Wednesday, December 14, 2005

Eat your greens - dont drive with them.


Surprise surprise, bio-diesel isn’t the great alternative fuel it was promised to be. As reported in the Guardian by George Monbiot - The biodiesel industry has accidentally invented the world’s most carbon-intensive fuel.
The idea that we can simply replace this fossil legacy – and the extraordinary
power densities it gives us – with ambient energy is the stuff of science
fiction. There is simply no substitute for cutting back. But substitutes are
being sought everywhere. They are being promoted today at the climate talks in
Montreal, by states – such as ours – which seek to avoid the hard decisions
climate change demands. And at least one of them is worse than the fossil fuel
burning it replaces.
The last time I drew attention to the hazards of making
diesel fuel from vegetable oils, I received as much abuse as I have ever been
sent by the supporters of the Iraq war. The biodiesel missionaries, I
discovered, are as vociferous in their denial as the executives of Exxon. I am
now prepared to admit that my previous column was wrong. But they’re not going
to like it. I was wrong because I underestimated the fuel’s destructive impact.
Its definitley worth checking out the full article here.
As he says there is no substitute for cutting back, but people are determined to maintain their current lifestyles at whatever the cost. The idea that its ok to protect the environment as long as it doesn’t threaten our economic stability is very short sighted. Its our economic system that is the problem in the first place. This is where traditional politics falls down, because whether you lean to the left or the right – a society based on production and consumption can only produce more and more waste in pursuit of greater profit.

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