A "technical fix" that could stop global warming by taking billions of tons of carbon dioxide out of the atmosphere and save the coral reefs from being destroyed by acidification has been developed by scientists.
The process could be used on an industrial scale to remove excess carbon dioxide caused by the burning of fossil fuels from the atmosphere in "a matter of decades rather than millennia," according to researchers from Harvard and Penn State universities.
The process relies on speeding up a process that happens naturally, whereby carbon dioxide dissolved in sea water breaks down volcanic rock and soils to make alkaline carbonic salts.
The water flows into the ocean and increases its alkalinity. Sea water containing more alkali can absorb more carbon, so more carbon from the atmosphere is "locked up" and becomes harmless bottom sediments, according to the journal Environmental Science and Technology.
Researchers estimate that it would take a cube of volcanic rock 10 kilometres across to return the concentration of carbon dioxide in the Earth's atmosphere to pre-industrial levels.
Unlike other proposed "technical fixes" that "sequester" carbon dioxide from the atmosphere, this one makes the sea more alkaline and therefore counteracts the other side effect of more carbon dioxide entering the atmosphere - the acidification of the sea.
The alkalinity of the sea has remained the same for 60 million years but the burning of fossil fuels has caused it to decrease.
It is feared that the drop in alkalinity will slow down the oceans' take up of carbon dioxide - which accounts for half the Earth's natural capacity for "scrubbing" carbon from the atmosphere.
It will also threaten animals whose bodies are made from calcium, which is alkaline, such as corals, shellfish and phytoplankton.
Scientists say the technique is adaptable to operation in remote areas, run on natural gas or geothermal energy.
"The technology involves selectively removing acid from the ocean in a way that might enable us to turn back the clock on global warming," said Kurt House, a graduate student at Harvard University.
However, Prof Andrew Watson of the University of East Anglia, who was one of the authors of a Royal Society paper on the acidification of the sea, said the "fundamental problem" with dissolving rock into the sea was "the immense scale on which you need to do it to make any impact."
He added: "We are producing 8 billion tons of CO2 a year and that takes the combined efforts of all coal mining, oil and gas production. If you want to make an impact on that you need a process of the same order of magnitude to make a difference.
"The local effect would be alkali pollution of the sea - but we are polluting the sea globally by putting carbon dioxide into the ocean. This method is expensive and therefore it's not the first line of attack for the global warming problem.
"The first is energy conservation, the second the substitution of fossil fuels with solar energy or biofuels, and the third - and above dissolving rock into the sea - comes carbon capture and storage from power plants. We know what technology is needed for that and engineering companies can do it."
Prof Watson, an expert on the carbon cycle and the oceans, said that dissolving rock was "worth considering" if the world got into a situation in which the oceans were dying because of acidity and we needed to alleviate the problem. "If you did it the right way you might be able to save the coral reefs from the worst effects. I would see it being done in areas where there may be another reason for doing it as well, such as this.
"There is no single 'silver bullet' for global warming."
Other "technical fixes" for global warming have concentrated on seeding the oceans with iron filings or nitrogen to stimulate algal growth in the hope that this would then die and take the carbon the plankton contained to the sea bed.
By Charles Clover
full article
Wednesday 7 November 2007
Tuesday 6 November 2007
Rainwater harvesting - green and cost effective
'It's crazy to be paying for water to be drained off, processed by the utility company and returned to you when the original water is fine to use for flushing your toilet and in your garden,' Bob Imrie tells me.
Instead, he channels the rain that lands on the roof of his three-bedroom home through a filter and into a tank sunk under his lawn. It is then pumped to his toilet, washing machine and an outside tap, enabling him to slash his water bill by at least 40 per cent and do his bit for the environment.
It also provides him with an emergency supply in the event of a hosepipe ban.
The Freerain (www.freerain.co.uk) system was already in place when Mr Imrie moved into his home in 2001, but typically costs £2,000 to £5,000 to retro fit in an existing property.
And with climate change experts warning that water shortages will become increasingly common, installing a system is likely to make a property far more attractive to potential buyers. In fact, it was the reason that Mr Imrie bought the house.
'I had driven past it before and not paid much attention. I had assumed the house, which is on an estate, was a standard new build. But then I read about it in a local newspaper and discovered that the properties had been built to a very high standard and designed to reduce their environmental impact.
"I suppose the property must have been more expensive as a result, but it didn't seem to be out of line with what I would have paid elsewhere.'
As a result of the rainwater harvesting system, and other eco technologies in his Nottinghamshire home, Mr Imrie's monthly water bill is just £7.
But despite the pressing need for water conservation, the industry is in its infancy in the UK, with only around 5,000 domestic properties benefiting from the technology. This is due, in part, to the fact that just 20 per cent of homes are metered and therefore most householders lack a financial incentive to cut water usage.
But Mr Imrie also believes that the Government is failing to promote the technology. 'It's mad that the Government hasn't made rainwater harvesting the standard for new builds,' he says.
It has also failed to offer grants to homeowners wishing to install the technology, unlike in Germany, where a mixture of carrot and stick has led to more than half a million rainwater systems being installed in homes and workplaces.
However, there is an additional financial advantage from installing the system that few people are aware of. 'About 5pc of your water rates cover drainage from your house,' Mr Imrie says.
'In my case, a pipe comes from downpipes off the gutter, goes into the tank and exits to the nearby dike, so if it's over full it flows into the dike That means I can get a reduction, but the water companies won't tell you that. It's only because I've worked in consumer law for years that I was aware of this,' says the former trading standards officer.
John Thorne retro-fitted a system to his four-bedroom property in Leicestershire last year and his only regret is that he didn't fit an even larger system.
He installed a number of green technologies, including solar panels, during the refurbishment, but it is rainwater harvesting that has impressed him the most. 'It is the most reliable and trouble free of the various systems we installed.'
As his wife is a keen gardener, he sank a 2,300 litre tank under his lawn but now wishes he had even more storage capacity. 'If I was doing it again I would have had a second tank just for the garden,' the 79-year-old says.
The Stormsaver (www.stormsaver.com) system, which cost him around £8,000 in total, has halved his water bill, delivering a saving of £300 per year. As well as providing water for his garden, it is also used to flush his toilet and supply his washing machine.
Although it will take decades to recoup his investment, Mr Imrie believes that it still makes financial as well as environmental sense.
'I'm sure installing rainwater harvesting has increased the value of the property. So I think I would get my money back because of the growing interest in environmental issues.'
Jules Young, on the other hand, will be recouping her investment in about three years. The management consultant installed a Klargester Environmental/Envireau (www.envireau.co.uk) system during major refurbishment work to her semi-detached Victorian home last year.
'We originally looked at using it for the toilet but the economics didn't pay out because you would need two sets of pipes running through the house, which would take about 12 years to pay back, so we restricted it to the garden,' Miss Jones says.
As a result, her system cost less than £2,000 in total to install and involved little disruption. It also means that if the UK suffers another drought, her garden, which covers almost an acre, is likely to survive relatively unscathed.
'When we installed the system last summer there was actually a hosepipe ban in this area. Avoiding the full impact of a ban in the future was certainly one of our motivations. As we develop the garden over coming years it is going to be very useful.
"It would give us five to six hours of continuous watering, which, during an extremely long period of drought, would allow you to maintain your high specimen plants rather than your whole garden.'
Installing and maintaining the system has also been remarkably stress free.
'Even the builders found it straightforward and self-explanatory, even though they hadn't done it before,' she says. 'It's also easy to maintain as it's not difficult to get to the filter and remove any leaves.'
But is a rainwater harvesting system really necessary in the light of last summer's wash-out. 'Hot dry weather is sure to be a feature of the future, so unless you intend to grow palms this seems to be the way to go.'
--------------------------------------------------------------------------------
Fact file
5 litres per day is the minimum amount of water we need to survive
120-220 litres is the typical domestic consumption per person
35 per cent is flushed down the toilet
12 per cent is used in washing machines
6 per cent is used in the garden
65 per cent of water consumption occurs in the home
5,000 UK homes use rainwater harvesting
500,000 homes and workplaces use the system in Germany
--------------------------------------------------------------------------------
Useful links
The Environment Agency website has lots of advice on saving water at home, as well as a report on rainwater harvesting. Go to: www.environment-agency.gov.uk/savewater
For data on average rainfall for various parts of the UK, go to www.metoffice.com/climate/uk/averages
For details on suppliers of rainwater harvesting technologies, go to the sector's trade body, the UK Rainwater Harvesting Association at www.ukrha.org
For information on this and other environmental issues, go to the Centre for Alternative Technologies at www.cat.org.uk. You can also gain advice by calling 01654 705989
If you wish are interested in buying low-flush toilets, waterless urinals, water efficient taps and showers, and flow restrictors, go to www.greenbuildingstore.co.uk
By David Waller
full article
Instead, he channels the rain that lands on the roof of his three-bedroom home through a filter and into a tank sunk under his lawn. It is then pumped to his toilet, washing machine and an outside tap, enabling him to slash his water bill by at least 40 per cent and do his bit for the environment.
It also provides him with an emergency supply in the event of a hosepipe ban.
The Freerain (www.freerain.co.uk) system was already in place when Mr Imrie moved into his home in 2001, but typically costs £2,000 to £5,000 to retro fit in an existing property.
And with climate change experts warning that water shortages will become increasingly common, installing a system is likely to make a property far more attractive to potential buyers. In fact, it was the reason that Mr Imrie bought the house.
'I had driven past it before and not paid much attention. I had assumed the house, which is on an estate, was a standard new build. But then I read about it in a local newspaper and discovered that the properties had been built to a very high standard and designed to reduce their environmental impact.
"I suppose the property must have been more expensive as a result, but it didn't seem to be out of line with what I would have paid elsewhere.'
As a result of the rainwater harvesting system, and other eco technologies in his Nottinghamshire home, Mr Imrie's monthly water bill is just £7.
But despite the pressing need for water conservation, the industry is in its infancy in the UK, with only around 5,000 domestic properties benefiting from the technology. This is due, in part, to the fact that just 20 per cent of homes are metered and therefore most householders lack a financial incentive to cut water usage.
But Mr Imrie also believes that the Government is failing to promote the technology. 'It's mad that the Government hasn't made rainwater harvesting the standard for new builds,' he says.
It has also failed to offer grants to homeowners wishing to install the technology, unlike in Germany, where a mixture of carrot and stick has led to more than half a million rainwater systems being installed in homes and workplaces.
However, there is an additional financial advantage from installing the system that few people are aware of. 'About 5pc of your water rates cover drainage from your house,' Mr Imrie says.
'In my case, a pipe comes from downpipes off the gutter, goes into the tank and exits to the nearby dike, so if it's over full it flows into the dike That means I can get a reduction, but the water companies won't tell you that. It's only because I've worked in consumer law for years that I was aware of this,' says the former trading standards officer.
John Thorne retro-fitted a system to his four-bedroom property in Leicestershire last year and his only regret is that he didn't fit an even larger system.
He installed a number of green technologies, including solar panels, during the refurbishment, but it is rainwater harvesting that has impressed him the most. 'It is the most reliable and trouble free of the various systems we installed.'
As his wife is a keen gardener, he sank a 2,300 litre tank under his lawn but now wishes he had even more storage capacity. 'If I was doing it again I would have had a second tank just for the garden,' the 79-year-old says.
The Stormsaver (www.stormsaver.com) system, which cost him around £8,000 in total, has halved his water bill, delivering a saving of £300 per year. As well as providing water for his garden, it is also used to flush his toilet and supply his washing machine.
Although it will take decades to recoup his investment, Mr Imrie believes that it still makes financial as well as environmental sense.
'I'm sure installing rainwater harvesting has increased the value of the property. So I think I would get my money back because of the growing interest in environmental issues.'
Jules Young, on the other hand, will be recouping her investment in about three years. The management consultant installed a Klargester Environmental/Envireau (www.envireau.co.uk) system during major refurbishment work to her semi-detached Victorian home last year.
'We originally looked at using it for the toilet but the economics didn't pay out because you would need two sets of pipes running through the house, which would take about 12 years to pay back, so we restricted it to the garden,' Miss Jones says.
As a result, her system cost less than £2,000 in total to install and involved little disruption. It also means that if the UK suffers another drought, her garden, which covers almost an acre, is likely to survive relatively unscathed.
'When we installed the system last summer there was actually a hosepipe ban in this area. Avoiding the full impact of a ban in the future was certainly one of our motivations. As we develop the garden over coming years it is going to be very useful.
"It would give us five to six hours of continuous watering, which, during an extremely long period of drought, would allow you to maintain your high specimen plants rather than your whole garden.'
Installing and maintaining the system has also been remarkably stress free.
'Even the builders found it straightforward and self-explanatory, even though they hadn't done it before,' she says. 'It's also easy to maintain as it's not difficult to get to the filter and remove any leaves.'
But is a rainwater harvesting system really necessary in the light of last summer's wash-out. 'Hot dry weather is sure to be a feature of the future, so unless you intend to grow palms this seems to be the way to go.'
--------------------------------------------------------------------------------
Fact file
5 litres per day is the minimum amount of water we need to survive
120-220 litres is the typical domestic consumption per person
35 per cent is flushed down the toilet
12 per cent is used in washing machines
6 per cent is used in the garden
65 per cent of water consumption occurs in the home
5,000 UK homes use rainwater harvesting
500,000 homes and workplaces use the system in Germany
--------------------------------------------------------------------------------
Useful links
The Environment Agency website has lots of advice on saving water at home, as well as a report on rainwater harvesting. Go to: www.environment-agency.gov.uk/savewater
For data on average rainfall for various parts of the UK, go to www.metoffice.com/climate/uk/averages
For details on suppliers of rainwater harvesting technologies, go to the sector's trade body, the UK Rainwater Harvesting Association at www.ukrha.org
For information on this and other environmental issues, go to the Centre for Alternative Technologies at www.cat.org.uk. You can also gain advice by calling 01654 705989
If you wish are interested in buying low-flush toilets, waterless urinals, water efficient taps and showers, and flow restrictors, go to www.greenbuildingstore.co.uk
By David Waller
full article
10 steps to going green
Almost every business has an impact on the environment. Depending on your enterprise, keeping this 'footprint' to a minimum could either be a central part of what you
Start recycling
Paper makes up approximately 70% of all office waste in the UK. If you want to do something about this, it is easy to set up a recycling scheme in your office – not just for paper, but for metal, glass, print cartridges and other materials too. The website - www.recycle-more.co.uk - which lists telephone numbers for every local authority in the UK will help you put this into practice.
When printer manufacturer Lexmark carried out a survey of UK offices in 2004, it found that £230m worth of printed paper is wasted in British businesses every year; incredibly, a fifth of the 110 billion sheets printed (the equivalent of one million trees) are lost on desks, left on the printer or binned within five minutes.
Cutting down on waste is a challenge for every business. If you want to streamline yours, you could first look at your energy needs; are you switching off lights, unused plugs and using energy-efficient light bulbs. What about your water usage? Simple steps, such as putting a glass jar in the toilet tank (which reduces the amount of water used per flush) can make a difference. The best part is that your efforts won't just benefit the environment, but will reduce your energy and stationery bills too.
Buy green
If you are going to run your business from a building, such as an office or factory, you may need to buy in a lot of supplies: stationery, cleaning products, furniture, toilet paper, and hot drinks. You should try to deal with an ethical supplier, such as one like www.greenyouroffice.co.uk which only sells products that promote ecological sustainability, social justice and fair trade principles.
Cut the commute
Not such an issue if you're starting out from your kitchen table, but transport to work is worth considering if you intend to rent an office or begin hiring staff. Encouraging people to use bikes or public transport can help cut pollution and congestion. In the last 50 years, the number of private cars in the UK has risen from approximately two million to around 25 million, so anything you can do to slim the numbers – such as installing bicycle stands or organising a car pool scheme – can only be positive.
Use recycled stationery
The Environment Agency reports that every tonne of recycled paper saves 17 trees and 32,000 litres of water. As well as diverting paper from landfill sites and reducing the amount of chlorine used in manufacture, recycled paper is usually no more expensive to buy and of no discernibly different quality.
Choose ethical services
When you start up a business, you will need to choose a number of different services, such as bank accounts and insurance policies. Your ethics could influence these decisions in many ways. When you open an account for your ethical business, do you care how ethical your bank is? If not, you may only decide to look for the best interest rates and overdraft deal. But if you don't want to support a bank which may fund international arms deals or oil drilling, there are a number of ethical options out there.
Employ clean design and technology
If you plan to launch a new product, there are many ways to incorporate your ethics from the very start. If you want to check that every stage of your design process is as environmentally friendly as possible, you could talk to DesignTrack, a free and confidential service offered by the Envirowise agency. They will send over a design advisor to look at your idea, and suggest ways to reduce the environmental impact of your product over its entire lifecycle.
Use eco-friendly packaging
As a nation, we generate some 400m tonnes of waste annually, a figure which is growing by 3% each year. Much of this is product packaging, frequently plastic-based and hugely polluting.
Regular plastic can be replaced by either recycled plastics or compostable plastic alternatives. Envirowise has a free downloadable guide entitled: Unpack Those Hidden Savings: 120 Tips on Reducing Packaging Use and Costs.
by Paul Allen - full article
Start recycling
Paper makes up approximately 70% of all office waste in the UK. If you want to do something about this, it is easy to set up a recycling scheme in your office – not just for paper, but for metal, glass, print cartridges and other materials too. The website - www.recycle-more.co.uk - which lists telephone numbers for every local authority in the UK will help you put this into practice.
When printer manufacturer Lexmark carried out a survey of UK offices in 2004, it found that £230m worth of printed paper is wasted in British businesses every year; incredibly, a fifth of the 110 billion sheets printed (the equivalent of one million trees) are lost on desks, left on the printer or binned within five minutes.
Cutting down on waste is a challenge for every business. If you want to streamline yours, you could first look at your energy needs; are you switching off lights, unused plugs and using energy-efficient light bulbs. What about your water usage? Simple steps, such as putting a glass jar in the toilet tank (which reduces the amount of water used per flush) can make a difference. The best part is that your efforts won't just benefit the environment, but will reduce your energy and stationery bills too.
Buy green
If you are going to run your business from a building, such as an office or factory, you may need to buy in a lot of supplies: stationery, cleaning products, furniture, toilet paper, and hot drinks. You should try to deal with an ethical supplier, such as one like www.greenyouroffice.co.uk which only sells products that promote ecological sustainability, social justice and fair trade principles.
Cut the commute
Not such an issue if you're starting out from your kitchen table, but transport to work is worth considering if you intend to rent an office or begin hiring staff. Encouraging people to use bikes or public transport can help cut pollution and congestion. In the last 50 years, the number of private cars in the UK has risen from approximately two million to around 25 million, so anything you can do to slim the numbers – such as installing bicycle stands or organising a car pool scheme – can only be positive.
Use recycled stationery
The Environment Agency reports that every tonne of recycled paper saves 17 trees and 32,000 litres of water. As well as diverting paper from landfill sites and reducing the amount of chlorine used in manufacture, recycled paper is usually no more expensive to buy and of no discernibly different quality.
Choose ethical services
When you start up a business, you will need to choose a number of different services, such as bank accounts and insurance policies. Your ethics could influence these decisions in many ways. When you open an account for your ethical business, do you care how ethical your bank is? If not, you may only decide to look for the best interest rates and overdraft deal. But if you don't want to support a bank which may fund international arms deals or oil drilling, there are a number of ethical options out there.
Employ clean design and technology
If you plan to launch a new product, there are many ways to incorporate your ethics from the very start. If you want to check that every stage of your design process is as environmentally friendly as possible, you could talk to DesignTrack, a free and confidential service offered by the Envirowise agency. They will send over a design advisor to look at your idea, and suggest ways to reduce the environmental impact of your product over its entire lifecycle.
Use eco-friendly packaging
As a nation, we generate some 400m tonnes of waste annually, a figure which is growing by 3% each year. Much of this is product packaging, frequently plastic-based and hugely polluting.
Regular plastic can be replaced by either recycled plastics or compostable plastic alternatives. Envirowise has a free downloadable guide entitled: Unpack Those Hidden Savings: 120 Tips on Reducing Packaging Use and Costs.
by Paul Allen - full article
Sunday 4 November 2007
Government should focus on greater energy efficiency
As the climate crisis finally has become a household concern, decision makers struggle with policy choices. Counteracting climate change has driven a search for alternative fuels rather than the conventional fossil fuels, oil, coal, and natural gas. These fossil fuels produce carbon dioxide, the major cause of global warming.
As an energy source, biofuels have won support and drawn criticism. The main biofuels in the U.S. today are ethanol made from corn and, to a lesser extent, biodiesel made from oilseeds (like soybeans, palm nuts, and rapeseed). Currently in development is cellulosic ethanol made from woody plants, switchgrass and organic wastes.
Rather than a green elixir, skeptics from both the left and the right argue that biofuel peril trumps biofuel promise. Cultivating, harvesting and refining crops into fuel requires energy, most of which comes from fossil fuels.
Critics argue that global biofuel production can raise food prices, spur fertilizer and pesticide use, shrink scarce water supplies, bring deforestation, reduce biodiversity, eliminate
Advertisement
wildlife habitat, lead to serious food shortages, increase poverty, further consolidation of corporate agribusiness and harm small farmers and rural communities. Besides, the potential total energy produced by America's ethanol plants amounts to only a tiny fraction of the overall energy market.
As a fuel source, moreover, ethanol contains just two-thirds as much energy as gasoline. And it takes more energy to produce a gallon of ethanol than it actually contains. Whether corn or cellulosic, ethanol production will increase America's total energy consumption, not decrease it. Adding more ethanol and other crop-based fuels also can worsen air quality.
Oil dependence and global warming intersect in America's transportation sector. Cars and trucks account for two-thirds of our total oil use, and oil generates one-third of the U.S. carbon dioxide emissions that cause global warming pollution.
Energy efficiency is the cleanest, cheapest and fastest way to cut oil demand. Raising fuel economy standards for our cars and light trucks, for example, saves money at the pump, cuts oil dependence and curbs global warming. A 3 percent increase in fuel economy standards for vehicles would save more gas than the entire 2006 production of corn ethanol.
Battery-electric, plug-in hybrids and hydrogen-fuel cell vehicles produce few toxic emissions or greenhouse gases and cause little disruption to the land, unlike the millions of acres required for the mass production of ethanol. Traveling on electricity generates no tailpipe pollution and costs 1-2 cents per mile compared to 10-15 cents per mile for traveling on gasoline or biofuels. One expert estimates that replacing the entire U.S. vehicle fleet with plug-in hybrids would decrease the nation's oil consumption by 70 percent.
Beyond the transportation sector, industrial, residential and commercial energy efficiency measures can cut energy usage and save money. This can be accomplished by increasing the energy efficiency standards applied to building design and construction, appliances, heating and cooling, lighting, computer applications and electric motors. A comprehensive energy program includes such conservation measures as improvements in recycling and mass transit.
When designing public policy to encourage the highest and best use of our energy resources, wind and sunlight, which can be harnessed for thermal, mechanical and electrical energy, meet the test. Plants, on the other hand, are problematic partly because they can be used for many non-fuel purposes: human nutrition, pharmaceuticals, clothing, chemicals, animal feed and building materials.
Most of the important global warming initiatives have come from the state and local levels. But America needs a national energy policy that moves us beyond our reliance on polluting fossil fuels.
With the technology and knowledge now available, we can begin to make the transformation. Besides, renewable energy creates more jobs per unit of energy produced and per dollar spent than fossil fuel technologies. The wind turbines and solar panels that produce green energy provide good-paying manufacturing jobs.
Lawmakers should back clean alternative fuels and stricter automobile and industrial emissions standards. Such a green energy policy means renewable energy and energy efficiency, both of which stabilize and reduce carbon dioxide emissions.
Government should institute a certification process for ensuring the production of alternative fuels in an ecologically and socially sustainable manner. Actually, any energy policy ought to be carefully managed and performance-based.
The Energy Policy Act of 2005 authorized a variety of research, development and utilization incentives for biofuels. We should now seriously invest in more sustainable energy sources like wind and solar. By harnessing the energy derived from natural sources like sunlight and wind, we can generate clean, safe, renewable, affordable and reliable electric power without contributing to global warming pollution.
Scharnau teaches U.S. history at Northeast Iowa Community College, Peosta. His publications include journal articles on labor history in Dubuque and Iowa. Readers may comment on this feature via e-mail at doubletake@wcinet.com or by posting a comment below the article on THonline.com.
By Ralph Scharnau
full article
As an energy source, biofuels have won support and drawn criticism. The main biofuels in the U.S. today are ethanol made from corn and, to a lesser extent, biodiesel made from oilseeds (like soybeans, palm nuts, and rapeseed). Currently in development is cellulosic ethanol made from woody plants, switchgrass and organic wastes.
Rather than a green elixir, skeptics from both the left and the right argue that biofuel peril trumps biofuel promise. Cultivating, harvesting and refining crops into fuel requires energy, most of which comes from fossil fuels.
Critics argue that global biofuel production can raise food prices, spur fertilizer and pesticide use, shrink scarce water supplies, bring deforestation, reduce biodiversity, eliminate
Advertisement
wildlife habitat, lead to serious food shortages, increase poverty, further consolidation of corporate agribusiness and harm small farmers and rural communities. Besides, the potential total energy produced by America's ethanol plants amounts to only a tiny fraction of the overall energy market.
As a fuel source, moreover, ethanol contains just two-thirds as much energy as gasoline. And it takes more energy to produce a gallon of ethanol than it actually contains. Whether corn or cellulosic, ethanol production will increase America's total energy consumption, not decrease it. Adding more ethanol and other crop-based fuels also can worsen air quality.
Oil dependence and global warming intersect in America's transportation sector. Cars and trucks account for two-thirds of our total oil use, and oil generates one-third of the U.S. carbon dioxide emissions that cause global warming pollution.
Energy efficiency is the cleanest, cheapest and fastest way to cut oil demand. Raising fuel economy standards for our cars and light trucks, for example, saves money at the pump, cuts oil dependence and curbs global warming. A 3 percent increase in fuel economy standards for vehicles would save more gas than the entire 2006 production of corn ethanol.
Battery-electric, plug-in hybrids and hydrogen-fuel cell vehicles produce few toxic emissions or greenhouse gases and cause little disruption to the land, unlike the millions of acres required for the mass production of ethanol. Traveling on electricity generates no tailpipe pollution and costs 1-2 cents per mile compared to 10-15 cents per mile for traveling on gasoline or biofuels. One expert estimates that replacing the entire U.S. vehicle fleet with plug-in hybrids would decrease the nation's oil consumption by 70 percent.
Beyond the transportation sector, industrial, residential and commercial energy efficiency measures can cut energy usage and save money. This can be accomplished by increasing the energy efficiency standards applied to building design and construction, appliances, heating and cooling, lighting, computer applications and electric motors. A comprehensive energy program includes such conservation measures as improvements in recycling and mass transit.
When designing public policy to encourage the highest and best use of our energy resources, wind and sunlight, which can be harnessed for thermal, mechanical and electrical energy, meet the test. Plants, on the other hand, are problematic partly because they can be used for many non-fuel purposes: human nutrition, pharmaceuticals, clothing, chemicals, animal feed and building materials.
Most of the important global warming initiatives have come from the state and local levels. But America needs a national energy policy that moves us beyond our reliance on polluting fossil fuels.
With the technology and knowledge now available, we can begin to make the transformation. Besides, renewable energy creates more jobs per unit of energy produced and per dollar spent than fossil fuel technologies. The wind turbines and solar panels that produce green energy provide good-paying manufacturing jobs.
Lawmakers should back clean alternative fuels and stricter automobile and industrial emissions standards. Such a green energy policy means renewable energy and energy efficiency, both of which stabilize and reduce carbon dioxide emissions.
Government should institute a certification process for ensuring the production of alternative fuels in an ecologically and socially sustainable manner. Actually, any energy policy ought to be carefully managed and performance-based.
The Energy Policy Act of 2005 authorized a variety of research, development and utilization incentives for biofuels. We should now seriously invest in more sustainable energy sources like wind and solar. By harnessing the energy derived from natural sources like sunlight and wind, we can generate clean, safe, renewable, affordable and reliable electric power without contributing to global warming pollution.
Scharnau teaches U.S. history at Northeast Iowa Community College, Peosta. His publications include journal articles on labor history in Dubuque and Iowa. Readers may comment on this feature via e-mail at doubletake@wcinet.com or by posting a comment below the article on THonline.com.
By Ralph Scharnau
full article
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