Posted by Traveler on January 25, 03 at 22:29:16:
Saw some car show video and there are some fuel cell cars at the prototype stage. "Zero emissions".
OK, the vehicle does emit nothing but water, combining hydrogen and oxygen. Now ask, where does the H2 and O2 come from? It isn't buried under the desert, we don't mine it in W VA, we don't distill it from corn.
No, we manufacture it... by processes that have emissions, and will have to transport it by vehicles that have emissions.
Be the first on your block with a silver "Honda Hindenberg" (no doubt with Goodyears).
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Been thinking about this energy mess and conclude all energy is nuclear in origin. Common fuels are nothing but means to accumulate energy over a long period of time and release in a short period of time. Fossil fuel, hydro, solar, wind, are all resultant from the fusion reaction in the sun. Seems to me that a worldwide nuclear energy strategy is the only long term solution. Manufacturing electricity or H2 and O2 from nuclear processes.
Somebody always asks where the nuclear energy comes from. Roundabout answer is it comes from matter that has turned into energy, and the matter came from a process still debated. Peter Higgs can answer that better than I can; outstanding in his "field".