Graydon wrote:Zakharra wrote:It seems like a fair number of people here hate the IC engine with a passion for some reason. So I'd like to ask those that don't like it, WHY don't you like the IC engine? Despite the problems an IC engine has, it is extremely convenient for a lot of people. It frees up people from needing to live within walking distance of their work or a railroad. It seems like thew benefits outweigh the costs to a large degree.
Depends on how you count those costs. (Very well known bit of systems theory; things that are positive to individual participants in the system can be very bad for the system as a whole.)
IC engines are major sources of really problematic pollutants. The short-term stuff kills a lot of people every year; the long-term stuff might manage to kill us all by breaking agriculture.
It's been pretty obvious since 1970 or so we should be doing something different; it hasn't happened, in part because half of everything is invested in an oil stock somewhere. And now it's getting to it's going to be extremely expensive, maybe cultural discontinuity expensive.
Didn't have to be. A certain amount of annoyance results.
Agriculture can be part of the solution. Using management intensive grazing not only allows twice the livestock density with an improvement in pasture quality, as a side effect it puts a lot of carbon into the soil from roots dying off during the intensive phase. Each acre cleanses CO2 out of the air, not only above it, but much more. In cities, some are using vertical and roof gardening to catch and reduce pollution.
For the long run: if railroads were set up as a rectangular network at closer distances, we would not need the intermediate transportation methods. We would need something less expensive than steel rails, tho. Also, if the urban was put next to the rails to make strip cities with the internal of the squares reserved for agriculture, nuclear weapons and such would have less tempting targets.
Make the center of a strip long distance transportation & such, heavy industry next door on both sides, a strip of park or orchard next, light industry and commercial, another strip of park or orchard, residential, orchard, then fields, then pastures. Any large explosion could only take out a small portion of the network if the total strip width were kept small, say less than a quarter of a mile.
This would need modification for mountainous or very hilly areas.