You would think that important people, like those leading our country, would make decisions that are technically achievable. Unfortunately politicians are, for the most part,not technically oriented, and so if enough people feed them plausible lines, they're likely to fall for it.
For example, it seems that many of them are convinced that ethanol is a good fuel and that it is possible to ramp up production of it to 36,000,000,000 gallons per year within 15 years. They also believe that this volume of fuel, equivalent to 1.54 million barrels of oil per day, would have a significant impact on our estimated consumption of 28 million barrels per day in 2022 (2% growth per year on the 21 million per day we use today).
And this doesn't even consider that the production of the ethanol fuel will require consumption of diesel fuel to plant, harvest and transport it as well as natural gas and coal to process it.
The Senate's preposterous new ethanol bill.
So what is the real answer? Obviously, cut your fuel usage. Don't make economic rationalizations of trip costs (it will only cost me $1 in gasoline to drive to the store) make it consumption based (it will cost a third of a gallon to drive to the store), and then minimize your consumption.
Eliminate your meat consumption. Each pound of beef requires about 10 pounds of grain, and thus 10 times the fuel to produce. Eat a variety of grains and vegetables instead, it will reduce the fuel embodied in the food you eat and you'll be healthier for it. All the better if you can eat locally produced foods that haven't been carted across the country.
Quit buying stuff. Sure, it's fun, it makes you feel all fuzzy and warm. That is because you haven't learned to look at that shiny new thing and see the environmental destruction behind it. Think of the vast economy required to produce that thing in a vast city-factory in China, load it on a boat with 50,000 more just like it, and ship it halfway around the world, then truck it across the country just so you can feel all warm and fuzzy for 20 minutes before you put it on the shelf and move on to the next warm fuzzy.
Picture how that vast economy providing you with your retail buyer fix has to strip mine resources to process that goodie. Imagine the acres of tropical rain forest that were cut down to grow palm oil trees to supply the biodiesel you bought so you could get your fix and be 'green' at the same time.
Look at the layers and layers of packaging wrapped around that little nugget of consumer bliss. Fancy goodie nestled in a hermetically sealed foil package encased in brightly printed cardboard wrapped in heavy plastic blister pack riding around with advertising pages in a filmy plastic bag. Pitch the bag and the advertising, strip the plastic, toss the cardboard, peel the foil and *poof* it disappears into the trash and you have your bauble to sooth your urges for a quarter hour.
Imagine that plastic package you just dropped into the trash. It was probably created less than a month or so ago from chemicals produced from a barrel of oil pumped out of the ground in the past 6 months. Prior to that it spent a few 10's of millions of years just lying there, aging and gradually improving over the ages, kind of like a very slow fine wine. Before that it was decaying plant material, hundreds or thousands of years worth of plant growth compressed into a black slick. Think about that. A resource, derived of ancient sunlight, 10 million years in the making, extracted, processed and discarded by you. Was it really worth it?
Oh sure, you need some of that stuff. Kids have to be educated, people have to be fed and clothed. There are a lot of things that have to be done and many that are harmless. But, really, how much of your consumption is necessary to be happy and healthy, and how much is just because you want to do things the easy way, the way everybody else does, thinking that that is what will make you happy?
For example, it seems that many of them are convinced that ethanol is a good fuel and that it is possible to ramp up production of it to 36,000,000,000 gallons per year within 15 years. They also believe that this volume of fuel, equivalent to 1.54 million barrels of oil per day, would have a significant impact on our estimated consumption of 28 million barrels per day in 2022 (2% growth per year on the 21 million per day we use today).
And this doesn't even consider that the production of the ethanol fuel will require consumption of diesel fuel to plant, harvest and transport it as well as natural gas and coal to process it.
The Senate's preposterous new ethanol bill.
So what is the real answer? Obviously, cut your fuel usage. Don't make economic rationalizations of trip costs (it will only cost me $1 in gasoline to drive to the store) make it consumption based (it will cost a third of a gallon to drive to the store), and then minimize your consumption.
Eliminate your meat consumption. Each pound of beef requires about 10 pounds of grain, and thus 10 times the fuel to produce. Eat a variety of grains and vegetables instead, it will reduce the fuel embodied in the food you eat and you'll be healthier for it. All the better if you can eat locally produced foods that haven't been carted across the country.
Quit buying stuff. Sure, it's fun, it makes you feel all fuzzy and warm. That is because you haven't learned to look at that shiny new thing and see the environmental destruction behind it. Think of the vast economy required to produce that thing in a vast city-factory in China, load it on a boat with 50,000 more just like it, and ship it halfway around the world, then truck it across the country just so you can feel all warm and fuzzy for 20 minutes before you put it on the shelf and move on to the next warm fuzzy.
Picture how that vast economy providing you with your retail buyer fix has to strip mine resources to process that goodie. Imagine the acres of tropical rain forest that were cut down to grow palm oil trees to supply the biodiesel you bought so you could get your fix and be 'green' at the same time.
Look at the layers and layers of packaging wrapped around that little nugget of consumer bliss. Fancy goodie nestled in a hermetically sealed foil package encased in brightly printed cardboard wrapped in heavy plastic blister pack riding around with advertising pages in a filmy plastic bag. Pitch the bag and the advertising, strip the plastic, toss the cardboard, peel the foil and *poof* it disappears into the trash and you have your bauble to sooth your urges for a quarter hour.
Imagine that plastic package you just dropped into the trash. It was probably created less than a month or so ago from chemicals produced from a barrel of oil pumped out of the ground in the past 6 months. Prior to that it spent a few 10's of millions of years just lying there, aging and gradually improving over the ages, kind of like a very slow fine wine. Before that it was decaying plant material, hundreds or thousands of years worth of plant growth compressed into a black slick. Think about that. A resource, derived of ancient sunlight, 10 million years in the making, extracted, processed and discarded by you. Was it really worth it?
Oh sure, you need some of that stuff. Kids have to be educated, people have to be fed and clothed. There are a lot of things that have to be done and many that are harmless. But, really, how much of your consumption is necessary to be happy and healthy, and how much is just because you want to do things the easy way, the way everybody else does, thinking that that is what will make you happy?
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