Personal finance: “FIRE” doesn’t really mean “retire early”
True: In truth, “FIRE” should be “FICC” for “financial independence change careers.” Source: What I learned about the FIRE movement while making a doc about it I have followed several…
Climate: Eating vegetarian has little impact on your household carbon emissions
In spite of popular claims that eating vegetarian offers a dramatic reduction on your personal carbon emissions, the actual reduction is about 2%. Which means it is one of the…
Transportation: How Safe is Bicycling? No one actually knows
It’s not that there is a lack of data. Instead, it is that the data are inadequate to answer the questions. No one has good statistics, for example, on crashes…
Transportation: 56% of Norway’s new cars are EV-based – but geesh, crappy journalism
42% of Norway’s car sales were pure battery electric, and almost 14% were plug-in hybrid. Tesla Model 3 was the best-selling car, with 11% of the market. Source: 56% of…
Transportation: Vehicle miles driven per capita are dropping
“For decades, the country’s driving pattern moved in sync with the economy. Now, we’re driving less even though the economy has been expanding for more than a decade.” Source: America’s…
Energy: Lifecycle GHG emissions from a hybrid, plug in hybrid and an EV are about the same
This graphic, from the International Energy Agency, illustrates the lifetime CO2 equivalent emissions from different types of vehicles. “BEV” is a battery electric vehicle with a 400 km range, HEV…
Energy: In many countries, hybrid gas/EVs emit lower emissions than pure electric vehicles
An average battery electric and plug-in hybrid electric cars using electricity characterised by the current global average carbon intensity (518 grammes of carbon-dioxide equivalent per kilowatt-hour ) emit less GHGs…
Energy: Unplugging your cell phone charger does nearly nothing for the environment
Few people have any idea about the lifetime energy usage of popular consumer products. 50-75% of the energy and green house gas emissions for many cars occurs during manufacturing. Switching…
Energy: Over the past decade, U.S. energy predictions were way off
In 2010 the U.S. Energy Information Administration published its forecasts for 2019 on topics such as oil and natural gas production, oil imports, coal fired electricity generation, green house gas…
Environment: Electronics recycling reveals huge scam
People want to feel good about "doing the right thing". Recycling is an example of a "feel good" activity and "ethical recyclers" stepped in to help people feel good about…