Forum Post: Union of Concerned Scientists are looking for a few good engineers.
Posted 11 years ago on Nov. 14, 2012, 8:18 p.m. EST by DKAtoday
(33802)
from Coon Rapids, MN
This content is user submitted and not an official statement
The United States is moving toward a clean energy economy and we need engineers to help educate policy makers, the media, and the public about the progress we're already making and how we can continue moving forward.
Right now, Union of Concerned Scientists staff are meeting and talking with engineers at the annual meetings of the Society of Women Engineers (SWE), American Society of Mechanical Engineers (ASME), and Society of Hispanic Professional Engineers (SHPE).
Are you an engineer? If yes, let us know!
Do you have friends who are engineers? Forward this message to them.
Not an engineer? Your voice is still critical to addressing the impacts of climate change, cutting our oil use, and bringing cleaner sources of energy online. Read more about our work on global warming / clean vehicles / and clean energy.
Sincerely, Megan Rising Rachel Cohen Megan Rising National Field Organizer Climate & Energy Program Union of Concerned Scientists
Rachel Cohen National Field Organizer Clean Vehicles Program Union of Concerned Scientists
As an engineer this is somewhat relative
its interesting that you post something like this here
In other news BP gets slapped with a 4.5 billion dollar fine for the gulf spill. BP would like this now to be put behind them. The Gulf Coast Says Hell No - BP you are not finished or absolved of your continuing responsibility - the clean-up is not complete and you have plenty of civil liability yet to address.
I've bookmarked the UCS website. Coincidentally, I was just reading an article about 3,000 mile oil changes, which goes in hand with the UCS's "Half the Oil" plan. In a nutshell, the 3,000 mile oil change is largely BS, more about increasing business for places like JiffyLube (owned by Shell Oil) and the oil conglomerates. I can tell you from first-hand experience you DON'T need to change your oil that often. Bought a 1994 Mazda truck for the delivery business, which definitely fits the definition of "severe use," easily a thousand miles of stop and go driving every week. A lot of times I changed it at 3,000, but just as often 7,000 or 8,000 and when I traded it in with 320,000 miles on the odometer, it still purred like a kitten. I also used Slick50, which might have helped. Rule of thumb: go by the owner's manual, NOT the sticker JiffyLube puts on your windshield.
http://www.edmunds.com/car-care/stop-changing-your-oil.html?mktcat=maintenance-article&kw=stop+changing+your+oil&mktid=ob61762858&msite=w
Truth.
I use Z-Max oil additive and generally run around 6000 miles per change.
I did some quick math this morning and came up with an alarming number regarding the "3,000 mile oil change." There are approximately 245.5 million registered passenger vehicles in the US. If only three-quarters of those were running at any given time, and half those people changed their oil half as much (assuming 15,000 miles per year which equals 5 oil changes per), we could save a whopping 285.2 million gallons of oil per year. That's just in the US.
Now ( good one btw ) consider the further reduction of need - if all of that used oil is recycled back out into original lube use again.
Which brings up another alarming detail. My nephew's boy (yeah, . . . that one) worked at a JiffyLube for a couple months. I think they're a franchise so his experience might not be the case everywhere (it better not be), but he watched workers there dump used motor oil right in the sewer drain. Repeatedly. The also threw away the lead weights used to balance tires. Lead is one of the easiest metals to recycle. The reason I believe the story (considering the source) is PROFITS. What's cheaper, recycling or just chucking it in the trash? And considering Jiffy is owned by Shell, which I just found out yesterday, I totally believe it. Big Oil is NOT interested in recycling or the environment so not only do I believe the story, I believe it's probably widespread. So, also consider the environmental savings by halving the number of oil changes. I hope the members of this forum have followed this conversation because I think the word needs to get out there about this scam, the flagrant waste of oil and the damage to the environment.
Good point and subject - illegal dumping/polluting - yes I am sure that it does happen in places - jiffy lube is a national corpoRAT franchise operation - I used to go to one occasionally - located across the street from where I used to live. I used to drop off used oil there as they have to take it here in MN to recycle. Anyway this station had a tank buried under the lot - where used oil was collected - then a truck would come and drain the tank. But you are correct that illegal dumping does happen all of the time. We also have a good number of metal recycling places around the twin cities here where they pay for material brought in to them - a lot of franchise owners and other business owners such as machine shops - will take the collected lead or stainless or copper or aluminum scrap to the centers and get paid by the pound for it - defrays cost of lost material for machine shops and is a win win for the franchise oil change place or other service shops as they get some money for a material that they get for free as the replacement lead weights are paid for by the customer. It is a matter of areas in the country and available support structure/centers.
I'd like to think the sewer drain he was referring to was actually an underground storage tank. It is possible. He IS young, and not too bright. And I'm very familiar with metal scrapping, been doing it occasionally for many, many years. Why they would just chuck it in the trash is beyond me. Like you say, it's a franchise so conditions will vary wildly from shop to shop.
And there are stupid people who will dump illegally just so they don't have to deal with it ( did I mention that they were stupid ? ) - but also consider. For any sane person to recycle oil would seem "to me" to be advantageous - as - would that not be a cheaper process then to process the original crude?
Good question. Is it cheaper to recycle the old than to refine the new? I don't know, maybe the answer would surprise us.
Well seems to me that it would be cheaper to filter and process used oil to remove carbon then it would to take and process the sludge that comes straight out of the ground and the further separation all of the other products contained in that sludge. BUT??? I could be mistaken.
Since engine heat breaks down oil, I wonder if that's a factor? Maybe they would have to re-crack it, or whatever that term is where they manipulate the chains of hydrocarbons. I watched oil refining on Modern Marvels once or twice, but didn't permanently absorb it all.
Probably a part of the process for making synthetic blends. Not all of the lube has broken down anyway - you have felt used oil - just seems a bit thinner to me then fresh oil.
I have to agree. I've pulled oil of of my aforementioned Mazda before that looked and felt like I could've got a lot more miles out of it. That's what made me start questioning the 3,000 mile thing.
Took me a while too - to expand my presence on the internet. I try not to overuse awesome either - though I have found quite a few good occasions to use it on this forum in making replies to some really good stuff that gets posted. If you decide to tweet - feel free to ask any questions you want to get started.
[-] 2 points by gnomunny (3792) from St Louis, MO 1 minute ago
I'm seriously thinking of expanding my online presence, maybe Twitter as well. It goes against my noncomformist and guarded nature, but social media's power and importance in getting the word spread is, well, awesome. Not a word I use lightly, by the way. ↥twinkle ↧stinkle permalink
Will do.
Thanks - I have had a lot of practice over this last year. I pretty much grab a link and post it with out much thinking involved - when I come across good stuff.
[-] 1 points by gnomunny (3792) from St Louis, MO 0 minutes ago
You already put some of this thread info out on Twitter? Damn, DK, you're really kicking ass with getting the word out. My hat's off to you. ↥twinkle ↧stinkle permalink
I'm seriously thinking of expanding my online presence, maybe Twitter as well. It goes against my noncomformist and guarded nature, but social media's power and importance in getting the word spread is, well, awesome. Not a word I use lightly, by the way.
LOL
You Bet.
Yes we are.
Already done.
Yep - gr8 way to break the 140 character limit and share some real information.
[-] 1 points by gnomunny (3787) from St Louis, MO 0 minutes ago
How very true.
Hey, we're doing a pretty good job on keeping this subject high on the list. Good, because I want more people to see it. Considering the myriad ways we can make an impact on society, the more people that know about this oil subject, the better.
You might want to put the subject out there on social media maybe? Get the word on Twitter? Use that Edmunds link from above, if that's possible.
Can you place links in a Twitter?
↥twinkle ↧stinkle permalink
You already put some of this thread info out on Twitter? Damn, DK, you're really kicking ass with getting the word out. My hat's off to you.
As being on the outside of all of the testing and research - You and I will never know the 1/2 of it.
How very true. Hey, we're doing a pretty good job on keeping this subject high on the list. Good, because I want more people to see it. Considering the myriad ways we can make an impact on society, the more people that know about this oil subject, the better. You might want to put the subject out there on social media maybe? Get the word on Twitter? Use that Edmunds link from above, if that's possible. Can you place links in a Twitter?
Another thing that gets me riled. I do my own oil changes and noticed that when the price of gas shot up back in 2008, a quart of oil shot up as well, which is to be expected. But when the price of gas came back down, the price for a quart never did! That is completely f--cked up. I guess they figured we were to stupid to notice.
Not as many people change their own oil and so just take it as normal when the price goes up for a change at their service station. F'n Oil companies - think they are so f'n slick when they raise the price .30 cents for a month or two then drop it back down .20 cents only to pop it back up again and repeat the process.
Yeah, that's modus operandi for a lot of products. Raise the price, then when they lower it, sometimes they'll cut a couple ounces out of the product (not oil, things like coffee). We'll notice the price drop but not the smaller product. A few months later, they'll raise the price again.
Yep - that is another - same container just a bit less product - same price. Wait a bit raise the price - shrink the container a tad and repeat.
I wonder how many people don't know this is going on? The problem is, most don't care. There's been quite a few times I stopped buying something once it got to a ridiculous price. Or at the very least, stopped buying the smaller package. Potato chips are a perfect example. Anyone that spends 69 cents for a handful of chips is a moron. Or have they gone up again? heheheh.
It always makes me wonder - just how many people are paying attention to what goes on around them - outside of their daily routine that is. One thing I can pretty much guarantee you though - people struggling to make ends meet - they definitely notice prices and quantity.
More people are beginning to notice a lot of things. I'm starting to see chinks in the PTB's armor. I gives me some hope. We're definitely at a turning point in history, that's for sure.
Funny that it all comes to a fast boil at the end of the last Mayan calender.
Five or six weeks to go until the end of the world!
I just watched a show last night that said some archeologists found at least one new Mayan calendar recently, one is supposed to be a calendar for the next cycle.
Interesting. See the end of each calender represented the end of an age - and signified a time of great change - the time of the new calender. Since no one had seen a new calender to follow the Mayans last one they jumped to the conclusion of end times. Hell even the bible says that the world does not end - just the current system of things.
The uninformed jumped to that conclusion for sure. At some point as the scholars deciphered the Mayan texts, they realized the Mayans talked of cycles, not ends. Conspiracy theorists and whackos have been most instrumental in pushing that Mayan 'end of the world' crap. It's sells a lot of books and tickets. I don't know if David Ick talks about the Mayans, but that crazy bastard makes a couple million a year pushing the lizard people story, so there's definitely a market for it.
Many many people looking for a story that they can believe in - something mystical magical. Plenty to fill any cult following and coin boxes.
It makes sense. It almost seems human nature to want to believe in things supernatural or magical. And there are a lot of gullible, naive people in the world. I can remember almost feeling let down when I no longer believed in ghosts, UFOs or 'Nessie.' The world seemed a little less wondrous.
Gotta go. Talk at ya tomorrow.
Some success stories
http://support.edf.org/site/MessageViewer?em_id=24181.0&autologin=true&utm_source=EDF%20action%20network&utm_medium=email&utm_campaign=message-viewer
Environmental Defense Fund - another good group.
Indeed.
Right now we need engineers to man the oil fields and the coal mines. That is proven energy that works