Conservationists Cannot Escape the Laws of Energy

I came here to discuss energy conservation with several engineers from General Motors. We wound up talking about religion.

That is not as far-fetched as it seems. It has everything to do with the laws of thermodynamics — that energy can be changed from one form to another but cannot be created or destroyed; and that in all energy exchanges, absent the addition or subtraction of energy from a given system, the potential energy of the changed state will always be less than that of the initial state.
In spiritual terms, we refer to that exchange as the death of the physical body leading to the eternal life of the soul. For purposes of this discussion, it matters not that you personally accept that belief. What matters is that it is a prevalent notion, the basis of which is this: There is no free lunch. The fish we ate once lived. They died to feed our lives. For those of us who believe in eternal spiritual life, there is the concomitant belief that the only way we’ll get there is by leaving this one.

In short, when it comes to energy use and conservation, trade-offs are inescapable.

Consider America’s affection for gasoline-electric hybrid cars. Many in the media and in politics have hailed the devices as the answer to energy conservation and environmental stewardship in the transportation sector. In truth, they represent energy consumption and environmental problems in a different guise.

For example, current nickel-metal hydride battery gas-electric cars supposedly have a useful battery life of eight years. In the prime of their useful lives, they save gasoline in urban traffic where their electric power systems carry most of the workload. But when their batteries die, when they become entropic, the cars are practically useless until the dead batteries can be replaced. And those dead batteries have to be buried somewhere.

In terms of what engineers call “well-to-wheel energy costs,” gas-electrics actually are more energy consumptive and environmentally stressful than the traditional gasoline-powered cars and trucks they are supposed to replace. It takes lots of energy to design, develop, manufacture, transport and install nickel-metal hydride and lithium ion batteries. And, again, once their energy is used, once those batteries have become entropic, something has to be done with them.

Washington Post