to the dreamers go the dreams, but the leaders have the lead, it's a frightening, frightening thing.

~guster

i want to be an environmental engineer when I grow up.

so, I watched this video last night. um, strike that, dvd. it was really interesting. and I get it--the electric car has some limitations, like distance it can travel and consumer knowledge. and of course big oil wants us to use gas. duh. but I see why they pulled it, sort of. it's all quite sketch--was it the consumer? oil company? auto companies? gov't? california air regulators? power companies? questions questions questions.

hey, did you know that the foreign hybrids out there (e.g., the prius) are only there because the japanese were responding to the advances of american auto makers? the american auto makers who suddenly quit making electric cars in the early 2000s?

and did you know that if you made the hybrid prius, for instance, with a nimh battery and plugged it in at night in the EV type fashion, for the first fifty or so miles it would get over one hundred miles to the gallon? hmm?

so, I work in energy--specifically most of my work right now is focused on hydrogen capture/purification/sequestration. this hydrogen is ultimately intended for use in a fuel cell. which requires extra pure hydrogen. and really, I'm not 100% positive that fuel cells are ever really going to work. like, ever. well, for a car, anyway. (because as of right now fuel cells are expensive, as is hydrogen, plus they require it to be so pure, and they have trouble when they're cold) and quite honestly, they make me nervous.

for the record, I hope I'm mistaken.

also, we're all stuck on this 300 miles on one tank thing. I think we could learn to get over it if it could make our earth a better place, don't you?

anyway. so, we can grow little microbes and use them to produce biodiesel without putting our foodstock quantities in jeopardy. and we have electric vehicle technology. and I just don't understand why I'm not driving a hybrid plug-in electric/biodiesel vehicle. The biodiesel would allow it to go the 300 miles or more on one tank. The plug-in would help increase fuel mileage.

and even the concern about pulling energy from coal power plants? well, if we'd use a combo of solar, wind and hydroelectric power (using those nifty turbines that I told you about here) we could make huge leaps in going away from coal power in a very earth friendly way.

tut, tut. that's what I have to say. I can't believe we're not doing this already. We already know how!!! shame on us.

but anyway, this isn't meant to be a long rambling about the electric car or gasoline or whatever, though it seems to have turned into it. so moving on.

so I watched the dvd, right? and I got excited. and I found myself thinking about it, and wondering and ruminating and pondering. what if? could we? I wonder what else there is to learn.

now, I am not saying, necessarily, that what I want to work on is alternative fuel/cars. I mean, that's damn interesting, for sure. and it would be a pretty cool way for me to get to "never work for the petroleum industry"--because I'd be working for the exact opposite.

but I realized that I got excited. it sparked interest. as does recycling. or knowing that my recycling my soda can saves enough energy to power a tv for three hours. and being an environmental engineer? that's a fancy way of being an environmentalist. an environmental advocate. except I'd be one that used my love of engineering-nerdy-science and applied it to technology instead of, say your more garden variety environmentalist (not a put down, a pun, k?).

like, I could get behind this. I could find it worthwhile. I could want to find out more, want to do better.

and I could put my heart into it.

and oddly enough, it made me think of when I obsessed over this. I saw it in the antique store and I had to have it. I couldn't not. Because it seemed like the most logical, justifiable and correct thing to do.

and perhaps, just maybe, it is.

where do I go from here? who the hell knows. but at least I've found the head of the trail. :)