Writings of J. Todd Ring

Tuesday, June 26, 2007

Hydrogen: Cutting Through the Mental Smog

An Overview: Where we stand with hydrogen fuel now

1. We need to get off polluting fossil fuels asap. This is obvious to just about everyone now.

2. Biofuels are better than fossil fuels - lower emissions for example - but with the possible
exception of celulosic bio-ethanol, they amount to the burning of food for the morally
questionable purpose of hauling our asses around in 2 tons of steel and glass. Unless
celulosic bio-ethanol makes major advances, biofuels are a very poor answer. Presently,
biofuels are biocidal: they amount to mass starvation if implemented widely. Biofuel may
be better than fossil fuel, but not by much.

3. Both hydrogen and electric vehicles offer zero emissions from the tail pipe (with H2 ICEs -
internal combustion engines - there is a tiny amount of NOXs, but practically zero when
compared to dino-juice burners). These two technologies are presently available, but only
on micro-scale: mass implementation is urgently needed.

4. Hydrogen and electric vehicles are demonstrated and proven viable. However, we cannot
wait for mass production of electric or hydrogen vehicles. The auto industry is too slow, and
besides, there are over 1 billion fossil fuel-burning vehicles on the planet now, with a median
life expectancy of 17 years. We cannot wait to retire and replace these vehicles. We must
begin converting all existing vehicles to green energy systems now, and as quickly as possible.

5. Hydrogen or electric? Electric cars are better than fossil fuel burners, but the power grid is
heavily polluting and heavily reliant on fossil fuels. Electric cars are only clean if they are
re-charged with an off-grid clean, renewable energy system. The same is true for the
sourcing of energy for hydrogen vehicles: hydrogen from fossil fuels is not a smart
answer - unless you're an oil and gas company. Hydrogen only makes true environmental
sense when it is derived from clean, renewable wind or solar power, using waste (methane
from sewage, landfills or compost) or water - via reformation or electrolysis. In either case,
a distributed, decentralized green energy supply is what is needed, along with immediate
vehicle conversions.
There are passionate supporters of both green-tech camps, but the fact is, both are viable
and ready to go now, and either would be clean, renewable, and infinitely preferable to fossil
fuels, so long as they are implemented intelligently.

Re: Hydrogen generation through electrolysis requires more energy input than you get out.

(A reply to comments on Autoblog)

If we erroneously view hydrogen as an energy source, then this is an insurmountable problem: an energy source is not an energy source if it consumes more energy than it produces - obviously. There may be ways to harness hydrogen energy aside from electrolysis that are net energy producing processes, however, the point here is that hydrogen produced by electrolysis is not an energy source, but an energy carrier - like a battery. You don't say, well, batteries are only energy carriers, not an energy source, therefore electric cars are non-feasible. You don't say batteries defy the second law of thermodynamics because they require more energy than they produce - of course, because they do not produce energy; they merely store it.

Hydrogen produced by electrolysis likewise is a means to store energy - in hydrogen - for a hydrogen vehicle for example, just as a battery stores energy in an electric vehicle. In either case, the battery or the hydrogen is simply an energy storage medium, and either requires a primary energy source - ideally, solar or wind. Is this not clear enough? It is amazing how intelligent people can miss the obvious.

We don't need to resort to physics principles to figure this out; we need merely to think it through. Hydrogen vehicles, using electrolysis generation systems which are powered by solar or wind power, are a viable and proven, clean, renewable and sustainable technology, right now. We should stop the non-sense and start implementing solar-hydrogen systems immediately. The energy may cost more than gas and oil, but gas and oil are costing us our future on this planet. The transition must begin.

Re: Big oil and energy companies control energy distribution networks

In the future - or now - households, businesses and communities can produce their own clean, green, sustainable energy - yes. And that being the case, they can also generate their own hydrogen fuel for transportation using solar and wind powered electrolysis. Big oil, big coal, and the corporate energy companies in general - including the giant contractor/construction firms that build the nuke plants - can all go the way of the dodo. Hydrogen is not antithetical to such a distributed, decentralized, locally-controlled non-fossil fuel clean energy infrastructure, but instead a vital component.

Fury and Fanfare Over Brad Pitt's BMW Hydrogen 7

Reply to comments on Autoblog Green

I'm glad to see such a passionate and intelligent discussion about the relative advantages and disadvantages of hydrogen vehicles as compared with electric vehicles, even if it is a bit over-zealous at times. (The perfection of a given alternative may end up having less of an ecological impact than the speed of implementation of alternatives to fossil fuels, imperfect as those alternatives may be: perfectionism x micro-scale = minimal effect; whereas, a step forward that is widely adopted = major positive impact.)

A couple of points of clarification:

1. Hydrogen does not have to be produced from fossil fuels. The oil and gas companies want this, naturally, so that they will be the ones to control the hydrogen infrastructure for the coming decades, but such a solution is ridiculous, as was pointed out above. Hydrogen only makes sense when it is produced using non-fossil fuel green energy, such as solar or wind, utilizing electrolysis of water or reformation of methane from sewage or landfill waste. If done in this way, hydrogen is a clean, renewable fuel.

2. Electric vehicles require a primary source of power, just as hydrogen vehicles do: with electric vehicles, the primary source of power at present is the power grid, which is heavily polluting due to its heavy reliance on coal and other fossil fuels.

Electric vehicles are not green unless their power source is solar or wind: exactly as with hydrogen vehicles.

Let's stop the tribal warfare. You'd think the hydrogen and electric vehicle advocates were the Hatfields and McCoys.

If we were to compare the best application of hydrogen (distributed green energy generation) with the worst application of electric vehicles (plug into the largely coal-fired power grid), we could come to an equally one-sided view in abhorrence of the latter in favour of the former. Let's try to be fair-minded and clear-headed here.

3. There are 1 billion fossil fuel ICEs on the planet now, with a median life expectancy of 17 years. There is no way we can wait until these vehicles are retired and replaced. We need to switch to some combination of hydrogen and electric vehicles right now - or stop driving.

4. We do not have to wait - nor can we wait - for mass production of either electric vehicles or hydrogen FCVs (fuel cell vehicles) or ICEs: any existing ICE can be converted to either hydrogen or electric now. Take your choice, but one of these - or a combination of both - must be done asap.

5. Locally-based, distributed green energy generation, in combination with hydrogen and/or electric vehicle conversion, is what we urgently need. The rest is pretty much academic.

(P.S.: Hydrogen is safer than gasoline. Research it for yourself if you have any doubt. The public has been misinformed on that point. I had assumed in writing this post that the audience already had such basic understanding.)

J. Todd Ring,
June 26, 2007

See also:

BMW officially announces the BMW Hydrogen 7 - AutoblogGreen

Brad Pitt thinks BMW's Hydrogen 7 is perfect for Ocean's 13 premiere - AutoblogGreen

Psst, Deputy Mayor of London, wanna free BMW Hydrogen 7 ?

Hydrogen Madness @ NY Auto Show | ecorazzi.com :: the latest in green gossip

Honda's FCX makes European debut - AutoblogGreen

Canada To Build Hydrogen Super Highway

California Hydrogen Highway Spans 800 Miles

Quantum's Hydrogen Prius at Norsk Hydro's first hydrogen station - AutoblogGreen

* Energy self-sufficient Danish community makes hydrogen using wind power

Stabilization Wedges: Solving the Climate Problem for the Next 50 Years with Current Technologies

Smelling Land: The hydrogen defense against climate catastrophy

H2.ca - Hydrogen Strategy for Canada

Powell's Books - Lives Per Gallon: The True Cost of Our Oil Addiction by Terry Tamminen

Powell's Books - It's the Crude, Dude: Greed, Gas, War, and the American Way by Linda Mcquaig

Powell's Books - The Weather Makers: How Man Is Changing the Climate and What It Means for Life on Earth by Tim Flannery

Powell's Books - The Party's Over: Oil, War and the Fate of Industrial Societies by Richard Heinberg

Winning the Oil Endgame

Amazon.com: The Hydrogen Economy: Books: Jeremy Rifkin

Amazon.com: Tomorrow's Energy: Hydrogen, Fuel Cells, and the Prospects for a Cleaner Planet: Books: Peter Hoffmann,Tom Harkin

Amazon.com: Amory B. Lovins: Building the hydrogen economy. (Conversations).: An article from: E: Books: Jim Motavalli

Amazon.com: The Solar Hydrogen Civilization: The Future of Energy Is the Future of Our Global Economy: Books: Roy McAlister

Readings: hydrogen economy course - UC Davis: Institute of Transportation Studies

Search this blog: "green cars"......there's tons more info here.

Labels: biofuel, electric car, environment, fossil fuel, fuel cell, green car, hydrogen, oil, renewable, sustainability

Tuesday, March 13, 2007

March on the Pentagon, Mar. 17:
Iraq, Iran & Oil

The coward will ask is it safe?...Vanity, is it politically expedient or popular? But conscience will always ask, is it right?

- Mahdi Bray

Our lives begin to end the day we become silent about things that matter.

- Martin Luther King Jr.

On the 4th anniversary of the start of the Iraq war, and as the neoconservatives in Washington and their corporate backers plan an attack on Iran, popular opposition to such wars of empire and aggression mounts. "The other superpower" - the citizens of the world, according to the business press and the UN - is beginning to wake. Hopefully we will not be too late. The age of empires is approaching its twilight hour, but it may not die peacefully. Let us usher it out as quickly and as painlessly as possible.

As to Canadian troops in Afghanistan, about the only thing we are accomplishing is to lend legitimacy to the U.S. imperial war for oil. If we keep this up, Canada can forget about its reputation as a peace-keeping nation. Presently, we are a propaganda machine for U.S. military aggression. We are lending diplomatic cover for wars of empire. Get the troops out now! Bring them home.

"On March 17, 2007, the 4^th anniversary of the start of the criminal invasion of Iraq, tens of thousands of people from around the country will descend on the Pentagon in a mass demonstration to demand: U.S. Out of Iraq Now! 2007 is the 40^th anniversary of the historic 1967 anti-war march to the Pentagon during the Vietnam War. The message of the 1967 march was "From Protest to Resistance," and marked a turning point in the development of a countrywide mass movement.

"The people of the United States want an end to the war in Iraq. The elections in November were a clear repudiation of the Bush administration's war of aggression. The new Congress, however, has no intention of ending the war. Bush and the Pentagon generals are determined to prolong the war. Tens of thousands of more troops will be sent to Iraq. We are building a massive antiwar movement on the national and local level. Only the action of the people will stop the war.

"We are returning to the Pentagon because the Iraq war has resulted in more than 655,000 Iraqi deaths (Lancet), on top of more than 1 million killed by sanctions between 1990-2003. This is genocide.

"We are returning to the Pentagon to demand the immediate closure of Guantánamo and all other torture facilities. The grotesque revelations of torture and abuse in Abu Ghraib were the tip of the iceberg. Punishing a few rank and file soldiers and counting on the mass media to tire of the story, the Pentagon has tried to conceal the reality that it engages in arbitrary detention and torture of those it identifies as “enemies.”

"We are returning to the Pentagon to demand an end to the surveillance and other spy programs conducted against the people of this country by the Pentagon and other agencies.

"We are returning to the Pentagon because it maintains 714 military bases in 130 countries to extend the influence of US transnational corporations, oil giants and banks. The slogan of national security and the war on terror stands exposed as a pretext for a global empire enforced by military might and limitless violence.

"We are returning to the Pentagon to challenge the system that is addicted to war and global domination. The Iraq war is a criminal endeavor based on lies. It was always about conquering the entire Middle East with its vast repositories of oil. While the Iraq war has been an absolute catastrophe for the entire people of Iraq and for tens of thousands of U.S. soldiers, it must be remembered that many U.S. corporations are benefiting. They are the recipients of new Pentagon orders for weapons, supplies and contracts. The Iraq war costs approximately $279 million each day. That breaks down to more than $11 million every hour of every day of the year. The total cost of the Iraq war will be $2 trillion, according to the Iraq Study Group report.

"Unless the people act now, the human and economic costs of the war will only increase. Let's unite and stand together at the Pentagon on March 17."

- Statement from the ANSWER coalition on why we're marching (for full text see links below)

"We have about 50% of the world's wealth but only 6.3% of its population... In this situation, we cannot fail to be the object of envy and resentment. Our real task in the coming period is to devise a pattern of relationships which will permit us to maintain this position of disparity without positive detriment to our national security. To do so, we will have to dispense with all sentimentality... We should cease to talk about vague and...unreal objectives such as human rights, the raising of the living standards, and democratization. The day is not far off when we are going to have to deal in straight power concepts."

- Chief long-term strategic planner for the U.S. National Security Council,
George F. Kennan, in a 1948 State Department Brief: the now-declassified NSC 68.

Note: This is not new. Bush is only the latest of war criminals. He is the successor to empire - an empire that is in crisis and crumbling, desperate to shore itself up while it may still be possible.

"The Neo-conservative agenda under the Bush administration should be viewed as the culmination of a (bipartisan) "Post War" foreign policy framework, which provides the basis for the planning of the contemporary wars and atrocities including the setting up of torture chambers, concentration camps and the extensive use of prohibited weapons directed against civilians.

"From Korea, Vietnam and Afghanistan, to the CIA sponsored military coups in Latin America and Southeast Asia, the objective has been to ensure US military hegemony and global economic domination, as initially formulated under the "Truman Doctrine". Despite significant policy differences, successive Democratic and Republican administrations, from Harry Truman to George W. Bush have carried out this global military agenda.

"What distinguishes the Bush administration in relation to the historical record of US sponsored crimes and atrocities, is that the concentration camps, targeted assassinations and torture chambers are now openly considered as legitimate forms of intervention, which sustain "the global war on terrorism" and support the spread of Western democracy [sic].

"To reverse the tide of war requires a massive campaign of networking and outreach to inform people across the land, nationally and internationally, in neighborhoods, workplaces, parishes, mosques, schools, universities, municipalities, on the dangers of a US sponsored war which contemplates the use of nuclear weapons. The message should be loud and clear: It is not Iran which is a threat to global security but the United States of America.

"The corporate media also bear a heavy responsibility for the cover-up of US sponsored war crimes. Until recently these war preparations involving the use of nuclear weapons have been scarcely covered by the corporate media. The latter must also be forcefully challenged for their biased coverage of the Middle East war.

"What is needed is to break the conspiracy of silence, expose the media lies and distortions, confront the criminal nature of the US Administration and of those governments which support it, its war agenda as well as its so-called "Homeland Security agenda" which has already defined the contours of a police State."

- Michel Chossudovsky, Professor of Economics, Ottawa U.,
founder and director of the Center for Research on Globalization

"Intelligent people realize that American claims to be a moral and democratic force are mere pretense behind which hides a policy of military aggression."
- Paul Craig Roberts, former associate editor of the Wall Street Journal

"[A] plausible scenario for a military collision with Iran [is]... Iraqi failure to meet the benchmarks, followed by accusations of Iranian responsibility for the failure, then by some provocation in Iraq or a terrorist act in the US blamed on Iran, culminating in, quote/unquote, ‘defensive’ US military action against Iran...”
- Zbigniew Brzezinski, before the U.S. Senate Foreign Relations Committee, February 1, 2007 (emphasis added)

"If Tyranny and Oppression come to this land, it will be in the guise of fighting a foreign enemy."

~ James Madison

"The spirit of this country is totally adverse to a large military force."
- Thomas Jefferson (1743-1826) 3rd American President

"Force is the vital principle and immediate parent of despotism."
- Thomas Jefferson

"If there is one principle more deeply rooted in the mind of every American, it is that we should have nothing to do with conquest." - Thomas Jefferson

March on the Pentagon, March 17

Transportation for March 17

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"Why I'm marching on the Pentagon"

1,500+ endorsers of the March on the Pentagon - March 17, 2007

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Bill Moyers: The Secret Government - PBS Video

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*** Even Conservatives Hate Republicans Now

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