Saturday, June 15, 2013

Air pollution from cars doesn't just come out of a tailpipe

That finding features prominently in Discovery News' Why Electric Cars Won't Solve the Pollution Problem.

Electric cars are billed as a solution to the Earth's pollution problem. But as Anthony shows us, the majority of pollution actually comes from places you'd least expect.
All of these sources of pollution are over and above the air pollution that comes from the source of electricity.  Electrical cars without clean sources of electricity are a more effective form of biofuels.  They are an energy independence strategy, as the sources of energy are domestic, not a sustainability strategy.  After all, how clean is coal, or for that matter, petroleum coke, which might be burned in combination at the DTE plant in Monroe?  Not very.

Also, I might just play this video for my class, although air pollution is the last lecture and I usually am running out of time.  We'll see.

2 comments:

  1. Argh, that drives me nuts.

    It seems like it should be obvious, but it's not.

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    Replies
    1. I agree. Also, it drives me nuts that it took me nine-and-one-half years to respond to your comment. I must have missed it all this time.

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