[SGVLUG] Especially for Tom & his Prius....

[David Lawyer]

On Sun, Jul 09, 2006 at 10:07:06PM -0700, Dustin Laurence wrote:
> I found this screamingly funny:
> 
> http://youtube.com/watch?v=H_5VfwihIpo&search=top%20gear

I didn't find it funny at all.  The diesel isn't much better than the
gasoline engine.  The energy efficiency of automotive diesels is about
the same as automotive gasoline engines, provided one operates at near
the maximum efficiency points in the torque-rpm plot of iso-efficiency
curves.  The diesel is in fact inherently a pretty bad polluter.

Furthermore, increasing energy efficiency may make things worse per
Jevons law (by encouraging more travel).  The travel in 1900 was
mostly by railroad and unsustainable.  Even when rail locomotives
burned wood in the 18th century, it was unsustainable since wood was
being consumed faster than it was growing.  So today in the US with
about 200 times as much motorized travel as in 1900, it's
super-unsustainable --something that going for diesels autos would
hardly change.

			David Lawyer