Environment & Energy

...self driving cars, so there's that.

I have no use for solar cells, either, as I also make clear. I consider them where they are, a bourgeois affectation that will be electronic waste before today's newborns finish college - if there are colleges to finish.

The referenced paper in the post I linked is a scientific publication, not a bourgeois "my story" tale of the type that shows up here regularly. Over roughly 23 years on this site, I've had loads and loads and loads of people who want to tell me about their wonderful solar cells on the roofs of their McMansions.

I'm unimpressed.

When I joined DU, the concentration of the dangerous fossil fuel waste carbon dioxide in the planetary atmosphere was 372.69 ppm. As of the last week reported at the Trends in Atmospheric Carbon Dioxide (CO2), page of the Mauna Loa CO₂ Observatory as of the week beginning August 17, 2025, the concentration was 52.97 ppm higher, 425.65 ppm. All the caterwauling about solar, wind and electric cars I've heard here has had no effect on that outcome.

One can always write a commentary to a scientific paper and submit it to a journal, but I doubt they'd accept and publish one about how many miles the author drives in his, her, or their Tesla.

Nevertheless, despite the self declared nobility of big battery owners, the planet is burning, the rate of accumulation of the fossil fuel waste in the planetary atmosphere is accelerating to rates never seen before, and the car CULTure greenwashing has done nothing to arrest this outcome.

I'm sorry to report, not that I expect apologists for the white supremacist Musk to get it, that a battery is a device that wastes primary energy, It's a law of thermodynamics, and no amount of advertisements can undo it.

I did touch on the issue of thermodynamics on batteries in a post here, regrettably (I would guess to some people who prefer Tesla ads) again with reference to a scientific publication:

Pesky Thermodynamics: The Mathematics of Wasting Energy by Storage in Li Batteries.

As for how many miles a Musk apologists drives his, her, or their fucking car, I couldn't care less.

Musk and his hyped advertisements and promotions can go fuck off, OK?

The planet's burning. Incredibly there are people who seem not to give a shit about that, some reporting on their bourgeois lifestyle. Generally they are not people capable of understanding the difference between primary energy and stored energy.

There are, one should be aware, over a billion people on this planet who lack access to improved sanitation, on whom I sometimes remark, not that I'm doing a damned thing to help them myself. Nonetheless, frankly I find them of more interest than the commute of a homeowner patting himself, herself, or themself on his, her, or their back for solar cells on his, her or their roof, in a country where fewer and fewer people can afford home ownership. I would suspect strongly that some of the people lacking access to improved sanitation are Elon's African Cobalt Slaves and are not commuting 200 miles a day.

Maybe I should apologize for feeling as I do, but it represents the true state of my personal affairs which I am unlikely to regret.

Have a nice evening, and I certainly hope you avoid too much traffic during your 200 mile a day commute.