[LINK] Standards, please! The third coming of electric vehicles

[Marghanita da Cruz]

Karl Auer wrote:
<snip>
> I'm trying to get a handle on what you don't like about them, why you
> thing they are impractical. It seems to be because batteries are
> themselves an environmental problem (production, disposal). In answer,
> I've said that yes they are, but these are problems that are *simple* to
> address. This is in stark contrast to the many and complex problems of
> changing the world over to a new liquid fuel source or (far worse)
> staying with fossil fuels.
<snip>

Hi Karl,

Before pinning all your hopes on electric cars, you might like to 
contemplate how the electricity which built them and runs them is 
generated. Not to mention the roads they run on.

Open cut coal mining:
<http://www.narrabri.nsw.gov.au/index.cfm?page_id=1268&page_name=Narrabri%20Shire%20Photo%20Gallery>

> Asphalt Listeni/??sf??lt/ or /??s?f?lt/, also known as bitumen, is the sticky, black and highly viscous liquid or semi-solid present in most crude petroleums and in some natural deposits; it is a substance classed as a pitch. Until the 20th century, the term asphaltum was also used.[1
<http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Asphalt>

Though once the roads were paved with Australian Hardwood......
> Sydney did not pioneer the building of woodblocked streets, which were first tried experimentally in London in the 1840s, but it did embrace the method with enthusiasm. The method utilised Australian hardwoods which were exceptionally well suited to the task and very long lasting. From today's perspective the use of so much hardwood for street making seems profligate, but in 1880 it seemed the Australian bush could yield up a cheap and durable source of urban improvement for the foreseeable future, and the roads, which were better than anything previously built, were enormously popular.
<http://www.cityofsydney.nsw.gov.au/history/sydneystreets/How_to_Build_a_Street/Woodblocking/default.html>

Marghanita
-- 
Marghanita da Cruz
Ramin Communications (Sydney)
Website: http://ramin.com.au
Phone:(+612) 0414-869202