Sorry it's been a while. My computer wigged out for a few days, and I got behind on some work. Anyway, I'm still behind so I need to keep this short. But I just wanted to bring up one issue.
Recently there has been a lot of publicity about ethanol for car fuel. This ethanol is made from corn. Yesterday, on TOTN, I heard that it takes just about as much petroleum to make the ethanol as is replaced by the power of the ethanol made. Is that outrageous or what?
Alledgedly, the whole reason they are marketing this now is that the government subsidizes farmers to grow three or four times the amount of corn we need in the country, so every year there are huge amounts of corn that are wasted. Additonally, the huge amounts of corn produced take huge amounts of chemical fertilizers, especially nitrogen compounds, that are washed off in large amounts when it rains, run down into the rivers, kill all the life in the rivers, make the water unsafe to drink, and eventually wash down into the Gulf of Mexico where it has created an area the size of New Jersey covered with algae blooms. This area of algae takes away all the oxygen from the water and no other life can exist there.
So when you hear the slogan "live green, go yellow," know that this is a catchy phrase that is a lie, and is really supporting a whole cascade of problems that is quickly tearing our planet apart.
It would be better to just use the petroleum. But even better would be to use ethanol made from a certain type of grass that is perennial and doesn't need any fertilizer, thus, it is clean and healthy for all involved and is renewable, since it grows back every year. Crazy.
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4 comments:
Hehe. Appology.
You're right, though. Most current alternative forms of fuel are not really alternative. They're just more of the same in a slightly different package. It's a shame, really.
Doesn't the ethanol burn cleaner? producing less greenhouse gasses and unhealthy smog might be a benefit.
However, I agree with you; ethanol is not a great alternative.
Yah, I agree, the effects of burning fossil fuels are not pretty, but the effect of using them to create ethanol are no less ugly. However, like I said, I would be all for using ethanol that was produced using a clean and renewable source that didn't require the fertilizer that the corn does: which clean and renewable source exists according to the author of The Omnivors Dillemma: A Natural History of Four Meals.
Greets to the webmaster of this wonderful site. Keep working. Thank you.
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