Discussion of climate, how it is changing, activism around that, the politics, and the energy systems change we need in order to stabilize things.
As a starting point, the burning of fossil fuels, and to a lesser extent deforestation and release of methane are responsible for the warming in recent decades:
How much each change to the atmosphere has warmed the world:
Recommended actions to cut greenhouse gas emissions in the near future:
Anti-science, inactivism, and unsupported conspiracy theories are not ok here.
School busses are one of the perfect fits for electric engines:
Set schedule with down time to charge Specific route with known distances. Heavy and must drive up hills: which benefit from amazing torque generated by Electric engines. Large internal space for battery storage
Just pray Muskrat doesn’t somehow win the bid. We’ll never see them
Elon would do something ridiculous like buy Lyft for 10 billion too much and require drivers to use Teslas. He would then get a cost+percentage transportation contract. He then gold plates the interior components after a few years so the cost is higher, therefore the percentage is bigger.
A tesla roadtrain has got to be one of the last things I'd ever want to see as mass transportation lol
You’re forgetting the most important feature, usb charging ports for every seat
I can already imagine someone shoving gum into them :(
Subscription based of course.
Meh, outlets are superior than USB ports. USB wears out too quickly with rough use and, with USB-A, the charging cannot exceed 15W.
I saw a video of the latest Tesla model 3 2024 and it has one USB charging port inside the center console lol.
There are also 2 in the back, below the screen/hvac, and there is a dual wireless charger up front, so that’s probably enough isn’t it?
Wireless charging isn't the same.
And as long as it can cover the longest route on one charge it wouldn't need to cover that same distance every trip. You could pick the buses route based on battery % and have them alternate.
7% at the end of a ~300mi roundtrip rural run is really cutting it close 😳 although if the journey is mostly flat I think it's OK, as long as there's enough range to go via any diversion if the road is blocked.
They could definitely get a bigger battery onto that roof, the main expense there probably would be customising the aircon to fit around a roof battery pack instead of buying one off the shelf
The electric buses here all have roof mounted batteries and they last pretty long - the chinese Yutongs are out all day with the heating on, but our domestic built ones seem to last only 3/4 of the day, and after that they vanish with the old diesel ones appearing on routes until the night
Keep long routes diesel or gas for now and wait for battery tech to improve. Even if 70% of buses are moved to electric, it is still a big chunk of emissions that are cut.
Or maybe just put a charging point in at thge driver's lunchtime rest stop
Lunchtime rest stop?
Where I'm from bus drivers drive from 7am - 9am and then go home and come back for 3:30pm - 5:30pm.
They essentially get the entire work day off. Not just lunch.
how many school routes are 480km?
Most districts set it up to have a few buses do all the HS students, then the MS/Elementary students then kill a bit of time and repeat. Without much time to charge 4 routes on one bus might be close.
Great, but I can guarantee most school boards can't afford it
"Rezoning." Have you seen local school boards?
Not sure about cooling, but there are a number of heating options that exist. We're basically looking at an RV, perhaps they could have some kind of diesel heater as a stop gap. I would think that could easily be retrofitted with something electric or ??? down the road. Mini wood stove haha. Maybe not kid friendly.