From
IshConAnother Slashdot article highlights the release of a University of Utah study that shows "[a] staggering 98 tons of prehistoric, buried plant material - that's 196,000 pounds - is required to produce each gallon of gasoline we burn in our cars, SUVs, trucks and other vehicles." Further quoting the Slashdot story: "For a reasonably efficient car, riding 25 miles per gallon, this translates to 4 tons of prehistoric plants per mile, or more than two tons per kilometer. The research paper also mentions that every day, we are using the fossil fuel equivalent of all the plants growing during a whole year just for our cars." Read a draft of the full study [PDF] if you want.
This makes me feel awful. Here I am driving to my girlfriend's house every other weekend, 2 hours each way, and I discover this. Of course, I'd never blame the fact that I do this driving with a gasoline engine on someone else... I could always just
not drive so much. I know that. The fact of the matter is, however, that this shouldn't even be a problem by now; we should be long past using fossil fules by now. It's a completely archaic method of energy production. Think about it; there are thousands of miniature
explosions going on within your car in order to make it move, all the while using up the last few drops of oil left on the planet (current estimates are at about 50 years worth left at current usage trends).
Read more of my thoughts at Dirty Greek DOT Org
From
IshConAnother Slashdot article highlights the release of a University of Utah study that shows "[a] staggering 98 tons of prehistoric, buried plant material - that's 196,000 pounds - is required to produce each gallon of gasoline we burn in our cars, SUVs, trucks and other vehicles." Further quoting the Slashdot story: "For a reasonably efficient car, riding 25 miles per gallon, this translates to 4 tons of prehistoric plants per mile, or more than two tons per kilometer. The research paper also mentions that every day, we are using the fossil fuel equivalent of all the plants growing during a whole year just for our cars." Read a draft of the full study [PDF] if you want.
This makes me feel awful. Here I am driving to my girlfriend's house every other weekend, 2 hours each way, and I discover this. Of course, I'd never blame the fact that I do this driving with a gasoline engine on someone else... I could always just
not drive so much. I know that. The fact of the matter is, however, that this shouldn't even be a problem by now; we should be long past using fossil fules by now. It's a completely archaic method of energy production. Think about it; there are thousands of miniature
explosions going on within your car in order to make it move, all the while using up the last few drops of oil left on the planet (current estimates are at about 50 years worth left at current usage trends).
As Reynard Fox puts it:Our addiction to oil is one of those few things that has the power to severely injure our nation and its economy. I know oil is the source of great prosperity in the industrial nations of the world. I also know that we import over sixty percent of our oil and will import nearly seventy percent by the year 2010. We are at the end of a pipeline extending around the world. That pipeline is subject to disruptions and is increasingly difficult to maintain. Terrorists, rogue dictators, demagogues and simple physical forces all are working to thwart our attempts to secure adequate supplies of this commodity. Soon the approaching maturity of the oil industry will start to have its own impact. Will we be ready for the problems that diminishing oil supplies will bring to the industrial world? It currently seems unlikely but who knows the future?
Of course, this dependency and these diminishing supplies have led to our "sleeping with the devil" as it were - going into business deals with governments with anything but a good human-rights track record - such as the Taliban and the Saudis. To make a long story short, (as if that's possible) our dependence on fossil fuels MUST soon come to an end, or we're in for a seriously bumpy ride.
Read more of my thoughts at Dirty Greek DOT Org