[Greenbuilding] bio fues and ethanol
Tim Vireo Keating
t.keating at rainforestrelief.org
Thu Apr 12 13:29:24 CDT 2007
Sorry for the long post.
Btw, Ron, I don't own a car and haven't for about 15 years. I bike
just about everywhere I need to go, except for those longer trips to
places far away for presentations or campaigns (such as Ocean City,
NJ, about a 2.5-hour drive, by car). In those cases, I take the bus.
True enough, I often get picked up from the bus station by some
student who drives me to the school, perhaps a mile or two, since I
can't bring my bicycle on the Greyhound. Oh, and now that I'm in
Jersey City, the only way into NYC is via the PATH train, so I use
that as well, often bringing my bicycle on the train to use on the
other side. Otherwise, I walk or use the subway.
Yes, this is still using fuel. But I imagine that if everyone in the
US was using as little gasoline as I am, then local biodiesel
production could handle it, without cheaper imports from Malaysia or
Brazil.
My comment about biodiesel is in no way meant to say that folks
shouldn't make their own or that making it locally out of waste isn't
a great thing to do. The problem is that when we come up with these
ideas, in a Capitalist system we have no way of controlling them
(that is, keeping the lid on the destructive side of production).
I had a similar critique of hemp and kenaf paper. Here's how it went:
For 25 years, environmentalists had been pushing collection of waste
paper and pushing companies to invest in recycling technologies. By
1985, we had succeeded somewhat in that some states were starting to
institute mandatory recycling laws. When that happened, there was a
sudden glut of wastepaper on the market. This encouraged paper
companies to invest in using recycled furnish to make paper.
Then a glitch in this occurred, where the demand for wastepaper went
up so fast, that the recyclers couldn't come up with enough. The
price went very high and it threatened to put some of the companies
that had been using recycled furnish out of business.
In the meantime, along came a guy making paper out of 100% kenaf, an
annual crop.
Many environmental groups jumped on board, promoting hemp and kenaf
as the answer for paper, in an effort to save forests and aid
farmers. But they didn't think things through. First, had this become
a large trend, the paper companies would never have purchased annual
crops from farmers but would have elected to grow their own. Paper
companies are among the largest private landowners in the country.
For much of their furnish, they grow their own trees in monocultural
tree farms (having converted real forests some time ago, and
continuing to do so today). This industry is one of the most
vertically integrated in the world.
Thus, in this move to annual crops, paper companies would have cut
those tree farms and converted them to annual crops - much more
destructive. They've already gone in that direction, having converted
some pine farms to eucalyptus, radiata pine (7-year rotation) and red
alder. Annual crops would have created monocultures that are cleared
every year, rather than every 35 (other than logging of old growth,
agriculture has been the most destructive human activity ever).
In regards to biodeisel, I see the same thing happening. Great idea:
let's use McD's french fry grease to fuel our bus tour! Next, we've
go your situation, where the stuff is produced on local farms
(perhaps even from ag-res!). Great. But how do we control the next
level? How do we stop the Malaysia's from working with the UN and
World Bank(rupt) to promote the expansion of palm oil plantations?
The answer is, we can't. So a great idea becomes one more way that
ecosystems are wiped out to feed our ever-increasing demand for fuel
and stuff.\
Back to the paper analogy: rather than pushing annual crop paper, I
suggested pushing paper made from *agricultural residues*. Later,
people differentiated by calling the former "on-purpose crops". Using
ag-res makes total sense. Using on-purpose crops makes no sense.
Perhaps, if we had called the fuel something other than biodiesel?
Maybe if we'd called it "ag-res fuel" and pushed the market to only
allow it to be made from wastes? But I doubt that would forestall the
inevitable, since the cars would be able to burn virgin biofuel and
there would still be no way to stop Malaysia from getting into the
act (especially given the WTO).
Back to the paper analogy: the first and foremost way to save forests
is to *reduce* the consumption of paper. An entire matrix was
researched and laid out by folks at the Rocky Mountain Institute and
it pretty much looked identical to the one done by Friends of the
Earth Netherlands and the Dutch government. Randy Hayes dubbed it the
"Dutch Challenge" (and then went on to promote hemp and kenaf). The
first column of the matrix was "Avoidance". That is, simply not using
something! Wow, what a concept. In the case of paper, using a sponge
instead of paper towels would fall within this category. In the case
of fuel, promoting walking and cycling would fall within this
category. The second column was "Conservation". Here, in the case of
paper, duplexing and using the backs of paper one has already used,
or using half a napkin, would fall within that category. In the case
of fuel, weatherizing one's house and switching to CFLs - you get the
picture.
Only the *fourth* column was "Alternatives" (After "Recycling and
Using Recycled").
My point is that we are missing the clearest, most cost-effective,
most efficient, most ecosystem-saving solutions: using less and
conserving more. If we put as much energy into that as we do into
finding alternatives (that allow us to keep guzzling at the rate
we're guzzling) then we'd slow this thing down a lot faster.
For the forests,
tim keating
At 5:36 PM -0400 4/8/07, RONALD CASCIO wrote:
>Agreed. Our vehicular transportation fuel for the last 6 years has been
>biodiesel. We burn about 600 gallons/year since we've moved to a small town
>were we can walk/bike to just about everything we need. Our biodiesel life
>cycle goes like this;
>
> Farmers within a 120 mile radius capture solar energy with their soybean
>crop, which goes to the Purdue Farms bean crusher 15 miles west of here
>where they harvest the meal of the bean for chicken feed, then the
>byproduct oil heads 15 miles east where it is processed into biodiesel in
>our town's production facility 1.8 miles from our front door.
>
>Someone kindly explain to me how our use of biodiesel is more destructive
>than the way our civilization has co-opted the hundreds of millions of years
>life cycle of petroleum, it's extraction, shipping, refining, burning and
>it's release of hydrocarbons into the atmosphere... and all the blood
>involved in one way or another.
>
>Sure, biofuels are not a panacea to our transportation fuel dilemma but it
>is a major step in the right direction of the long and hard path we are
>going to have to embark on. The madness of mankind's deadly addiction to the
>Devil's Tea is not an option in my book.
>
>BTW... Dan and Tim Keating, what fuels your cars?
>
>
>Ron Cascio
>Chestnut Creek
>Design/Build/Consult/Develop
>Maryland's Eastern Shore
>
>
>
>----- Original Message -----
>From: "Steve T" <progressivepenguin at gmail.com>
>To: <greenbuilding at listserv.repp.org>
>Sent: Sunday, April 08, 2007 1:35 PM
>Subject: Re: [Greenbuilding] bio fues and ethanol
>
>
>>I agree that some can see only black or white when it comes to Green or
>> Sustainable technology like biofuel, wind power or home building. It
>> tends
>> to make discussions a little more animated.
>>
>> On 4/8/07, Tim Martens <timandgwen at sympatico.ca> wrote:
>>>
>>> Guys.......no one claimed that biofuels were a panacea. I submit though,
>>> that, they are way better than fossil fuels on so many levels. Your
>>> submissions make people think that bio fuels are bad. If people are
>>> willing
>>> to pay for a commodity, others will do what ever it takes to provide
>>> it. You don't think that fossil fuel exploration and greenhouse gases
>>> might
>>> have displaced or killed a few people?
>>>
>>> With bio fuels, it's not the product but how it's being produced that is
> >> causing the problem. Fossil fuels, on the other hand, are just plain
>>> bad.
>>> At least we are going in the right direction.
>>>
>>> A motorized vehicle-less society....now there's an answer.
>>>
>>> Tim Martens
>>> _______________________________________________
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>>>
>>
>>
>>
>> --
>> The box said 'Requires Windows XP or better'. So I installed Linux.
>> --
>> Internet (noun)
>> 1.) Not a truck.
>> 2.) Series of tubes.
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>
>
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measure of our bodies are the same..."
- Hinmaton Yalatkit, Nez Perce chief
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