Tuesday, August 20, 2013
Unclean at Any Speed - IEEE Spectrum
Oops! Oh my!
The sayings "Hope clouds observation" and
"If it sounds too good to be true, it probably is" both come to mind here...
The sayings "Hope clouds observation" and
"If it sounds too good to be true, it probably is" both come to mind here...
On the spectrum.ieee.org website, Ozzie Zehner says he was wrong:
"The idea of electrifying automobiles to get around their environmental shortcomings isn’t new. Twenty years ago, I myself built a hybrid electric car that could be plugged in or run on natural gas. It wasn’t very fast, and I’m pretty sure it wasn’t safe. But I was convinced that cars like mine would help reduce both pollution and fossil-fuel dependence.
I was wrong.
I’ve come to this conclusion after many years of studying environmental issues more deeply and taking note of some important questions we need to ask ourselves as concerned citizens. Mine is an unpopular stance, to be sure. The suggestive power of electric cars is a persuasive force—so persuasive that answering the seemingly simple question 'Are electric cars indeed green?' quickly gets complicated."
