[Greenbuilding] bio fuels and ethanol

[William Updike]

I would add that the vast majority of land (somewhere
around 80 percent I think) is used for meat
production.  I'm not saying that everyone needs to eat
vegetarian, but if we all ate a bit lower on the food
chain there would be much more land for
switchgrass/sugar cane fuel production, and still
provide enough affordable food for the world's poor
(of course the reason why people are starving is much
more complex than just the price of food--not to
mention the effect that increasing climate change will
have on poor and hungry people if we don't move to
better fuel sources).  In addition, I recently saw a
report that said that cattle production causes more
greenhouse gases that automobiles.  I'm not sure if
that's true, but it's interesting to think about
nonetheless.

Of course, the elephant in the room in any discussions
of the illusion of "sustainability" is always
population.  There are just too many people on this
rock.

On a side note, I also think it's important not to use
the word "idiotically" in any listserv conversation
(as one poster recently did).  Not too helpful for
open and honest debate.

Cheers,
Bill
 
--- Ross MacLeod <drossmacleod at gmail.com> wrote:

> 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).
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