All other gases are compared to carbon dioxide, which has a global warming potential of 1. It does have a significant effect since it is the most prevalent greenhouse gas. I’m not sure methanol decomposition from windshield washer fluid will increase the amount of CO2 in the atmosphere significantly, though. That seems unlikely just off the cuff. Deforestation is probably more of an issue for CO2 buildup than anything else.
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and carbon dioxide is what all mammals exhale and it allows the green leafy things to thrive . . .
God’s symbiotic system works just fine without foolish humans messing with it thinking they know better than the Creator of all things.
Following this whole Global Warming nonsense just plays into the hands of the Zero Population nut jobs. That’s right “Global Warming” not the Left’s cover up term I wish people would stop buying into called “Climate Change” ( that’s called Weather ! and it changes hourly ! ).
Following this “logic” you’ll want to kill off humans to save the plants and animals. Typically human logic is the reverse of the intentional plans of this place.
Who'd be around to appreciate Nature ?
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I guess to solve the Methane problem is to simply “PUT A CORK IN IT” !
No it is not. Water vapor is the most prevalent greenhouse gas with it contributing between 36 and 72% of warming because of its reflective properties.
The owner’s manual for my Toyota pickup recommends plain water when the weather is above freezing. Anything that depresses the freezing point will make it suitable for cold weather. If you’re really worried about toxicity, ethanol, perhaps most-cheaply obtained in mouthwash, would be the safest - and make your windows’ breath minty-fresh.
Oh boy. Once a year or so I go down and buy a gallon of washer fluid from the gas station. I guess I’m just guilty of ruining the environment a gallon at a time.
Vodka in mortar mix? Before you adopt any Russian building methods, you should really take a look at the quality of their work. We had a hospital study group come back from there once and reported how poorly the buildings were constructed. Never even tooled the mortar joints, just leveled them. Maybe they sampled the mortar too much during the mixing process.
It’s in such small amounts that it is literally ineffective for such a project
Yup!
Russian construction quality–at least during the Communist era–was really, really bad. Things may have improved since then, but–then again–when you consider the astronomical amount of Vodka consumed daily in that country, their buildings may be just as flawed as previously.
[quote]Methanol is a naturally occurring, biodegradable alcohol that is present in our environment and can even be found out in space. Methanol occurs naturally during the decomposition of different plant and animal life, and we come into contact with it every day in fruits, juices, and even wine. Though larger quantities of methanol can be toxic if ingested, this naturally occurring molecule has a very low impact when released into the environment because of how quickly it biodegrades.
When methanol is released into the environment it rapidly breaks down into other compounds, is completely miscible in water, and serves as food for a number of different bacteria.[/quote]
http://www.methanol.org/environmental-impact/
I wouldn’t lose any sleep about the environmental effect of methanol in your washer fluid.
There are a lot of substances that are acutely toxic in large doses but harmless in micro doses and do not have a cumulative effect like lead or mercury. Cyanide is such a toxin, there are micro doses of it in fruit pits and some nuts.
Carbon monoxide is another chemical that’s harmless in micro doses, is not a cumulative poison, and naturally bio-degrades in the environment.
There are even poisons that are medicines in small doses, Warfarin for example was originally developed as a rat poison in the 1940’s.
I heard this question on the show. I thought the questioner had a noble motive, but should find more impactful ways of helping the environment. Driving in a manner that gets better gas mileage, for instance, or performing tune-ups when needed. Or minimizing your use of herbicides, spray paint, and other household chemicals.
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I was there for the first Earth Day and been planting trees like crazy ever since. Seemed to make a whole lot more sense than worrying about lawn mower emissions and washer fluid. Kids now a days.
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Grass and weeds do just as much good and you don’t have to plant them.
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Methanol is not a major pollutant and is, in fact, a natural product. It is “wood alcohol.” Obviously it is marginally more toxic to humans than ethanol, but it has a lower boiling point and higher vapor pressure. I would not overly concern myself with the use of methanol in windshield washer fluid.
What do you think is in the Winter Washer Fluid that keeps it from freezing to -20?
Isopropyl Alcohol.
Vodka (even cheap Vodka) would be far more expensive then the winter washer fluid you buy at Wallmart.
Lawn mower emissions don’t bother me…It’s the lawn service companies that show up at my neighbors at 6am on a Saturday or Sunday that bother me.
Doesn’t your municipality have noise regulations?
In my town, those lawn service companies are not allowed to start their work until 8:00AM. On a couple of occasions I have noticed them “pushing the envelope” a bit by starting their work at ~7:50, but it is outrageous if they are allowed to start that racket at 6:00AM on a weekend.
You should check with your town hall regarding noise regulations.
Yes…for home owners ONLY. However if you own a lawn service you’re allowed to start at 6am.
They also sell a “non-toxic” washer fluid but it has no freeze protection built in. I use it in the summer as it is quite a bit cheaper than regular and it seems to work just as well if not better. I just make sure to start running the regular stuff about a month before the first expected freeze to get it through the system.
As for noise regulations and cities enforcing them, sometimes cities are great about enforcing codes while other times they are quite lax. I went through this with the neighbor letting their mad dog run loose. It wasn’t really mad but was mean and aggressive. I even got bit and filed an animal control report with blood running down my leg when they showed up. I now live in the country and have no problems dealing with these problems with the .223 and .30-06. Then my parents had a neighbor that wasn’t keeping up their property and kept junk in their yard. The siding was literally peeling off the house and birds and squirrels were nesting. One even got inside their house. Anyway, it took like 2 years before the mess got cleaned up and the siding got replaced. It was a real mess and the city kept giving them more and more chances to comply with the codes. It looks nice on the outside but I bet the inside isn’t real nice.
As for the quality of communist and such construction, I have heard much the same. The cold is also an issue they have to deal with in Russia. I understand that large equipment manufacturers actually use a softer steel for use in the Siberian mines. This stuff would dull and wear away quickly in most locations. The standard spec stuff we use is fine here but too hard and becomes brittle. Driveshafts break with the cold because they are too stiff. Things do seem to be done a little different in Russia though. Some of the videos and pictures I have seen are just amazing. And people think we have rednecks here!!!
The one thing they did right was some of their weapons. The are dead simple and reliable for the most part and any peasant can operate them and keep them clean (or not) and they will still fire. I am not much of an AK guy myself but like the Mosin-Nagant, SKS, and other commie weapons just fine. I hear there are rumors of converting some of our weapons to use the readily available .762x39 round for certain units of the armed forces.
I can’t even buy that around here.
Even though that stuff does not contain alcohol, it does contain ammonia.
I don’t know about you, but I would not consider that stuff to be non-toxic.