Six Killed After Hamas Forces Open Fire On Largest Fatah Rally In Gaza Since Takeover At least six Palestinians were killed today when supporters of the Islamist Hamas movement opened fire on activists of the secular Fatah group at a Gaza Strip rally commemorating the death of Yassir... Read Full Article Music Review | ’Die Schöne Müllerin’: Following Love’s Sad Arc In Schubert’s Song Cycle There is not always agreement between the piano and the voice in Schubert’s song cycle ?Die Schöne Müllerin.?... Read Full Article Just Don?t Call It Minimalism The 70th-birthday year of Philip Glass, which is being widely observed, seems as good a time as any to take stock of the Minimalist achievement by way of recordings.... Read Full Article New DVDs: Absolute Artifice: A Movie Star Of The Old School More than 30 years after her death, Joan Crawford continues to exert a fascination that has little or nothing to do with her gifts as an actress, a fact that is one working definition of the term ?mov... Read Full Article Why Handling Your Own Divorce Is A Bad Idea There has been a lot of comment on the decision by Heather Mills to represent herself in the matrimonial financial proceedings against her estranged husband, Sir Paul McCartney. It is most unusual i... Read Full Article |
Observatory: They May Not Use Gasoline, But They Sure Burn Through WaterOne way to reduce the world’s dependence on oil is to produce more cars that get their power from the electrical grid rather than the gas pump. In the United States, replacing a large percentage of the roughly 235 million cars, light trucks and sport utility vehicles with all-electric vehicles and plug-in hybrids (which have a supplemental gasoline engine) would make a big dent in gasoline consumption, currently about 380 million gallons a day. Peter DaSilva for The New York TimesAdding more plug-in vehicles would mean a sharp increase in water use. Related Observatory: The Secret of DEET? It Masks Odors That Usually Attract Bugs (March 18, 2008) Observatory: When a Sticky Gecko Starts to Slip, Its Tail Comes to the Rescue (March 18, 2008) More Observatory Columns » Web LinksTThe Water Intensity of the Plugged-In Automotive Economy (Environmental Science and Technology)But such a shift would have an impact on another of the world’s precious liquids — water. It takes a lot of water to produce electricity, both to mine and to process coal and other fuels and to cool power plants. Production of gasoline uses water, too, but in an analysis in the journal Environmental Science and Technology, Carey W. King and Michael E. Webber of the University of Texas found that adding more plug-in vehicles would result in a significant increase in water use because of the additional electricity that would have to be generated. For every mile driven by a gas-powered vehicle that is displaced by one driven by an electric vehicle, the researchers report, about three times as much water is consumed (that is, lost to evaporation) and about 17 times as much is withdrawn (used and returned to its source). The researchers say the impact on water use does not mean a shift to electric vehicles is a bad idea. But they say the impact would be severe enough, particularly in areas like the Southwest, that it should be considered in policy discussions about widespread use of electric vehicles. Tag CloudExternal InformationAdditional InformationPoachers in West Hunt Big Antlers to Feed Big Egos...More Acidic Ocean Hurts Reef Algae as Well as Corals... Findings: Wanted: Billionaire Risk-Takers Seeking Eternal Renown... Bees Dying: Is It a Crisis or a Phase?... Where Am I?News Main Page - Business - Observatory: They May Not Use Gasoline, But They Sure Burn Through Water |
i8news.com |