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Reduce Warming with Bio-fuels
Hello,
We have been using gasoline for over 100 years now, and look at the mess we have made. It is possible to make bio-fuels such as ethanol cheaply. In Brazil, only ethanol is used in cars. Ethanol is ethyl alcohol, which is made by fermenting some sugary vegetable material in water until it makes alcohol, then distilling it off from the water.
Try this: get some rubbing alcohol from a store. Get a few drops of mineral spirits, lighter fluid, or paint thinner. Put the few drops of alcohol in one metal pan, and the other petroleum product in another. Light both and see how clean alcohol burns and how filthy the petroleum products burn.
The CO2 emissions from ethanol are significantly less, and it burns more efficiently. Also, gasoline or diesel fuel with just 15 - 20% ethanol mixed in reduces toxic waste emissions (i.e., carbon monoxide, sulfur dioxide, etc etc) by 40%. Can you imagine how much less poison would be spewing into the air if we went 'totally ethanol', like Brazil ??
Probably why the Brazilians chose this route, beside the environment, was that they wanted to remain independent of the world oil market, and its wars and strife's. They are completely 'out of the loop'. They have their own ethanol refineries, and the residue from these factories is far less toxic than anything we find coming out of petroleum factories.
The oil & gasoline industry has us like junkies in their mitts. They are opposed to any talk of ethanol because it threatens their monopoly. Cars would simply need different gaskets, and possibly a modified fuel injector, that's the extent of the 'hybrid' necessity. Easy to do......
Reasons not to convert to Bio fuels
Did you know that biofuels will just be the next oil? We need to find renewable resources that don't cost a leg an a foot to get. Currently the U.S. is out of land to produce agriculture, and they are currently removing acres out of the Conservation Reserve Program to meet the increased demand for corn; which has driven the price of corn through the roof. Current crops grown need to be feeding the millions of starving people not the millions of starving gas tanks. There are over forty million acres in the CRP (roughly the size of ohio) this land has dramatically increased populations of pheasants, ducks and other wildlife living in the habitat created by the CRP. I think that we need to be investing in research into fuel cells that do not require us to destroy the natural habitat.
website
Great site! Thanks for making it happen.
Avoid Buying New Items
One of the most important things we all can do to combat global warming is to avoid buying new articles. Buy used cars, used tools, used clothes, used books, etc., rather than their new counterparts. This practice alone will greatly reduce your "carbon imprint" on the world, since fuel is used (burned) to produce new things. And it is the burning of fuel which causes global warming.
Of course, this requires quite a paradigm shift, which is defined as:
Most people around the world have been brought up to believe that it is OK to consume as much as one can afford. To do otherwise requires an "environmental ethic" which unfortunately is very uncommon.
I invite further comments.
The recent 3-5 June 2008 FAO
The recent 3-5 June 2008 FAO World Food Security conference in Rome was originally called to look at the impact of climate change on world-wide agricultural production. There had been a number of expert meetings to prepare the June conference. However, the current food crisis, rising food prices and hunger riots brought short-term issues and food relief to the top of the agenda. Thus, a follow up conference is planned for Madrid, Spain at the end of November or early December. Below, there are two articles Urgent Food Shortages and World Food Policy: The Road to Madrid as background.
The Madrid Conference will be an opportunity for non-governmental organizations to present their views, and I can try to make a synthesis of the views presented in this discussion. (posted by Lloyd for Rene Wadlow)