Traditional battery vs. rechargeable

Hearing Aids
#87

On recycling, one can have a very good recycling program but it’s the non-compliant humans that screw things up. I heard on a recent Science Friday podcast that 99% of the lead in lead acid batteries is recycled but it’s the 1% in each go-round that’s not that’s the problem.

As a little perspective on where the planet is going, there were ~2.6 billion folks on the planet in 1950. Current estimate as of 9/22 is 7.98 billion. There is a limit to the arable land that can feed an ever-increasing population and the planetary resources that can otherwise support a humongous population.

#88

I have seen those big wind generators being buried. I have seen the oil leaks from those generators. I bet you haven’t been out to see what really happens in the real world.
I have seen the birds killed by those giant blades. It happens all the time and the government, media and companies cover it up.

2 Likes
#89

We are fully capable of supporting every living person on the planet in comfort, safety and security, with each having the freedom to be themselves and fulfill their potential. No socialism need be involved. (Though having some individuals wealthier than nations is a pretty clear indication of where we’ve gone wrong.)

Not realizing that possibility is a choice. Choices matter.

If population is your major concern, there is no better, more repeatedly proven method to control it than education and allowing people the freedom to improve their lot. Not pursuing that approach is a choice too.

How many people have given any thought to the staggering amount of human intellectual capital - our species’ most valuable resource - that is locked up in poverty, where people struggle just to get through another day? Where would we be if just a small fraction of that resource was utilized?

Choices matter.

#90

The big picture that you are not seeing is that nothing is learned from single, cherry-picked examples. In all things, you need to not only look at what’s happening, but at what magnitude.

The oil leaks from wind turbines are an infinitesimal drop in the bucket compared to the oil drippings that wash off the nation’s roads every time it rains.

Yes, birds are killed by wind turbines. Bats too. But in microscopic numbers compared to what cats and other predators take. And BTW, work is underway to reduce those deaths. And to produce recyclable blades. No one is ignoring the problems. And while that work continues, no fossil fuels are being burned to produce that power.

If you want to look at the big picture, especially if you want to accuse others of ignoring it, look at the WHOLE picture. Proportionally. Not just at what you want to see.

I’m done hijacking this thread for now. You seem like someone who wants the last word, so have at it.

#91

i’m really confused why this topic is so off topic…

#92

Some of this stuff is a little bit like “the coronavirus is a Democratic hoax.” There are “facts” and then the real facts. You can inoculate bacteria into a few milliliters of liquid broth and grow them. They grow exponentially in the broth until their own waste products inhibit their growth and eventually kill them off. The human population is no different except the size of the test tube is a lot bigger.

Current world-wide agricultural practices in producing staple crops like wheat, corn, and rice actually degrade the soil. So, the ever-increasing human population is actually reducing the ability to feed itself. There is a movement to switch to more sustainable agriculture, such as using cover crops more and not plowing furrows that break down soil into dirt granules that are easy to wash or blow away, etc.

To get back to HA’s, if only a few tens of millions of people are using HA’s, the amount of waste those folks generate is perhaps a relatively small item in the overall picture. But if a billion people were using hearing aids, the amount of waste that needs to be responsibly dealt with has increased accordingly.

#93

Have you ever lived in the country, on a farm and tried to make a living doing so. I grew up on a sharecroppers farm my parents, grandparents, great grandparents, aunts and uncles cousins all working to make a living you come to love the land, the animals even the wild animals. You come to respect Mother Nature. You know what makes the the maddest? Having some stupid salesman sent out by the county owned electric company telling me to install solar panels and oh by the way you have to cut all the trees down around you home. That idiot is lucky he didn’t have to be cared off. It is that kind of stupidity that is killing this earth we can’t keep cutting the forest and trees down. We can go out and start dreaming up crazy things without thinking about the opposite reaction. And your comments on the bird kills isn’t something else that pisses me off.

2 Likes
#94

Do a search on “agrivoltaic farming”. Sometimes you can have your cake and eat it too.

#95

You have all the answers don’t you and I bet you have never been out of the city. I am through with you we are on the opposite side of things I want my nature back and your are find with destroying it as long as you can sale your ideas.

#96

It’s not just the waste, it’s the carbon released to produce them too.

But as I’ve said before, this is really about quality of life. Or actually, getting back up to the quality of life that hearing people have. No one is suggesting that we have to live like animals to be green. We need to do what we need to do.

I’m concerned if the HA industry is pushing too hard on rechargeables if that keeps people with more severe loss from getting what they need. Is that, in fact what’s happening in the industry?

Rechargeables will likely work fine for me now, but now generally turns into later…

#97

Sorry to interject on an off topic, but here is something that attracted my attention this week, while searching for wall/roof insulation, trying to reduce heating/cooling bill:

  1. CO2 emissions savings of 0.18 vs 0.15

Depends on several other factors (HDD for your location, type of heating system, its efficiency, it’s carbon intensity).

That difference in u-value will mean about 50kWh of extra heat would leak out for 2000 HDDs. For a 90% efficient gas boiler you’d be looking at about 10kg CO2e per year difference.

So probably about what a hedgehog would fart in that same year.

https://www.greenbuildingforum.co.uk/newforum/comments.php?DiscussionID=10318

Basically, we all worry about CO2 emissions when at the end of the day, it all boils down to few hedgehog’s farts per year, unbelievable.

Note: HDD means Heating Degree Day

#98

If we all lived at the same advanced level, a few (3) hedgehog farts x 7.98 billion is not something to sniff at (pun intended)! That’s the paradox. What seems small to us, e.g., HA’s, mounts up if everyone on the planet gets the same deal, just multiply by 7.98 billion to get the full effect.

#99

No that’s not what it means at all, and I hope you know that. I suspect what you’re referencing is the numbers for a particular product, numbers that are presented for ALL products. For that particular one, not much useful difference was seen.

That doesn’t mean ALL insulation is useless. It means that in that comparison there was no useful difference.

If it was a joke, it wasn’t a very clear one. If it wasn’t a joke, it was fact-folding - taking a snippet of truth and turning it around to seem to mean something it doesn’t.

Not funny. Much worse.

#100

I know, that’s what happen when you cross a sea.

#101

Thread has derailed.