(no subject)

[dchenes]

I had something I wanted to write about, and now I've forgotten what it was. In lieu thereof...


Gas is rapidly approaching being more expensive per gallon than milk. I think there's something wrong with that, but I can't decide whether it's that gas has been stupidly cheap up to now, or whether it's that milk is stupidly expensive. (The other problem, of course, is that it takes gas to transport milk, so the price of milk goes up when the price of gas goes up.)

The reason no other source of energy is as efficient as fossil fuel is that nobody has really developed any other sources of energy yet. I am not a mechanic, but tell me the first gas engines were efficient and I'll laugh at you. I'm half-convinced biodiesel would work if we stopped paying farmers not to grow things, started developing biodiesel technology that runs on soybeans, and started paying farmers to grow soybeans.

I wonder what would have happened if, instead of sinking all that money into interstate highways, we had sunk it into rail systems (by which I mean interstate and intrastate, and light rail) or something somewhat more public than "everybody go out and buy your own car"? (Paging S.M. Stirling...)

Comments

[stemware.livejournal.com]

Gas is more expensive than milk here.

Biodiesel technology runs on soybean oil just fine.

The problem with biodiesel and most alternative energy forms, is they still don't solve the question of global warming. The problem with the ones that will is that they can't provide enough energy to move people and products very long distances and they can't provide sufficient energy to heat and cool homes. The earth is a closed system, and if everyone wants to live an American middle class lifestyle, we'll slowly suffocate ourselves.

Agreement, to a certain extent.

[cuilean.livejournal.com]

I agree that biodiesel and ethanol don't solve the exhaust of greenhouse gasses... however, they do resolve the more immediate problem of debt to foreign sources of fuel. The money that this country pours out to other nations for fossil fuels could be put to better use developing more efficient uses of renewable energy sources.

However, the statement that the earth is a closed-loop system isn't quite correct. We get a fair amount of additional energy from an external source that currently isn't being put to efficient use.

Solar energy is a multi-fold add: it helps to create weather patterns that generate wind that could be used for power, evaporates water to refill the streams for hydroelectric, and so on. Yes, it's difficult to get a decent amount of power solely from solar panels... but there are houses that run just fine off-grid using a combination of solar panels and turbines.

Public mass-transit systems are a dream that unfortunately won't ever catch on in our very free capitalist society. Too many people are accustomed to their own little bubble of metal over which they have control... too unwilling to bend to the schedules of a mass transit system. I still choose to ride the train into the city because it's more pleasant than sitting in traffic.

Wow, this is turning into a ramble. I'll stop now.

Re: Agreement, to a certain extent.

[stemware.livejournal.com]

Yeah. Mine turned into a ramble too, so I deleted 90% of it.