Another good reason to stay out of Calif.

[IDIBRONCO]

While I dont know if we barely have enough to keep plants growing, I do know that our planet has greened up significantly over the last 40 years. As the amount of CO2 went up the plants loved it.

This is absolutely correct. The problem is that this doesn't fit the big money narrative. From what I understand, we aren't at plant starvation risk levels any more. The point where plants life starts to die due to suffocation from lack of carbon dioxide is 150 PPM (parts per million). During the end of the Little Ice Age, which ended in the mid 1800's, was 180 PPM. Now that was close! 30 less PPM and life everywhere would have started dying.

Many scientists said that due to "global Warming" the Sahara dessert would expand and more land would become barren, but the opposite has happened. More areas now support plant life.

This just shows that "scientists" don't really know what's going to happen because they listened to propaganda.

My take on all of this "global warming" is the earth is fixing the high CO2 by growing billions more plants/trees to produce O2. Higher temperatures go along with this. The earth is self regulating to a point, but what is this point? Nobody knows this until we reach the domes day point...

If you look at the data charts that show the relationship between CO2 levels and world temperature averages, yes the two are corelated. The causation, in fact, is just the opposite of what we're being told. The warming planet causes the release of more CO2, not the other way around. Even in Al Gore's horribly produced film "An Inconvienant Truth" the chart shows the same thing. If you look closely, you can see that the temperatures go up and the CO2 levels follow. The temperatures go down, and the CO2 levels do likewise.

 

[Bart F-350]

So, what would be the goal of all this CO2 lowering campaign worldwide? do they want to shove us into a new ICE age?

 

[Nero]

This just shows that "scientists" don't really know what's going to happen because they listened to propaganda.

I'm pretty sure the Sahara is being reclaimed because locals are forcing new vegetation growth. Something like 4000 miles of trees long and 10 miles deep were planted in an attempt to halt it. In some ways it did, but it also changed how the desert was advancing on land.
Sadly most of the trees didn't last, but it evolved how they run their irrigation to make what has lived, and what has sprouted on its own to survive.

Anyhow, with all what's been going on with the weather, that's also why they started calling into climate change, instead of global warming. Seems like summers are getting hotter, and winters are getting colder.

Long story short, both on the road passenger vehicles and commercial have done their part to clean up the air. I feel emissions are a necessary evil for us to deal with, but going practically zero is unachievable. What we should be going after is the real belchers of bs into the air, cargo ships, cruise ships, and airplanes. Especially personal air crafts. Just my 2¢

 

[The_Josh_Bear]

I thought they were doing a diesel generator with a small 3 or 4 gallon fuel tank all mounted mid truck (no driveshaft since it would have EV motors). They estimated that the diesel generator would achieve significantly higher efficiency because it would run at a constant RPM which is one of the biggest drawbacks of an ICE - having to increase and decrease RPM constantly and instantly is wildly inefficient. I believe they suspected they could achieve around 50mpg effectively, or ~210 additional miles of range. Also, from how I understood it, since the ICE wouldnt be used for propulsion, it would bypass alot of emissions regulations. I dont see why they couldnt use propane or natural gas for the same purpose though and have a much cleaner and more efficient engine, maybe with some reduced range improvement as opposed to diesel.

I've often wondered when/if this would become a thing. After all, diesel locomotives have been running that way since the 50's and even the 30's according to Google. So there's a ton of science behind it and you'd have nearly unlimited torque at low speeds, with way more efficiency from the diesels as you mentioned. You could even use alternative engine designs that SUCK at variable RPMs but are AMAZING at steady-state running. Could be really neat!

 

[Nero]

All depends on how the engine was built. Cam profile, displacement, fuel curve, ect.

I rebuilt a big cam 3 855 that the local transit authority uses in an old train. Found out it has a two speed transmission in it. I've seen it run a few times, its exhaust definitely has a little opaqueness to it, but what do you expect running an engine from the early 80s...

 

[IDIBRONCO]

I feel emissions are a necessary evil for us to deal with, but going practically zero is unachievable. What we should be going after is the real belchers of bs into the air, cargo ships, cruise ships, and airplanes. Especially personal air crafts. Just my 2¢

I agree except for the part about the cargo ships. That may be just being selfish, but it would make everything that comes in on those ships go up in price.

 

[Nero]

I would happily leave the boats alone, if we could ban celebrities from flying 15 minutes because they couldn't be bothered to drive 45 minutes like the rest of us. One single jaunt in a private jet farts out more emissions than I do in a year driving multiple cars

 

[ISPKI]

So, what would be the goal of all this CO2 lowering campaign worldwide? do they want to shove us into a new ICE age?

A quick lookup shows a very consistent ~420ppm as of March 2024 across a large number of studies. Trend charts show that for as long as we have been tracking CO2 levels in the atmosphere it has steadily increased year after year.

We are no where near lowering CO2 levels to a dangerous level unable to support life.

 

[ISPKI]

I think, the drive to reduce emissions has the potential to drive transportation technology development in a positive direction. Oceanic and air transit really hasnt evolved significantly since the invention of the ICE. Maybe its time for a significant leap in those departments.

We have a couple quarries near our home that have local dump trucks moving materials in and out all day. I navigate around them 4 times a day at least and every single truck coming in and out of those yards spews clouds of black smoke at all times while driving. Thing is, these trucks seem to only drive around town, picking up and dropping off materials within a handful of miles from their yards. Makes me wonder why we havent seen short range high capacity EV trucks yet. Seems to me that electric motors are ideal for that application. I thought Volvo had developed an EV freight truck a year or two ago but maybe that is only in Europe. I certainly havent seen any here.

 

[nelstomlinson]

Yes, CO2 is increasing. It's still near the lower bound of what the geologic record suggests is normal. That's not where we want to be. With the sun and hence the earth showing signs of cooling, we do NOT want to try to reduce the available CO2.

 

[Nero]

The short haul e trucks are already out in production. Freightliner runs one powered by a Daimler power plant in their eM2 trucks. I saw one out in the wild on highway 101 last weekend.

I bet it comes down to money. Until they are forced to get rid of their trucks, they'll keep running them.
Wait that sounds like California....

 

[ROCK HARVEY]

Have you guys heard of Edison motors? I saw some videos of them converting old peterbilts to a diesel electric power plant, and lately I saw them promoting what looked like a brand new rig. The guy seemed really knowledgeable and focused on trucks that can do real work.

 

[Clb]

finally someone found his uboob channel
purty sweet tech.

fwiw way back 20 ish years ago they were playing with hi breeded (lol) class 8 trucks the drivers reported less than stellar power anywhere but in town.
I talked to a driver out on the coast of Marin driving one once on a bike ride with the boys...

 

[typ4]

I heard from an old guy so I’m not sure if it’s true or not but he said “they won’t let semis that are older than 2010 or something into the state”
“And that they will stop selling regular diesel and just biodiesel”

On our trip a month ago I lost 2 mpg with the california fuel, cant call it diesel,

 

[Cubey]

On our trip a month ago I lost 2 mpg with the california fuel, cant call it diesel,

I didn't have a problem with California diesel in 2022 in the single digit mpg motorhome. Maybe you just got a bad batch.