Electric Cars and Bikes - The Myth of clean energy

Of late I have come across many advertisements and articles which tout electricity powered vehicles as being environmentally friendly and clean. This information is grossly incorrect. The sight of an emission-less vehicle as compared to one which spews out noxious exhaust fumes is embedded in people's minds. This perception often makes people believe they are indeed adopting cleaner transport. But are they?

In India, close to 65% of the energy generated comes from coal based power generation. For every unit of energy consumed as electricity, 0.65 units is produced from coal, one of the dirtiest known energy sources. And by the time that energy is delivered to homes, over 30% of the energy goes wasted due to various losses. So, the energy companies end up producing more electricity and burning more coal to compensate for the losses.

By shifting to an electricity powered vehicle all one is doing is centralizing pollution and shifting the 'dirty' fumes to a remote location. But that's not all. The creation of infrastructure required to move the dirty fumes also end up polluting. So, there goes the myth of 'clean' electric vehicles.

The Two Fundamental Levers

What more can I do?
How can I get better at what I am already doing?

Everything else follows.

Caffeine fixation

How could I have not thought about this earlier? :) When you have Coffee and Chocolate syrup at home the most obvious thing to do is to add the syrup to coffee!! Yes. That's exactly what I am going to do tomorrow morning (assuming that the morning does come). In the meantime I am getting curious about how the mix might taste. This experiment might just spur me on to try a few more flavored coffee variants. You might have already realized that I am a coffee addict. If you haven't.. well, you have the answer! So long...

In pursuit of....

I had gone out this morning to meet a friend of mine. I was not very sure about the route to start with. And being tired of driving all the time, I chose to use the public transport. On the way back, I was talking to family over the phone and just kept walking along without realizing where I was going. For the initial part, I kept going in circles without making any progress. But after sometime, I intuitively figured out the way to not go in circles.

I kept walking for 6.6 km or so this way and this lead me to the metro station. Now, I must say that it had been my wish to travel on the new Bangalore metro for quite sometime. For some reason or the other I missed doing it. Today it finally happened. I found the ride on the metro to be enjoyable after a long walk! After getting off the metro, I took an auto to reach home. So, why am I posting this?

Often in life, you are lost and wonder where you are heading to. The thing is, everything usually sorts itself out and along the way you also end up doing what you wished to do. This was my learning for the day and this is how I am signing off the end of this weekend, on a positive note! :)

The rear view mirror

You look into the rear view mirror while driving your motor car. Doing it every now and then helps you navigate forward. Doing it a little too often tends to slow you down. Being fixated on it draws your attention away from what is in front of you.

I think the same holds true for life. Introspection is a necessary thing so long as it is in a limited quantity. You can look back every now and then to help you on your way forward. Too much of it just gets you stuck where you are.

The rear view mirror is not provided to look back all the time. The past is not embedded in our memories to keep thinking about it too often. The only purpose of the past is to enable us to face the future better prepared.

Three Musketeers - A good watch

The movie 'Three Musketeers' is a must watch. Ignore anything the reviews have to say about the movie. It is an entertaining watch and is fully worth the money you pay for it.

Wow, times have definitely changed... I blog sitting in the train and i have a bunch of people around me sitting with their laptops. And you had those 'good old' days when people just read books or mags or simply stared out of the window.