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Unintended consequences of going green
February 23rd, 2011 by GenePodcast: Play in new window | Download
If you ask, most people will tell you going green is a good thing. Maybe, and maybe not always. Check it out, today on Engineering Works!
Many people who think about global climate change look forward to the time when cars are powered by non-polluting electric motors – or something else – instead of engines that burn gasoline. Think about it. No more polluting exhaust fumes. No more climate-threatening carbon dioxide. No more gasoline to be refined or drilled for.
Sounds nice. But let’s think about it for a minute. No more gasoline engines means less air pollution. But it also means no more jobs making gasoline engines. No more exhaust systems. No more spark plugs.
Process engineers in Japan have started thinking about this darker side of green. And the numbers are scary. No more gasoline engines could mean closing down $129 billion with a “B” worth of industrial production.
They’re looking at what kind of parts will be affected most, and what the manufacturers that make them can do to begin making the transition. Even that’s not easy. It’s not clear what technology will replace gasoline engines. Gas-electric hybrids? Plug-in hybrids? Purely electric? Hydrogen? Fuel cells? Nobody knows yet.
Whatever comes next, it seems clear that it’s not too early to start figuring out what’s going to come next.
Whatever it is, we’re finished for this time and it’s time to go home. In our gasoline-powered car.
Engineering Works! is made possible by Texas A&M Engineering and produced by KAMU-FM in College Station. Learn more about engineering. Visit us on the World Wide Web.
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Start the discussion: We’re in favor of going green, really. It just seems that we haven’t looked at the situation from all sides yet. And that’s important.
For more:
http://www.nytimes.com/2010/11/03/business/global/03japancar.html?_r=1
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YOU hit nail on head. This argument has been used to keep fuel efficient engines off market. Do you really think the 4 stroke engine is ONLY engine ever made or even the best. It spits 80% of every gallon of gasoline out tailpipe unused as heat energy. That is a average fuel efficiency of 20% for past 100 years. We have engines 30% fuel efficient, 40%, 60%,80% and even a few claiming 90% . Some use no motor oil,no antifreeze , no spark plugs,air filters, no drive belts, hoses, etc.
in the beginning we had diversity- steam , electric , gasoline , diesel and hybrids . Today its the 4 stroke gasoline or diesel and thats it. Electrics and hybrids have a long way to go to achieve the percentage of on road vehicles they were before WW1.
We could still use gasoline engines and get great fuel mileage ,but the oil companies have killed this 3 times. Gasoline vapor is very fuel efficient, first used in 1930’s – POGUE carburetor , 1973 shell oil mpg contest winner was a gasoline vapor 4 cylinder in a 1958 opel t-1 and then there was smokey yuniks HOT VAPOR CYCLE. We have always had the technology to be energy independent and environmentaly responseable but it aint profitable.
Thanks for contributing this great info.
we are only wait and watching related news. Maybe next time we can buy a new hybrid car ? What else can ? I dont know