#car emission

[solomotorsportsga]

A catalytic converter must remain clog-free to see your Aston Martin performing fuel-efficiently. However, for certain reasons, it becomes clogged on occasion. Make yourself aware of the signs of clogging so that you can fix everything before an expensive burden. Have a look over this graphical presentation & acquire all probable knowledge about the symptoms of a clogged catalytic converter.

https://www.pinterest.com/pin/576812664801565270

[reasonsforhope]

"The Quebec government announced the adoption of a bill Monday [December 16, 2024] that will prohibit the sale of certain gas-powered vehicles by 2035.

The ban, which is part of the province's plan to reduce greenhouse gas (GHG) emissions, will take place in two phases.

First, as of Jan. 31, 2034, it will be prohibited to advertise the sale of a light combustion vehicle of the 2035 model year or later, whether it's a new or used vehicle, including hybrid and plug-in hybrid models.

Then, beginning Dec. 31, 2035, selling and leasing new light combustion vehicles of 2034 model year and earlier will be banned.

"The sale of combustion engines will also be prohibited, except to replace a defective engine in a vehicle already on the road in Quebec," the Ministry of the Environment, the Fight against Climate Change, Wildlife and Parks said in a news release on Monday.

There are exceptions for certain vehicles, including those used by emergency services and rental companies. Also, light combustion vehicles already registered in Quebec can continue to be driven and resold.

The new law does not apply to motorcycles, mopeds, off-road vehicles, such as snowmobile and ATVs, and heavy vehicles.

Québec Solidaire (QS) had requested the bill go even further in cutting GHGs by banning the sale of light gas-powered vehicles earlier, by 2030. But Environment Minister Benoit Charette said in 2021 that it would pose too significant of a risk because by 2030 there wouldn't be enough new electric cars to supply the Quebec market.

The ministry says that adjustments could be recommended after studies of market trends are carried out in 2026 and 2030. The provincial government has set a goal of having two million EVs on Quebec roads by 2030. As of the third quarter of 2024, nearly 33 per cent of newly registered light vehicles in Quebec were electric.

In 2023, Quebec hit a record high for gas-powered vehicle sales, and as Quebec leans into the electric vehicle (EV) market, experts in the automotive industry say the real test for the province will come in 2027 when the rebates for EV purchases will disappear. They will start to be gradually phased out beginning in 2025."

-via CVT News Montreal, December 16, 2024

[jadeharleyinc]

the scale of AI's ecological footprint

standalone version of my response to the following:

"you need soulless art? [...] why should you get to use all that computing power and electricity to produce some shitty AI art? i don’t actually think you’re entitled to consume those resources." "i think we all deserve nice things. [...] AI art is not a nice thing. it doesn’t meaningfully contribute to us thriving and the cost in terms of energy use [...] is too fucking much. none of us can afford to foot the bill." "go watch some tv show or consume some art that already exists. […] you know what’s more environmentally and economically sustainable […]? museums. galleries. being in nature."

you can run free and open source AI art programs on your personal computer, with no internet connection. this doesn't require much more electricity than running a resource-intensive video game on that same computer. i think it's important to consume less. but if you make these arguments about AI, do you apply them to video games too? do you tell Fortnite players to play board games and go to museums instead?

speaking of museums: if you drive 3 miles total to a museum and back home, you have consumed more energy and created more pollution than generating AI images for 24 hours straight (this comes out to roughly 1400 AI images). "being in nature" also involves at least this much driving, usually. i don't think these are more environmentally-conscious alternatives.

obviously, an AI image model costs energy to train in the first place, but take Stable Diffusion v2 as an example: it took 40,000 to 60,000 kWh to train. let's go with the upper bound. if you assume ~125g of CO2 per kWh, that's ~7.5 tons of CO2. to put this into perspective, a single person driving a single car for 12 months emits 4.6 tons of CO2. meanwhile, for example, the creation of a high-budget movie emits 2840 tons of CO2.

is the carbon cost of a single car being driven for 20 months, or 1/378th of a Marvel movie, worth letting anyone with a mid-end computer, anywhere, run free offline software that consumes a gaming session's worth of electricity to produce hundreds of images? i would say yes. in a heartbeat.

even if you see creating AI images as "less soulful" than consuming Marvel/Fortnite content, it's undeniably "more useful" to humanity as a tool. not to mention this usefulness includes reducing the footprint of creating media. AI is more environment-friendly than human labor on digital creative tasks, since it can get a task done with much less computer usage, doesn't commute to work, and doesn't eat.

and speaking of eating, another comparison: if you made an AI image program generate images non-stop for every second of every day for an entire year, you could offset your carbon footprint by… eating 30% less beef and lamb. not pork. not even meat in general. just beef and lamb.

the tech industry is guilty of plenty of horrendous stuff. but when it comes to the individual impact of AI, saying "i don’t actually think you’re entitled to consume those resources. do you need this? is this making you thrive?" to an individual running an AI program for 45 minutes a day per month is equivalent to questioning whether that person is entitled to a single 3 mile car drive once per month or a single meatball's worth of beef once per month. because all of these have the same CO2 footprint.

so yeah. i agree, i think we should drive less, eat less beef, stream less video, consume less. but i don't think we should tell people "stop using AI programs, just watch a TV show, go to a museum, go hiking, etc", for the same reason i wouldn't tell someone "stop playing video games and play board games instead". i don't think this is a productive angle.

(sources and number-crunching under the cut.)

good general resource: GiovanH's article "Is AI eating all the energy?", which highlights the negligible costs of running an AI program, the moderate costs of creating an AI model, and the actual indefensible energy waste coming from specific companies deploying AI irresponsibly.

CO2 emissions from running AI art programs: a) one AI image takes 3 Wh of electricity. b) one AI image takes 1mn in, for example, Midjourney. c) so if you create 1 AI image per minute for 24 hours straight, or for 45 minutes per day for a month, you've consumed 4.3 kWh. d) using the UK electric grid through 2024 as an example, the production of 1 kWh releases 124g of CO2. therefore the production of 4.3 kWh releases 533g (~0.5 kg) of CO2.

CO2 emissions from driving your car: cars in the EU emit 106.4g of CO2 per km. that's 171.19g for 1 mile, or 513g (~0.5 kg) for 3 miles.

costs of training the Stable Diffusion v2 model: quoting GiovanH's article linked in 1. "Generative models go through the same process of training. The Stable Diffusion v2 model was trained on A100 PCIe 40 GB cards running for a combined 200,000 hours, which is a specialized AI GPU that can pull a maximum of 300 W. 300 W for 200,000 hours gives a total energy consumption of 60,000 kWh. This is a high bound that assumes full usage of every chip for the entire period; SD2’s own carbon emission report indicates it likely used significantly less power than this, and other research has shown it can be done for less." at 124g of CO2 per kWh, this comes out to 7440 kg.

CO2 emissions from red meat: a) carbon footprint of eating plenty of red meat, some red meat, only white meat, no meat, and no animal products the difference between a beef/lamb diet and a no-beef-or-lamb diet comes down to 600 kg of CO2 per year. b) Americans consume 42g of beef per day. this doesn't really account for lamb (egads! my math is ruined!) but that's about 1.2 kg per month or 15 kg per year. that single piece of 42g has a 1.65kg CO2 footprint. so our 3 mile drive/4.3 kWh of AI usage have the same carbon footprint as a 12g piece of beef. roughly the size of a meatball [citation needed].

[carsthatnevermadeitetc]

Renault Emblème Concept, 2024. A crossover prototype with an FCEV powertrain using hydrogen as a range-extender. The Emblème uses natural and recycled materials for 90% fewer lifetime emissions than an equivalent family car. It will be presented at the Paris Motor Show next week

[mysharona1987]

[yrrtyrrtwhenihrrthrrt]

Sooo I been thinking a lot about the fandom reception of Caitvi, and Caitlyn Kiramman herself, and how that reception is negative compared to other, equally or more morally dubious characters and toxic ships. More specifically I've been thinking about my perception of Caitvi and Caitlyn, because I wanted to do some introspection on why I dislike her and the ship compared to others, to evaluate if it really is internalized misogyny or holding female characters to an unfairly high standard or if there was an objective reason that made people react more negatively to this ship/character than others. I came to some conclusions, that if you've been curious about this discourse, you may find interesting, but it's kind of a long read.

While I think in situations like this there is always a factor of implicit misogyny, I've come to the conclusion that, at least for me, there are bigger reasons to why I dislike the ship (and Caitlyn) that may speak to other fans as well.

On the outset, looking at it objectively, Caitvi should be one of the least toxic ships in the fandom. They're pretty much the only one that at no point actively tried to kill each other (Ekko was going to kill Jinx on the bridge, even if he did stop himself, Jinx tried to blow him up along with herself like four times and also fired a machine gun at him. Vander and Silco,, well we all know what happened. Jayce blasted a hole in Viktor's chest. Viktor didn't try to kill Sky but he did. Maddie uhhh fucking tried to shoot Cait in the neck) I think Meljay is the only other mainstream ship from this show that didn't try to fucking murder each other at any point. So why is Caitvi disliked, or at least considered unilaterally less wholesome than Timebomb (who takes the cake for "murder attempts per ship" while also managing to be considered the least problematic in the fandom lmao)?

I came to the conclusion that it ultimately boils down to the ending. I loved Caitvi in season one, I really did, and I kept loving them throughout the beginning of season 2. Caitlyn made mistakes, and she was a cop, but it's a show and I can look past that, Vi made mistakes too. They started to lose me, not when Cait asked Vi to become a cop, but in the later scene where we learn from Maddie that Caitlyn had had Vi enlisted as an enforcer despite her outright rejection of the proposal AND after apologizing for said proposal. This is a huge violation, but Vi's lesbian ass was just touched that Caitlyn complimented her while doing it, so it never gets brought up and she agrees to go along with it? Don't love that. It's literally never brought up. Maybe I got the timeline bungled since it happens off screen but,, yeah.

We then see Caitlyn terrorize the undercity with fucking toxic fumes, as many people bring up. I actually don't think it's OOC for Vi to have gone along with this, she's shown multiple times that she is in support of any level of brutality levied against the people of the undercity as long as they're the ones she doesn't like. No, what got me was when she was aggressively threatening Huck with borderline torture in Stillwater, the thing VI HERSELF EXPERIENCED, and she pulls her aside not to reprimand her, but to make out with her and ask her not to change.

HUH?

Remember in S1 when Vi got incredibly mad at Jayce for "bandying the threat around" when he threatened to arrest her, and got justifiably furious at the unfairness of Topsiders who have no idea what Stillwater is like to wantonly throw people in there to rot? Where was that energy, girl?

Then of course is the part where Caitlyn strikes Vi in an already injured spot to punish her for not letting Caitlyn shoot at a child, which, characters in this show are always being violent to each other, every other ship is. If we can get over Ekko repeatedly pummeling Jinx in her FACE we can get over this, but here's the kicker-

She reduces Vi to her lower class status before hurting her. "I keep telling myself that you're different, but you're not."

In that moment, all of Caitlyn's "ally" sentiments to Zaun fly out the window. In that moment, Vi ceases to be "one of the good ones" to her and she resolves in her abject bigotry towards Zaunites. Vi is no longer worth the dirt at the bottom of her shoe because she's just a Zaunite, like her sister. That's the kicker. The Caitlyn from season 1 who genuinely wanted to do good is gone. She doesn't care about doing good anymore, she only cares about punishing Zaun for existing.

And I think this is why people dislike her, because with most other characters, they consistently wanted to do good and thought they were doing the right thing even if they were absolutely wrong.

Viktor thought that turning humanity into flawless, mindless robots would eliminate suffering.

Jayce constantly fucked up but every fucked up thing he does is because he thinks it will help people.

Ambessa wanted to protect her family and was willing to make any sacrifice to do so.

Singed wanted to save his daughter and was willing to make any sacrifice to do so.

Mel wanted to keep Piltover and Jayce safe.

Sevika wanted the Undercity to be independent and free

Silco is the most similar to Caitlyn in this regard, because his character was mostly motivated by wanting revenge against Piltover, but at least somewhere in his little rat brain, he felt like he was doing it for Zaun and so the people of Zaun could be respected, free, and prosperous.

Caitlyn just wanted revenge.

And then we get to the ending. In the last couple episodes every single character is punished by the narrative for their crimes. With only two exceptions.

Singed and Caitlyn.

Jayce, Viktor, Jinx, and Ambessa all fucking die (I'm not discussing theories of the first three being alive because this post is only going into what the show actually shows us so for the sake of this argument, they dead)

Mel loses the man she loves, has to kill her own mother, and leaves the city she loves to return alone to Noxus.

Ekko catches a glimpse of everything he ever wanted, gives it up to save his own timeline, and the girl he loves still fucking dies and he is left completely alone.

Vi loses her sister and what's left of her dad, and it's her fault Jinx dies, and she has to live with that, and the only support system she has left is her partner who called her a slur then hit her

Cait uhhhh *checks notes* loses her eye. That's. That's all that happens to her. I mean her mom died but that was before she went off the rails, not after, and I think the only character who ended the series with an alive mom was Jayce so it's not like that makes her unique.

Now I can actually see how making her disabled in this way would be an interesting narrative tool, similar to the end of the Comic Nimona, where the Cop love interest becomes disabled when he finally tries to fight for something good, and in doing so his disability frees him from the role of being a cop, without which he can live peacefully and happily. If they'd taken this approach with Cait it would have been very interesting, because she's a sharpshooter. If her newfound lack of depth perception compromised her ability to do her job, and she was no longer an enforcer, that would be an interesting ending.

But they do nothing with that. She's still a cop but she has a cool eyepatch now. Like what a fucking waste.

Now I do know that she supposedly learns from her mistakes. She clearly knows what she did was wrong, she lets Jinx go, despite Jinx being her white whale the entire fucking season, which is a huge sacrifice to make and she does it because she loves Vi. That's sweet, it is, and she gives Sevika her seat on the council I guess to show that she reformed her hatred of Zaunites. It's good that she did those things.

But the fact that she is never held accountable for the worst of the things she does, not by the narrative, not by Vi, not by any other character, and the story ends with her STILL being a cop indicating that she actually learned fuckall, and most importantly: The series ends with her, a cop, who has been violent and discriminatory with Vi before, being Vi's only remaining support system.

Her odds of becoming a victim of the 40% statistic don't look great.

So I hope this explains my and other people's issues with Caitlyn and Caitvi. Ultimately I don't hate the ship I just don't like it, and I'm not some anti who takes issue with other people shipping two Consenting Problematic Adults from "Problematic Adults: the Cartoon, inspired by Problematic Everything: The Video Game." I guess I just wanted to put out an explanation for why I and others don't like them in the hopes of reaching some understanding in the fandom. I'm glad to have my canon problematic lesbians at the end of the day.

[misty-missdee]

Morning Emissions////

[mattholicguilt]

I do think shatterstar would be kind of a swiftie. I'm sorry women. I think he'd be into the theatrics and glamour of her whole shtick. I think he would like her lyrics and her music videos.

[prettyboysdontlookatexplosions]

i think climate change discourse often uncovers ways that people have trouble thinking about things on a certain scale… for example it feels counterintuitive to say that on the one hand, the US is iirc the second biggest emitter as a country and the biggest per capita (since number one is china whose population is famously quite large), and on the other, if we waved a magic wand tomorrow and the US went fully net zero, that would not really have a huge impact on the situation as a whole. but it’s true, because there are just that many more people living Not In The US. or like, it is both true that taylor swift traveling is probably responsible for more emissions in a year than you or i would be in several lifetimes, and that banning private jet use entirely in every single country in the world would be a drop in the bucket at best because it’s a relatively small subset of a relatively small fraction of global emissions. a lot of ostensibly justice-focused climate rhetoric has a very moralistic viewpoint on what we might call disproportionate emitters - which is why many people read a sentence like “taylor swift’s private jet use is mathematically negligible in the grand scheme of things” and assume it’s some kind of ethical or moral defense of taylor swift (or the US, or 1%, or whatever) - but i am starting to feel like “what we really need to do is hold the rich accountable” is just as much performative magical thinking as whatever alleged greenwashed bandaid someone is bringing it up to criticize, because saying it feels radical or serious but betrays a pretty fundamental misunderstanding of the actual scale of the problem.

[weejoker]

driving my 14 year old had-it-the-whole-time car up to wisconsin be sold for a king sized candy bar due to it can't pass emissions tests in illinois any more. pour one out for babygirl please she was like family to me

[kissycat]

Buying local is largely overrated/meaningless in terms of sustainability though but otherwise

[netscapenavigator-official]

Hey thanks for being an EV positive, yet still corporate critical and Tesla negative blog. My first car is an EV that I just got end of last year, and most discussion surrounding them has been... odd. It's either you're an elon bootlicker, someone who hates tesla and therefore also ALL EVs, or the conspiracy nuts who think they're woke death traps. There's some genuinely cool things about EVs, and while I don't think they'll be the entire solution for ICE cars, they have a place i think.

I think there's a middle ground for electric vehicles to exist in a more sustainable future, even if they won't (or shouldnt) be as widespread as ICE cars. Plus, driving one is just straight up fun, and this is coming from a person who used to HATE driving

Now this is an EV take on Tumblr Dot Com that I can get behind! I'll try to keep this as non-rambly as possible, but I love this topic a lot, and sometimes I just like talking about things... Sorry in advance...

I've certainly seen the division in EV opinions, too. It's shame that Tesla Fanboys ruined them for a lot of people, and Elon Musk really sealed the deal. A lot of left-leaning people on Tumblr (and the internet in general) have really been sucking down the oil industry's propaganda lately because they can't bring themselves to separate their opinion of Tesla and EVs in general. It's even starting to leach into the far-left's opinion of green technologies as a whole... which is certainly disheartening.

I, however, also find electric cars really fascinating, so that's why I enjoy talking about them so much on this blog. The concept of a car that does everything you need transportation to do, but silently, smoothly, and with zero-emissions is just so cool. Also, they kinda just... make sense. Like, I plug my dryer into the wall, it does chores. I plug my oven into the wall, it does chore. I plug my phone and laptop into the wall, they do "chores." So why not my car? Like why do I have to go out of my way to a stupid little fueling station and put a liquid in my car that has to be fracked, refined, transported, and then burned? Why can't I just charge my car at home, like every other appliance in my life? And the answer is... I can! And that's really cool! It's such a simple, novel concept, and yet it's been bastardized to hell and back, which I think is a real shame.

On the technology side of things, (in addition to Musk going off the deep end) I just think that Tesla has lost its luster. It got comfy in its market position, stopped innovating, and the legacy automakers caught up. The Hyundai Kia Motor Group is doing far more impressive things, imo. I mean, bringing 800V, sub-20 minute charging to cars that start under $50K is extremely impressive, especially when you consider the ONLY other cars that have and do that are the Porsche Taycan, Audi e-tron GT, Lucid Air, and Tesla Cybertruck (all cars that start over $80,000). Also, not to fangirl too much, but what Kia did with the EV9's drivetrain is downright industry leading... and tbh... I just don't see how people can see the innovations that companies like Hyundai, Lucid, Rivian, etc. are bringing to the market... and still think that Tesla makes good electric cars, let alone good cars at all.

Also, I completely mirror your opinion on the necessity of EVs. Being pro-electric cars doesn't mean you're pro-car dependency. Even in public transportation havens like the Netherlands or Japan, cars still have a place. Whether it be industrial, commercial, or niche personal reasons, cars will most likely have a place in the transportation world for the foreseeable future, and my philosophy regarding that is: So long as they exist, it's better for them to be zero-emission. I genuinely hope to see a public and mass transit revolution in my life time. I hope Americans will see public transportation be better funded and more accessible. I also hope, one day, people who don't want to own a car, won't have to. However, in the meantime (and for those people in the future who simply can't use public transportation for their transportation needs) an electric car is better than a ICE one. Period.

That's not to say EVs don't bring their own environmental challenges. They do. However, my opinion on the matter simply mirrors what studies and research show us: EVs are better for the environment than ICE cars, even if they aren't perfect. Every step in the right direction is a good thing, and a lack of perfection is not an excuse to to wallow and let things get worse.

And P.S.

How fun that your first car is electric! I'm totally jealous. I hope it brings you many many years of reliable transportation, well into the future. <3

[kiwikiwikiwiii]

Erin Brockovich did not give 634 blow jobs in 5 days so that 6 corporate puppets could strike down the Chevron Doctrine.

[atlurbanist]

Why you're coughing more today: Atlanta's high ozone alert

Atlanta has a "code orange" air quality alert today due to high ozone concentration, a chemical reaction between sunlight, oxygen, & pollution from cars, power plants, factories, etc.

(Sounds like car traffic makes it harder for pedestrians to breathe)

People in sensitive groups, such as asthma sufferers, may experience watering eyes, coughing, throat irritation, chest pain, and breathing difficulty. Try to limit your time outside, especially in the middle of the day.

Also, let's please stop polluting the air so much. How? From the EPA website:

"On Days when High Ozone Levels are Expected, Take these Extra Steps to Reduce Pollution:

> Choose a cleaner commute - share a ride to work or use public transportation.

> Combine errands and reduce trips. Walk to errands when possible.

> Avoid excessive idling of your automobile.

> Refuel your car in the evening when its cooler.

> Conserve electricity and set air conditioners no lower than 78 degrees.

> Defer lawn and gardening chores that use gasoline-powered equipment, or wait until evening."

Good tips. Notice that several of them revolve around cars.

Personally, I also recommend that the world focus on multifamily housing for the long run, which I'm committed to for several reasons, including the lessened burden on energy (shared walls = less AC/heating energy needed) and lessened burden from lawn-care pollution, and the way that density supports public transit.

[High horse dismounted. Good horse. Goooood horse.]

[ciquery]

And I chose to walk