I believe that environmentalism needs to focus primarily on one objective--drastically reducing energy consumption. I believe that biofuels, carbon sequestration and hybrid auto motors are gimmicks concocted to make it seem we can carry on more or less as we are and have a habitable planet two generations from now. Besides, even if we do manage to find a carbon-free power generation solution there will remain plenty of other human actives that put our survival in peril, such as mining. I believe that we need to recognize all human industry as something harmful (like chemotherapy) and assess our need for it, on a case by case basis, from this perspective. E.g., obviously we need some mining, the question is how much of the products of mining do we really need? Do we need to replace every electronic we own ever two years, e.g.? Can we build computers and cell phones to last longer? And we need to be realistic, big business will fight an environment campaign that seeks this objective to its grave--its survival is dependent on it churning out a steady stream of crap--iPods, camcorders, personal computers etc.--that is designed to break quickly forcing the user to constantly buy replacements whether they desire to or not.*
*In Japan, where big business is directly, and without pretense as here, subsidized by the county's sub-fascist government, conservation is illegal. They have a law that makes it prohibitively expensive to own a car that is more than 6 years old.
> Date: Sat, 10 Jan 2009 10:40:28 -0500
> From: dwayne.monroe at gmail.com
> To: lbo-talk at lbo-talk.org
> Subject: Re: [lbo-talk] Prospects for algae biofuels?
>
> Andy:
>
> Part of the problem with ethanol, as I understand it, is the energy
> required to process and distill it, and resultant CO2 production. Is
> this less of an issue with algae?
>
> .....
>
>
>
> Yes, I think it is.
>
>
> My opinion is that the real problem with ethanol is agri-business'
> firm command of the most popular source for the fuel, corn.
>
>
> So, with ethanol production, you get all the agri-biz created issues
> we've discussed before.
>
>
> To put it another way, even if less carbon intensive methods for
> processing, distillation and other steps are available (and of course,
> there are), it's a good bet outfits such as Archer Daniels Midland and
> allied firms will opt for the lower cost, high yield, C02 robust
> techniques which have served their profit goals so well for so long.
>
>
>
>
>
>
>
> .d.
> ___________________________________
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