Electric Car Carbon Footprint

[BAS]

Mines in the US used to have free reign on how they mine. Its been many decades since that was the case though. Mines must by law restore the land to as close to the same profile as before the project, I am not defending the mines, just pointing out hte fact that it is not as environemntally damaging as it used to be.

Overseas now, is a whole other story. Newmont Mining of Nevada is a worldwide operation, their record in the US is great, look at their S. America operations and they are poisoning streams killing people with cyanide accidents, leaving open pits, and raping the ground.

IMHO I think the US is probably the cleanest operators in the world.

later all

I know it works this way in theory, but I am unconvinced about the practice. I'm not certain how well you CAN restore the land from something as extreme as mountaintop removal, and I seem to recall controversy about the restoration from landowners in the area around where it is practiced. Also, there is the problem of living with an ongoing mountaintop removal mine nearby.

I think you might be operating from an old set of regulations. Mountaintop removal is fairly new, and newly legalized.


B.

[unjonharley]

Mining co. say they will get right on the restoring..50 years have passed sence I helped built the first of the monster machines that chew up the land..The mining Co are still saying: "We'll get right on it".

[fromMA]

This is an open air mine in Chilie. If you can imagine the size of a car on one of the surrounding roads, you can imagine the size of this thing. Somehow I dont see them returning to its pristine look after they are done with the mining.


http://odx.bhpbilliton.com/images/EscondidaPit.jpg

A clearer view:

http://odx.bhpbilliton.com/expansion/mi ... opment.asp

[DVD Burner]

I missed the part on the proposed built in compressor/generator. Isn't the six minute charge time at an air pressure recharge station, or something like that? I tried their link but couldn't get anything to come up (it might be my spam filter blocking pop-ups again-- I keep forgetting I have that feature turned on). I'm curious if I could recharge one from an air hose at a gas station! If so, I am SO interested!

I'd like to see them imported, too.


B.

From what I understood years ago, you could go up to any air compressor and refill.

They have released some interesting technical info on the aircar.
I sent the page to a friend to see if he thinks the engineering holds up.
The connecting rod looks very unusual.
I know how much went into one of my engines just to get a little better angle on the connecting rods.

It's been running around in France for at least the 4 years that I knew about it. Seems enough time to prove stablelization for me.

[unjonharley]

This is an open air mine in Chilie. If you can imagine the size of a car on one of the surrounding roads, you can imagine the size of this thing. Somehow I dont see them returning to its pristine look after they are done with the mining.


http://odx.bhpbilliton.com/images/EscondidaPit.jpg

A clearer view:

http://odx.bhpbilliton.com/expansion/mi ... opment.asp

\/
You do uot have to go out of country to see pit mines..They are all over the U.S. and Canada..The machines I worked were sopposed to work 24/7 for 50 years. At 160 cube yard a bite..Some of the mine in Canada are 100 years old..

[BAS]

I missed the part on the proposed built in compressor/generator. Isn't the six minute charge time at an air pressure recharge station, or something like that? I tried their link but couldn't get anything to come up (it might be my spam filter blocking pop-ups again-- I keep forgetting I have that feature turned on). I'm curious if I could recharge one from an air hose at a gas station! If so, I am SO interested!

I'd like to see them imported, too.


B.

From what I understood years ago, you could go up to any air compressor and refill.

They have released some interesting technical info on the aircar.
I sent the page to a friend to see if he thinks the engineering holds up.
The connecting rod looks very unusual.
I know how much went into one of my engines just to get a little better angle on the connecting rods.

It's been running around in France for at least the 4 years that I knew about it. Seems enough time to prove stablelization for me.

Thanks for the information.

Just for the record, that second part with gyre, not me. (I haven't looked as closely at the site as gyre-- too many other pressing issues right now, so I can only give this a superficial looking over.)


B.

[LeChatNoir]

Mines must by law restore the land to as close to the same profile as before the project, I am not defending the mines, just pointing out hte fact that it is not as environmentally damaging as it used to be.

Unfortunately it just doesn’t work this way. Carter signed that law and they've found loopholes through the state legislators ever since. And the problem is worse now than it ever has been. These days, its just to make the folks who don't live near mining feel better about the energy they use.

I grew up in east Kentucky. Anytime I go back I see new scabs where mountains used to be. The water is ruined. Has been for years. I grew up in a 100+ year old farm house that had never flooded. Mountain top mining started and the floods came. The main beam under the house rotted out and broke within a few years of the by-then multiple floods per year. The mines that do get “reclaimedâ€

[Archantael]

If you think lopping off mountaintops is a bad mining practice, it gets worse. Much worse. Here's an introduction to "longwall mining". If it's done out West say in Wyoming's Powder River Basin where nobody lives above the mine that's one thing. But when this technique is used in PA and WV, the results can be horrendous. Here's a link or you can just Google longwall mining and read the horror stories yourself.

http://pennsylvania.sierraclub.org/PACh ... 0Costs.htm

That being said as the old saying goes: If it's not grown it has to be mined. People also need to consider that before letting their environmental aggressiveness kick in and advocate shutting down every industrial operation that has even the slightest problem associated with it.

(In Missouri our limestone mines use the room and pillar method. Granted limestone is not coal...but people here found a way to mine while keeping the ground above safe, and they made the mines into underground warehouses and offices. Science has the answers to balanced extraction techniques if people demand change)

[BAS]

I think I will read about longwall mining later. It sounds a bit too depressing for me to read now.

When I was really young (about 1st grade?), we lived in a small town in Southern Illinois, which was in the middle of coal mining territory. The ground under the town was riddled with tunnels where the mines had removed the coal. While mining they left columns of coal to support the roof. When the mine was shutting down, they would remove the columns and replace them with wooden supports. Eventually the wood would rot away, and a sinkhole would result.

Actually, the town was overall a good place not to be.


B.

[gyre]

There is film of a mine flooding that sucked a lake down and sucked boats, people and so on with it.
Very spectacular.

[DVD Burner]

There is film of a mine flooding that sucked a lake down and sucked boats, people and so on with it.
Very spectacular.

I saw that!

It was pretty amazing.


REALLY!


No words to describe it.

[BAS]

OH MY GOSH! Now that you mention it, I think I recall hearing about that! I didn't get to see the film, although I think I might have seen before and after pictures. Amazing.



B.