybe I should DO something? Perhaps what is needed is more Lack. It would at least increase the thinking/action curve. All around, I don’ think that would be a bad thing while we continue to do our part as best we can.
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Mandy
Ok, EVcast has responded with a link to Plug In America’s Frequently Asked Questions. The answer to our electric v. gasoline car pollution question IS, Electric Vehicles Pollute Less Than Conventional Gasoline Cars. I’m sorry to be so general, but it turns out the answer is ridiculously complicated.
Ty, you have not overcompensated. Recycling, composting, using CFLs (dim or not), eating organic, and growing your own food, are, to me, all proper responses to the conviction of living a greener, more holistic life. It’s all part of our responsibility to steward what we’ve been given. I do all of these things and drive a 1995 Toyota 4Runner, until such a time as it is financially practical to get a more efficient car. Drive your car till the wheels come off. But don’t excommunicate anyone from your home group.
Ty and Mama Dalton, if you haven’t read William McDonough’s book Cradle to Cradle, I HIGHLY recommend it. It begins to answer the question of how to transform our current cultural and industrial systems in a holistic way. Practical, inspiring, and beautifully written.
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Ty Walsworth
Wow. I was convicted by your post Mama Dalton. I would have to admit that I am one who recycles because it is imminent. I have not been as proactive in the past as I should have been. I suppose that I am glad I am at least doing “something”.
Really it has become more fun for me than anything. I challenge myself to see how much more I can do every year as opposed to doing it all at once. I enjoy living green. I would say The Walsworth’s are only partially self-sustaining, but we are moving toward being more so. The kids get involved and they help take care of the plants. Cindy helps to harvest and it is my job to make sure it all happens every year.
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Mama Dalton
Ty, I like you, and your family by proxy! You are on board with the most important things…awareness and action. And you have stumbled upon two others…it’s not that hard to DO SOMETHING, and everyone can, even, and especially, the kids. Then it becomes the way of life that it always should have been, and must be for a sustainable future.
You also alluded to another important aspect of the larger issue when you used the word “imminent.” When we have to start paying for our waste…really paying for it…by not having the readily accessible use of relatively inexpensive clean air, water, and food, then it will become ‘imminently’ apparent what we should have done.
It is my hope that each person like you who is trying their best, learning new ways to be green or save or recycle or reuse or repurpose, and is otherwise doing their part, and telling others (without of course beating them senseless in the process, though wanting to quite seriously), or even just discussing the issues, will somehow, prevent, or at least delay the ‘imminent,’ until the ’senseless,’ or perhaps just the lazy? catch up.
Keep having fun…every bit helps…every bit.