Letters to the Editor
Etrigone
Published Letters: 159 Editor's Choice: 31
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Reuse is best
[Read the article: Where do all the old cellphones go?]
[Read more letters about this article: Here]I have two options locally.
One is they go to a women's shelter for the abused; the phones get reactivated & the basic service paid for by the shelter.
The other is a senior citizens group. The best ones here tend to be the phones with larger type for any visual problems.
However, even though reuse is better than recycling, I find it's better just not to have to find a new home for the thing in the first place. Buying new 'toys' so often - and that's how I see some of these things - is why the old stuff gets shoved in a closet or dumped in a landfill.
I have friends who are like kids after Xmas. Old toy boring, time for new one, toss the old.
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Off-topic...
[Read the article: The iPhone 3G reviews are in: It's pretty good]
[Read more letters about this article: Here]Dude, I hope wherever you go I hope it's all good. I haven't commented in your area as much as others, but I've always read it & found it of great value.
Whoever replaces you will have big shoes to fill. Best wishes & all that.
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Hypothetical off-topic question
[Read the article: A compromise -- or a cave in -- on offshore drilling?]
[Read more letters about this article: Here]How many polled are fine with seeing oil rigs off the coast but hated the idea of wind mills in the same locale?
I know, oil != electricity. That's not my point. The point is folks learn to 'like' what they want or feel they need. If electricity were as big a problem as gas is now, want to bet there would be similar poll results? Perhaps even some balancing of differing effectiveness & environmental impact, but I suspect that's even more pie-in-the-sky.
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@Joel29028 on EVs in Europe
[Read the article: OPEC changes the oil equation]
[Read more letters about this article: Here]I can think of a few reasons why they aren't prolific there:
1) As mentioned, the EU states tend to be ahead of on conservation and infrastructure (rails, etc). They've been at it for a while, arguably since before EVs had their small resurgence back in the 70s and then later in the 90s. As such, their need for EVs is pretty small. Most EVs are thought of as a drop-in replacement for the personal automobile, and that just isn't as big of a deal there. The EU car culture is substantially weaker than the US version.
2) One of the reasons EVs haven't taken off here is covered in the slightly one-sided "Who killed the electric car?" movie. EVs are apples & oranges to ICEs (kind of). Although they use some similar parts, they use quite a few of their own and overall less. Imagine going to your board of directors and telling them 2/3 of them & their departments will be gone tomorrow... the retooling alone is boggling, let alone the restructuring. I understand the balking made my executives at this. I don't agree with it, but I do understand.
(The general message I also got was that the execs hated to be mandated & told what to make; that part probably played heavily into the "crush them" mentality)
Anyhow, Europe has car companies as well; I can't imagine them having that much of a different reaction. Certainly, Honda & Toyota reacted much like the big three (even if Toyota did let some of the Rav4EVs remain).
3) EVs - or rather their batteries - respond negatively to low temperatures. I've heard, and experienced on my own, that 40F means roughly half the range. Without a temperature regulating system this is a killer in cold climates, where cold means anything under 80F. There is a reason California was such a good place for EVs; "cold" in the SF Bay Area generally means 45-55F. For Southern California, it's even "better".
Combine those, plus perhaps a few others, and I could see how if didn't take off in the EU. It's often harder to get a new tech going than people think, even if it's a seeming no-brainer (and very few things are, including EVs).
Anyhow, I don't take your question as a dis; I have my own misgivings on some EVers and EVs. In general I find them a particularly good idea for a lot of situations, but they are only one solution to a set of problems and absolutely not a silver bullet solution to transportation. I still have my Civic and have no intention of getting rid of it, even if I do have to remember to use it once every month or so to keep it happy.