This editorial from the Denver Post is quite interesting. I've been thinking about global warming a lot lately, due to the climatogical whackiness of the past year -- all the tornados & hurricanes, the abnormally cool summer here in Nebraska... I was remembering the first article I recall reading about global warming -- in Rolling Stone in 1982. I was only in 9th grade then, but it made that much of an impact on me (in a strange serendipitous event, while cleaning out the basement this weekend, Mom came across a stack of Rolling Stones from 1982 I had stashed away from some reason, and the issue with that article happened to be among them) . I remember how at the time the idea was dismissed as Chicken Little-ish... (mostly by Republicans & oil industry people). Here it is 22 years later, and things may not have happened as quickly as predicted, but there is definitely something wrong somewhere. Yet our esteemed leader arrogantly ignores the evidence, just like he ignores anything to do with science. I think that's why hard-core right wingers view all change as bad - they don't even believe in evolution. So let's just keep doing things the way we've ALWAYS done them, whether there are better new ways to do them.
One thing we really need to get over is our dependence on fossil fuels. The whole thing is so 20th-century. There should be huge tax breaks for manufacturers of fuel cell vehicles, and huge tax breaks for those who buy them. And people who buy SUVs over a certain size should have to pay more taxes, those things waste so much gas. Why are so many of the people that drive those things arrogant assholes? Does that come standard, or do you have to pay extra for it? Saturday Mom & I went to the Goodwill to drop off some stuff, and some moron from 54 county parked his humongous Ford Excursion (one of the worst gas guzzlers) in the middle of 4 parking places! Jackass. The worst is in the winter, because the morons think they're driving a tank, so they don't slow down when its slick. 4 wheels aren't better than 2 on ice.
Anyways, another thing we need to get over (especially in this state) is the nostalgic love affair with the "family farm." It's just not an efficient use of resources. The politicians love to get their mug on camera with some family who's been farming for 40 generations, and talk about how they'll support the family farm. Another big sell around here is ethanol, even though it has major disadvantages--
Other biomass fuel sources have been tried. Crops such as corn are converted to alcohol. In the case of corn to ethanol, it is energy negative. It takes 71% more energy to produce ethanol than is obtained from the ethanol. Also, using grain such as corn for fuel precludes it from being used as food for humans or livestock. It is also hard on the land. In United States corn production, soil erodes some 20-times faster than soil is formed. Ethanol has less energy per volume than does gasoline, so more gasoline has to be purchased to make up the difference. Also, ethanol is not environmentally friendly, as advocates would like to believe. Pimentel (1998) states: "Ethanol produces less carbon monoxide than gasoline, but it produces just as much nitrous oxides as gasoline. In addition, ethanol adds aldehydes and alcohol to the atmosphere, all of which are carcinogenic. When all air pollutants associated with the entire ethanol system are measured, ethanol production is found to contribute to major air pollution problems." With a lower energy density than gasoline, and adding the petroleum energy used to plow, plant, cultivate, and transport the corn for ethanol production, ethanol does not save gasoline nor does it's use reduce atmospheric pollution.
from Alternative Energy Sources - Myth and Realities
I personally don't use ethanol-blend gas because I don't think it lasts as long as regular gas, it seems like it burns faster.
posted by decemberx 1:39 PM[edit]
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