Elon Musk is the Most Important Person Alive Today - Interview of Neil deGrasse Tyson
This study (https://onlinelibrary.wiley.com/doi/full/10.1111/jiec.12639 ), which was observational (read limited), showed eCommerce has increased our energy consumption. For example “a hypothetical increase of online retail share by another 10 percentage points to roughly 20% of total retail would be projected to increase total energy consumption by approximately 5.6%”. It takes less energy to drive to the supermarket or the mall/strip mall and fill up your car with stuff with reusable grocery bags than to order all that stuff from a bunch of distribution centers and bring those to you Amazon 2-day Prime.
A separate study looked at “last mile delivery”, or the last trip that a product makes between retailer and home consumer. It found that consumers who drive to the store have to buy 24 items to make the trip equal to the carbon footprint of just one item ordered online. From: https://www.theguardian.com/sustainable-business/2014/sep/03/online-commerce-store-amazon-zappos-grocery-delivery-usps-carbon-emissions
However as “consumers increasingly use energy‐friendly local collection and delivery points (Collins 2015)” energy consumption falls. The nearest one of those to me is a 15-min car’s drive away, and I live in a big city.
“But online shopping return rates also have been increasing (Hjort and Lantz 2016)” worsening energy imbalance. Plus energy‐intensive customer demands (de Koster 2002), such as those for delivery speed (e.g., Amazon Prime, Google Express) or novel delivery modes (e.g., autonomous drone) further worsen energy imbalance. Another study I read says drone deliveries would nearly double energy consumption!
The Volt is Dead - Long Live Bigger Chevy EV’s https://insideevs.com/general-motors-shut-down-chevy-volt-factory/
Tesla Semi rival Nikola targets $1B financing round amid $380M worth of new truck orders https://www.teslarati.com/tesla-semi-rival-nikola-1-billion-financing-round-380-million-tre-orders/
While Nikola’s vehicles boast excellent specs, the company would have to establish a network of hydrogen refueling stations across the United States and Europe for its trucks to become a viable alternative to diesel-powered trucks. That said, the company has stated that it would have hydrogen coverage in the US, Canada, Europe, and Australia by 2028. Within that time frame, Nikola has announced that it would become America’s “largest energy consumer.”
Waze-fed AI platform helps Las Vegas cut car crashes by almost 20% https://www.zdnet.com/article/waze-fed-ai-platform-helps-las-vegas-cut-car-crashes-by-almost-20/
120kW ultra-fast charger has set a new benchmark in EV charging https://www.electricvehiclesresearch.com/articles/15863/120kwultra-fast-charger-has-set-a-new-benchmark-in-ev-charging
First nine California Electrify America sites planned to open before 2019 https://electricrevs.com/2018/11/14/first-nine-california-electrify-america-sites-planned-to-open-before-2019/
Electrify America, created by Volkswagen AG as part of a settlement from the automaker’s emissions-cheating scandal
The White House Climate Report https://www.cnn.com/2018/11/23/health/climate-change-report-bn/index.html
“The tests themselves are divided into low‐altitude and higher‐altitude tests. The low‐altitude tests stay below 500 meters in altitude and last approximately 100 seconds. These tests will be run approximately three times per week during the initial portion of the program. The higher‐altitude tests can go as high as 5 km and will occur approximately once per week. These tests last approximately 6 minutes.” – SpaceX, 11/20/2018, FCC File 0931-EX-CN-2018
Mars Landing on Monday Morning InSight Mission https://www.nasa.gov/feature/jpl/nasa-insight-landing-on-mars-milestones http://www.planetary.org/blogs/emily-lakdawalla/2018/mars-insight-landing-preview.html
Here’s an informative video: youtu.be/u3FB2SuKFfI
And the NASA Vid: https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=PDSbUpmRksI#action=share
Letter from Joel Sapp - check this link out: https://support.patreon.com/hc/en-us/articles/115005429546-Will-my-podcast-rewards-work-with-my-favorite-podcast-app-
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