@Krusty : What do you think about Diesel engines? Lot of backlash against it in Europe. My liberal friend was explaning to me that gas engines are worse for the planet as they cause more global warming but diesel engines are bad for the health of people because they do worse on particulate emissions. What do you think?
The cracks took a long time to appear, but when they did they splintered rapidly. In 2012 came the first major evidence of some truly dreadful health impacts. Nitrogen oxides and dioxides (NOx) and particulate matter (PM) pumped out by diesel exhausts were fingered as silent killers. The studies multiplied. The European Environment Agency found that nitrogen dioxide (NO2) from diesel fumes had caused around 71,000 premature deaths across the continent in a single year. It said the UK experienced 11,940 annual premature deaths from NO2, the second highest in Europe behind Italy. The World Health Organisation declared diesel exhaust a carcinogenic, a cause of lung cancer in the same category as asbestos and mustard gas.
https://www.theguardian.com/cities/2017/apr/13/death-of-diesel-wonder-fuel-new-asbestos
There are many angles here
1) First off, any engine, petrol or diesel (I refuse to call a liquid, gas) will be harmful for the health of not maintained with care. There are way too many of those running around in the planet which gives raise to this stereotype of them being a danger.
2) the quality of fossil fuels vary wildly depending on where you live. Shitty quality diesel will put out rediculous amounts of harmful (to the human body) chemicals. No getting past that.
Well maintained modern diesel + good quality fuel -> no issues ( no one seems to talk about this at all)
Any other combination (well maintained engine + bad quality fuel or badly maintained engine + good quality fuel) will still put out harmful chemicals.
That being said, is stupid that Europeans are complaining.
If anything countries can simply import better quality fuels. But it will cost a lot so they don't. Or fill up at a private station like shell where QC is assured. Nope. But BP station is cheaper, so everyone goes there. Not to mention that the average person gives a damn about his cars engine maintenance. Heck I'm sure most don't even know how to check oil level.
Coming to the engine tech themselves. most diesel cars in Asia are Low tech and crude. Btw even the so called 'modern diesels by Indian companies are miles behind interms of tech.
Way too many angles. But one thing is for sure, these reports of 70000 deaths and what not are most certainly bogus. Have they eliminated ALL the other variables completely? That's impossible. How was this conclusion drawn anyway? Did they gas them like Nazis did?
Lastly, I want to ask one question. When a IC engine car runs out of life, it can just be crushed and the metal reused. Simple.
What are you going to do when hundreds of tonnes of batteries need to be disposed of? It's inevitable as EVs are gaining numbers. Anyone thought about that problem? Spent batteries are poison bombs. Chemicals will readily mix with the water table and enter the food chain easily if they aren't disposed properly.
The compounds in spent batteries are dangerous both to humans and the planet. Heck throwing away a spent AAA battery from a remote control on the ground is a bad idea.
But hey, Foong overboard with rolling coal? I'll leave it upto you. If I were near any of the gases before they got disbursed, my lungs would be fu*ked
This is pushing it really. It's really hard for me to make a case for this.... no matter how you look at it, it's rolling cancer... this amount of particulates in any residential neighbourhood is bullcrap.
TLDR: don't blame the fuels or vehicles, as with most problems, the root cause is humans.
The perks of living in the US...
Wait and watch the demise of inline 4s and Vtwins too. Once they destroy cars, they will inevitably turn to bikes
