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"Agnostics of the world unite to save everyone else" 
That's how religions get started. Towards the end of any great catastrophy, the ones left are "believers" and holy rollers. There are no atheists or agnostics in foxholes ...whence they just came.
In regard to hydrogen power, Chevy is soon releasing an Equinox vehicle that they claim has 200 mile range. (
Chevrolet: Fuel Cell Technology ) (
2008 Chevrolet Equinox Fuel Cell - Yahoo! Autos )
Honda has in the pipe their FCX Clarity (
Honda - The Power of Dreams - The Fuel Cell Vehicle ) (
Hydrogen-Bombing Down the Track | Popular Science ) Range claimed 270 miles. Looks like a Prius with the slippery Kammback shape.
Both have informative articles in the march '08 Motor Trend mag.
They probably lie about the range to some degree. My wifes Prius only does about 36 mpg in the city now that it is so cold that the engine runs nearly constantly. This is opposed to about 46 mpg in warmer weather. She acts severely disappointed because they suggested 60 mpg city in the ads.
Still, basic lightweight transportation can be done with far less energy than we are accustomed to using. For one thing, an electric car could be insulated so well that a thermostatically controlled 100 watt light bulb would keep it warm all the time. By plugging it in, it would be charged and ready to go all winter and require no useless garage. And a short run two blocks down to the store for milk and a newspaper would not damage a combustion engine the way it does now with un-evaporated moisture and all. During summer, a Cobra is best, of course, run hard enough to evaporate whatever.
Home heating can be a lot cheaper than it is. In the 1970's I read an article about a study in Saskatoon where homes were so well insulated that they required no additional heat. A family of four would provide total heat by body and other objects in the home such as lighting and cooking. In the end they decided to for-go a double entry air-lock in the Living Room and install a 20k btu heater instead. That's pretty meager, like a single 110 volt plug-in heater for the whole house. The house was so well sealed that the flaw turned out to be an accumulation of vapor and CO2 given off by humans, so an air-to-air exchanger was then required, needing some additional energy. Yet the net result is that a comparatively lame energy system
can supply what a very conservative home needs.
Transportation of heavy goods can easily be accomplished by greater use of rail. Rail can be about ten times as efficient as any other freight type. Perhaps that is why Warren Buffett is investing so heavily in rail stock lately.
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Hybrid Mode
