A long time ago I called for beta testers for a new service that we are rolling out here at The Sietch. Andy over at greenspree was brave enough to give it a try. He is in the process of building his own straw bale home this summer, a process he has decided to document at his new My Sietch blogging space. Below is an Article I thought was very interesting. Do you want to sign up for your own blog? If you want to get your own fully functional blog, with full control over what you post and when you post it click here. We are still in beta so there might be a couple of bugs, but you can help squash them! If you write something really cool I will feature it on the main site and the regular readers of The Sietch can take a look.
Why I oppose ethanol technology by Greenspree at My Sietch
Ethanol is a red herring, it can reduce net CO2 emissions but will also require huge amounts of resources to grow, distill and distribute. In order for ethanol to replace gasoline all cars would need to be retooled to be able to run on 100% ethanol (the most currently available pump varieties are a blend with mostly gasoline; E10 or E15) plus to supply the world with enough ethanol to run all internal combustion engines could require more or most of the arable land that is currently available, leaving little or none for food production.
The real emphasis should be on changing how society consumes energy, making our processes more efficient and sustainable and harnessing the free and mostly unused energy the sun throws at us constantly. In fact the real crux of the matter is we need to reinvent the way we travel and move things. We need to reduce the number of vehicles and make the ones we use more efficient. Whether this means switching to biodiesel or hydrogen fuel cells, electricity, etc… the most important step is to go on a car diet. Personal transportation should be reduced to next to nothing. Trying to force technology to catch up with our consumption is a battle we have been steadily losing ground on for the last century and it shows.
Continue reading Guest Essay – Why I Oppose Ethanol Technology