Just yesterday, we learned that:
GM has ended its development of next-generation hydrogen fuel cell technology for everyday passenger vehicles, citing a need to focus resources on its electric vehicle (EV) strategy. As part of this change, the company has canceled a planned hydrogen fuel cell factory in Detroit and laid off employees from its Hydrotec brand. GM stated that it wants to put all its effort toward its EV future, as the path to a sustainable business in fuel cells for consumer vehicles is “long and uncertain.”
“Uncertain” seems to be putting it kindly; absolutely impossible sounds more apt, especially given its history.
The effort to establish the “hydrogen economy” began in the early 1970s with the OPEC embargo on gasoline that did great damage to the U.S. economy and angered the hell out of the American consumer.
Yet we learned quickly that replacing gas with hydrogen was to be an enormous undertaking, as:
Hydrogen was difficult and expensive to produce
Hydrogen fuel cells, the devices that create electricity from hydrogen, were also expensive, and fragile as well
Replacing the fuel delivery infrastructure (more than 150K gas stations) with hydrogen was costly beyond measure.
It’s hard to know exactly why it took the American automakers more than half a century to make this decision. Common wisdom is that the world of Big Oil/Auto wanted to prevent the world from moving to electric transportation, so they held out the bogus notion that hydrogen was “right around the corner,” and that just a bit of patience was required.
Well, it seems like today may be the day that this notion died, after five full decades.
There really are threats to human civilization that seem to be mounting in intensity:
• World fascism. (If it can happen in the U.S., it could conceivably happen anywhere.)
• Environmental collapse.
• Malicious use of AI.
• Pandemics, as misinformation on vaccinations spread and the frozen tundra melts, releasing pathogens never seen by humans.
• Nuclear war.
Addressing the point made at left, is there any scenario in which world governments agree to cooperate so as to stave off the end of an organized society here on Earth? One supposes so, though it sounds far-fetched in today’s world in which the leaders of most of the 200+ sovereign nations are trying so desperately to cling to power.
Obviously, James Carville has been wrong before, but it appears that he’s onto something here.
An ever-increasing number of Americans are realizing that Trump is criminally insane, and is leading this nation to destruction.
It’s a pleasure to see that Dr. Brian Cox has people so popular, having joined the ranks for Neil DeGrasse Tyson, Bill Nye, and a few others. This phenomenon of celebrity physicists if one of very few bright spots in our modern world.
I would qualify what he says at left as follows: the only people who hate the economics here are those invested in fossil fuels. Clean energy and transportation are already huge industries, and they’re growing at an amazing pace–even in the face of heavy suppression by Big Oil and Donald Trump.
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