Ruthless green part 2

Returning now to the "inconvenient truths" for environmentalists recently published in Wired magazine...

Live in Cities
Or in other words, suburbs are not green, dude:

• Some 3.5 million commuters drive 3 hours a day.
• The rate CO2 emission from a lawnmower is 11 times that of a car.
• Large apartment/condo buildings are more efficiently heated and cooled.
• The per capita carbon footprint of Manhattan, where car ownership is low, is 30% less than the rest of the country.

Hmmm, I live in the city but commute to a suburb. Do I get half credit?

A/C is OK
... compared to heating, that is. The heating of US homes releases 8 times more CO2 annually than cooling them. Why? The main reason is that the difference between 70 degrees and 100 degrees is much less the difference between 70 degrees and 0 degrees. A little leg-work and we have the following evidence to support the idea that 'there is more cold temperature than hot':

• The average continental temperature in the US is 52 degrees.
• In New York City, the average temperature runs from 32 degrees in January to 77 degrees in July.
• In Houston, the average temperature runs from 52 degrees in January to 84 degrees in July.

The article adds that the per annum heating of a home in the Northeast emits 14 times more carbon than the cooling of a home in Phoenix.

This all sounds very reasonable. But the thermodynamicist in you to balk upon reaching the following parenthetical statement in the article:

(that is, it takes less energy to cool a given space by 1 degree than to heat it by the same amount)

Huh!!???!! I believe it can be shown that that is a violation of the second law of thermodynamics.

While this information is interesting, I don't know how practical it is. After all, we are not often faced with the choice, "hmmm, should I use A/C or heat today". It is not like choosing which CD to play on your stereo system. I will admit that there is some choice in whether you live in a suburb or urban area, but not so much if you consider all of the constraints on families. I suppose then that the most practical use for this information is for public planners.

Wired: ruthlessly green, part 1: Keep your SUV.

Take a look at this incendiary cover from the June 2008 issue of Wired.


I say! What does it all mean? I must admit the ruthlessly anti-CO2 premise appeals to me. These sound like some interesting if incendiary points. Lets scratch beneath the surface:

Keep your SUV. After a silly comparison between a Hummer and a Prius, they admit (without any trace of embarassment) that SUV's are indeed bad for the environment. But their real point is to highlight the under-appreciated environmental cost of manufacturing a Toyota Prius. Making the nickel battery is carbon intensive. When a new Prius (45 mpg) is compared head to head against a 10 year old Toyota Tercel (35 mpg). Excluding the manufacture of the Tercel (after all it is used - grrr), we learn it would take the Prius 100,000 miles to break even. Their recommendation is to buy a used car with reasonable mileage. How inspiring. I wonder where all these used cars are going to come from that we are all about to buy. Can we get Toyota to make some more 1998 Tercels? But wait, then it wouldn't be used, would it?

It is useful to know about the production issue with the Prius battery. While 100,000 is a nice round number, lets turn it into something more relevant. How many miles of Prius driving is the battery equivalent to? Here we go:

Let G be the equivalent gallons of gas and M be the equivalent miles for making the battery. Now we balance the Prius gas (real + equivalent) against the Celica gas:

100,000 miles / 45mpg + G = 100,000 miles / 35mpg

which yields G = 635 equivalent gallons and thus M = 635 * 45 which is a bit less than 30,000 equivalent miles, or about 2 years of driving (or six months in a Hummer).

It is a little disheartening to be sure. But for those Prius owners out there, take heart - the success of the Prius has stimulated investment in a burgeoning green engine industry. So keep your Prius, but don't buy a second one until Toyota comes out with an improvement.

New Endorsement for McCain

The latest in the presumptive Republican nominee John McCain's presidential campaign is yet another endorsement. The approval of Alexa D. DeJoannis is a powerful statement that the Senator's appeal spans a wide American demographic. "John McCain does not represent just Republicans, or the military community, or his age group, or white men," said DeJoannis. "He represents other people as well. Now, with Hilary out of the running, her supporters need to take a look at McCain. They both voted for the war, both take an interest in immigration reform, and - this is a little-known fact - they both like soup."

McCain was "gratified and surprised" to receive the unsought endorsement from the young liberal, many of whose relatives were "shocked and grieved" to hear of it. "I thought we had taught her to never vote for a Republican," stated her mother, Diane M. DeJoannis. "Republicans don't care about the underprivileged." Her sister, Erica "Shmoo" DeJoannis, was reached on the Pacific island of Tuvalu for her comment, where she was performing at a ballroom-dance competition. "She's entitled to her opinion. I just don't think she really understands how bad a president McCain would be. Do we really want to stay in Iraq for the next hundred years? He also doesn't support abortion rights. Did you know that? I mean, do Republicans want to force women who aren't able to raise children to have them anyway just because they consider abortion murder? I think what Bush is doing in Iraq is murder. McCain will just continue Bush's policies." Her brothers could not be reached for comment, though it is believed that one of them is a Ron Paul supporter.

As national politics shifts focus towards November, McCain's campaign will be working to bring more independents into his camp. Though frequently stating his respect for the Democratic nominee, his believes his opponent does not have the experience necessary for the job. McCain will continue to accept endorsements from all sectors of society, and those of liberals are especially welcome.