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February 08
Biofuels aren’t all bad, I suppose. They may, after all, provide a stop-gap for our foreign oil dependence while our infrastructure makes the shift to actual green technology. In doing so, they could be a boon for our rural economies, and they might even make the world just a tiny bit more peaceful. Just one problem: much of the public thinks that biofuels will reduce greenhouse gas emissions sufficiently enough to thwart global warming. Many of us have known for some time that this is complete and utter bologna, but some new studies — which take into account the effects of converting huge tracts of arable land for biofuel production — are especially damning.
This just adds to the nausea I already feel when people put “green” and “biofuel” together in the same sentence.
Posted by: admin in Science | Permalink
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11 Responses to “The BS behind biofuels”
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Also, as long as fuel prices remain high, the transfer of crops from feeding to fueling will and already is increasing the cost of food around the world.
Clark, I kind of want to marry you.
Only “kind of?”
We’d need to have a discussion re: my preference to do laundry rather than dishes, which seems to always be the deal-breaker.
I want an electric car like the ones in “Who Killed the Electric Car?” documentary. Any chance they will resurface ever? The technology is here and now and they looked really cool.
Tell me about it, TF. When I was a boy living in Southern California, my friend’s dad took us to an auto show at the San Diego convention center. I can remember seeing all these cool electric and solar cars. I’m sure I saw one of GM’s EV-series electrics there (like in the film, which I haven’t seen yet). It’s amazing to think that we already had such prescient solutions at hand, and by and large we threw them away.
Fortunately, all-electrics are on their way back. It’s about time. Some of them were mentioned in this thread. Big Auto can keep shittin’ out SUVs while little start-ups start making some really beautiful, efficient, green, and fun cars. Go right ahead, Detroit. Free market’s a bitch, eh?
I wish we had free markets, especially when it comes to the American auto industry. Detroit would have been buried long ago if not for corporate welfare. Of course, the oil barons who run this country will never allow gas-guzzling cars to go the way of the dodo. That’s why American taxpayers will continue to bail-out the Big Three.
Cant only blame the oil barons or the gas guzzling cars. Regular old people buy and use those cars every day. THe same taxpayers complaining that they HAVE to bail out the big three are the ones saying, oh but electric has no power and is too slow. and I really cannot afford bus tickets or new clothes so I can ride a bike and stay dry and warm. oh oh — snow. Better get my SUV out.
THe oil barons would not be seen to RUN the country if regular folk just didn’t consume what they hope we will consume.
We bought a Prius last year and we love it. The car payment is a bit high, but we are saving a lot in gas. I would really rather have a 100% electric car though. I checked out the link that Clark’s Last Biscuit suggested and will take anything that has the word ‘plasma’ in the title. I also love the hot salt car idea. I hope these things come to the market sooner rather than later.
I think we do have a free market (with caveats) with regards to the cars we choose to purchase, and Detroit’s downfall as of late is an acknowledgment of this. The long and the short of it is that over the course of the last decade or so, American auto makers have failed to make a car that really excites the masses of modern consumers. At risk of over-generalizing, I’d say Americans now value reliability over bells and whistles, and economy and efficiency over power and performance. To the extent some of us even still desire SUVs, we’re more drawn toward the slimmed-down, reliable, and more efficient CRVs, Foresters, etc.
Sadly, we got robbed of a far freer market in which we would have gotten to choose between a broad array of transportation options. This happened a long time ago when the American auto makers and their oil- and tire-peddling friends bought up hundreds of street car lines and shut them down (see “Rabbit, Roger” or better yet, just read Suburban Nation by Plater-Zyberk and Speck). Combine that with a baby boom and a post-war desire to build a shiny new America for said babies, and you’ve got the recipe for sprawl. Our suburbs, business parks, and shopping malls were built with pretty good intentions. We have to remember that the specter of the industrial revolution still loomed in the minds of Americans. We thought that separating our living space from our working space was good for our health, safety, children, etc. Unfortunately, in thinning our urban areas, we built a vast transportation infrastructure that for all intents and purposes necessitates that people own and drive cars.
So while I would argue that many of us have little choice regarding whether or not we drive cars, we still get to choose which cars we drive. And we are choosing, in great numbers, not to drive the BS that’s been coming off Detroit’s assembly lines. Yes, there will be subsidies and bail-outs whenever the Big 3 take a nosedive, but we can’t honestly believe that’s the way they prefer to do business. Ultimately, if they can’t satisfy the demands of the market, that just opens the door to the Toyotas, and Teslas, and Apteras of the world.
Oh, and the Smarts (for which I’ve been on the reservation list since September).
http://www.nytimes.com/2008/02/08/science/earth/08wbiofuels.html?em&ex=1202878800&en=ba9968d47d678647&ei=5087%0A