Are we consuming our way out?

I am, by my very nature, the type of person that will always look at a problem and try to find the way to fix it. I do this at home when my kids are fighting, or when my wife is struggling with something. I do it throughout the day both in my job as a web developer and in a hundred other circumstances when I see some problem that I determine needs a solution. This may be something as simple as finding some creative way of watering my cubicle plants, or something as complex as coming up with a new design for a wind turbine with less blade span that I could use at my suburban home. At any rate this natural tendency more often that not manifests itself in some creation or device. Because of this, I think, I am very prone to looking at our forthcoming problem with energy dependence or more to the point lack of energy independence as a “problem” that can be mitigated through Energy Efficient (EE) devices, alternative power sources, and or bio-fuels and the like. Now granted, these are all great alternatives, and we at our house have begun to move in that direction. But do they really address the issue? I read an article today that struck me as very balanced; it made some very interesting points and led me to think about some of my views.
The crux of the article as I saw it was that while we continue to focus on the new and improved, EE, and alternative ways of doing things we lose focus on some of the most elemental things that everyone can do to become more responsible (Ref. this blog entry to get an idea of where I come down on environmental responsibility. I know my views will be contrary to many of yours; I’m not trying to change your mind, just let you know what’s in mine.). Things like reducing our personal level of consumption, giving second lives to things through creative reuse, and recycling our resources. One of the points of the article that struck me was this:

“Enter big enviro telling people that excessive consumption is not bad at all because it gives the consumer the ability to affect change with purchasing power. The erudite techno-magician waves his wand, uttering ‘Don’t look at the mounds of discarded junk that go into landfills. Look over here at the fabulous eco-gadgets of our corporate friends.’”

This made me look at a long held position of mine. As I mentioned on the Earth Day Blog that I put up, I think it is a good thing for large retailers like Wal-Mart to be making efforts to bring “Greening” to the public consciousness. I still believe this to be true. I do however have to revisit my idea of a consumer driven movement towards self sufficiency.
We humans as a species have faced other obstacles to our survival in the past. As we continued to thrive and multiply, we began to have problems hunting or gathering all of the food stuffs that we needed from nature. So we manipulated them to our advantage; read industrial agri-business. This did solve the problem with starvation, but in my opinion changed the quality of the food, and vastly altered the face of the landscape; neither for the better. My point of this digression is that are we poised to do the same again? If we focus solely on EE appliances, and alternative means of replacing our energy, does that really do anything for the problem? We are still consuming at the same rate. I don’t believe that we should, as a populous, leave our city living ways and move to the country to return to a village centered way of life (although for some that wouldn’t be so bad…*wink*.). But I do think we can definitely look at our patterns of consumption and see where we can improve on that before trying to just find a quick technology solution. I’m not going to send my ’87 Toyota to the scrap heap for a new hybrid just to save a few miles to the gallon if you know what I mean. Give the article a read if you have the time, and share your opinions.
‘Til next time.
P~

alternative fuels dillema

original post - Monday, March 05, 2007

Alternative fuel dillema

So, I was watching a show called future cars the other night. This particular episode was all about alternative fuels and outlined a host of different fuel types; everything from electric, solar electric, hybrids, bio-diesels made from natural oils and/or recycled auto parts, hydrogen fuel cells and even one that ran off of compressed air of all things. So initially I'm thinking "Cool, always good to see that the smart people are out there trying to come up with some ideas for alternatives!" Being the obsessive type that I am, I can't get the show out of my mind. Then like a bolt of clarity it hits me. How many different types of fuel do we use to fill up our cars now? I don't mean octane levels or diesels; I mean actual types? Petroleum types. That's it! One type! We can go to any fueling station and find essentially the same product. That makes for standardization and simplicity. And that is what made the petroleum industry so successful. It's also what helped to make out current automobile industry so successful.
Now back to the alternative fuels situation; as I said there were quite a few different alternatives to fuel sources and different engines types to run at least half of them. So I refer to the old adage, "United we stand, divided we fall." As long as we debate and try to find and settle on all of the different types of alternative fuel sources we will have a hard time unifying any number of persons together to actually solve the addiction to oil. By our nature I believe that we want simplicity and convenience. I don't see how this is going to be possible if we are forced to look out for that particular station that has a hydrogen fuel cell refilling pump, or to schedule our day around where we can or can't go based on who has an electric car charging apparatus. We really need to settle on some type of standard and move forward in that direction with a unified effort. I don't know what that alternative may be, but I do have some input on what I consider the big three.
1. Hydrogen fuel cells are my least preferred, not because they are not efficient or exciting, but they would require a lot of legislation, and major infrastructure changes and upgrades. They also require a new type of vehicle, with a new engine, which will mean retraining existing mechanics or training new mechanics to repair them. If you know you can't get the car fixed why are you going to invest in one?
2. Electric cars are a very close second. They can be very powerful, and because they have very few moving parts can be exceptionally long lasting with little maintenance. Another thing I like about them is the fact that they have the potential to be "fueled" at home; either by plugging into the grid for pennies a day, or by actually farming your own power through solar, wind or micro hydro power generation, etc. However, how often are people going to want to purchase a vehicle that will require them to also invest in a way to fuel it? And let's not forget that they are notorious for having short distance capabilities so the single car owners will generally pass on them because they are limited in their travel options.
3. I prefer the idea of bio diesels over all of the other fuels sources. That is not to say that they are a perfect solution, but as I see it they are a very good starting point to break the cycle. Although bio-diesel fuels have a higher freezing point (meaning that they will start to gel up in cold weather before standard petro-diesels will; this gel up issue can be overcome in cold environs with a second tank or tank warming system), they are usable with little or no modification in any diesel engine. This brings me to the second issue with them. There are few available models of diesel passenger vehicles other than trucks on the market today. The Diesel engine is a very tried and true technology though, and many models are available overseas. I don't think it would be a stretch to expect that the auto industry could fill in this gap. I am not a fan of government getting in the way of business. I think that the market will work if you let it. If we were able to require a percentage of diesel fuel sold to be bio-diesel and could make it affordable enough, I think we would begin to see a migration to this alternative. It gets greater mileage, the engines run for a long time, there is a large pool of service centers, and its exhaust is much cleaner than regular gasoline. Add to this the fact that if a bio-diesel station couldn't be found, regular diesel can be used with no problems. This creates the simplicity and convenience we need.
As I said to begin with, these are just my opinions; I'd love to hear yours!
P~