America needs a better, cleaner, cheaper and more sustainable way of getting from point A to point B. This much is clear. The consequences are simply now too great to ignore.
Biggest environmental problems: Oil, diesel and gasoline. They float on water when spilled and are incredibly toxic. What’s more, gasoline and diesel combustion emissions contribute over half of all greenhouse gas emissions. Plastics made from petroleum foul our oceans, kill animal life, and fill our landfills.
In just one year, Americans generate 250+ million tons of garbage (2005 data). While about 30 percent of it gets recycled or composted, 164 million tons are tossed away, including:
26,800,000 tons of food
8,550,000 tons of furniture and furnishings
6,330,000 tons of clothing and footwear
5,190,000 tons of glass beer and soda bottles
4,200,000 tons of plastic wrap and bags
3,650,000 tons of junk mail
3,470,000 tons of diapers
3,160,000 tons of office paper
3,070,000 tons of tires
2,820,000 tons of carpets and rugs
2,230,000 tons of newspapers
2,060,000 tons of appliances
1,520,000 tons of magazines
1,170,000 tons of wine and liquor bottles
970,000 tons of paper plates and cups
840,000 tons of books
830,000 tons of beer and soda cans
780,000 tons of towels, sheets, and pillowcases
540,000 tons of telephone directories
450,000 tons of milk cartons
160,000 tons of lead-acid (car) batteries
Source: Sierra Club
Fossil Fuel Scarcity
“In 2006, the coal consumption rate was 6.3 Gt per year. Comparing this with reserves of 1600 Gt of coal, people often say “there’s 250 years of coal left.” But if we assume “business as usual” implies a growing consumption, we get a different answer. If the growth rate of coal consumption were to continue at 2% per year (which gives a reasonable fit to the data from 1930 to 2000), then all the coal would be gone in 2096. If the growth rate is 3.4% per year (the growth rate over the last decade), the end of business-as-usual is coming before 2072. Not 250 years, but 60!”
Source: Dr. David MacKay, Professor of Natural Philosophy, Department of Physics, University of Cambridge
Humans face a tsunami of problems with the global economy, energy, and the environment. At the same time, the exploitative relationship of free market economics, fossil fuels and the environment is becoming ever more clear: Companies, people and governments can no longer afford to conduct business with dirty energy sources that pollute the skies, foul our water, melt polar ice caps, or contaminate our lands. Nor can we afford any longer to bury or incinerate solid and liquid wastes.
In our hearts and minds, we surely know better. Governments can legislate for lower emissions, but there’s only so much that regulation can do. Businesses must answer to their shareholders. We aren’t going to stop creating waste. And we currently do very little to change how we treat this thing called trash.
True, we have other things on our minds. Credit is a bittersweet memory for many individuals and businesses who’ve lost their jobs and homes. Many biofuel facilities sit idle, their owners in bankruptcy. Plans for new facilities are either being scaled down or mothballed. Oil prices have plummeted and decimated many alternative energy providers.
To make matters worse, our government is broke. Banking, insurance and finance have cratered. Heavy industry has cratered. Two of 3 US automakers are imploding and taking a huge slice of the American economy driven by thousands of car dealers, parts suppliers, repair shops, tire dealers, OEM manufacturers, etc., down with them.
That leaves you and me holding the bag with what’s left. Our trash. And biomass from nature, at least where it’s proven sustainable. Along with nature’s biomass abundance, we’re always making trash; why not put it to work for America’s future?
Parts of many US National Forests and western wildland-urban interfaces are tinderboxes. Thinning projects are proven to help reduce fuel loads and reduce the risk of catastrophic wildfire, but most of the slash is burned in place; why not put this biomass to work for America’s future?
It is widely believed that petroleum and coal resources are dwindling, even as the world’s population soars and demand increases. Extreme oil price volatility is the new norm. The gap between oil and coal energy values today and the potential offset provided by alternative energy in the next few decades is wide.
We’re going to need all the alternative energy we can create. It better be good.
- America needs to start making a cleaner transportation fuel of great value in the global marketplace.
- America needs good paying, non-menial jobs.
- America needs local involvement in community affairs.
- America needs greener, cleaner businesses.
- America needs green energy independence.
- America’s governments need the tax revenue.
- America needs to clean up its trash and transportation fuels the smart way.
- America needs to boldly step forward into the clean liquid energy frontier.
What kind of whiz-bang biofuel could do any of this?
