[Greenbuilding] c7b.100d5acb.334a5cce at aol.com Re: bio fuels and ethanol

[Ross MacLeod]

Dan,

The community oriented ecosystems that you describe represent a good
target.  But the challenge that you gloss over, is how we get there.   It
has been estimated that the natural carrying capacity of Mother Earth is
somewhere around 1.5 billion people, whereas we are on our way to 8
billion.   The transition from our current approaches to truly sustainable
ones, is the challenge that humanity faces.  Negotiating a 'soft' landing
will, by necessity involve some less than ideal options   So, while ethanol
from corn doesn't make sense, switch grass in addition to energy from waste
most likely does.  Switch grass can represent a highly efficient energy (and
carbon negative) transfer process, and can be (should be) grown on marginal
land that would otherwise not be used for anything but poor hay and/or
grazing land.  You may wish to check out
http://www.reap-canada.com/bio_and_climate_3_2.htm.

What would be very interesting, is to learn some of your ideas for designing
waste management and efficient energy processes into urban housing (existing
and new).