New Zealand Transition Initiatives Social Network

From oil dependence to local resilience

Alcohol as a fuel and the scientific debate

I was rather embarrassed to think I might be among the millions who have been persuaded by the argument that growing food for fuel will always take the food out of the mouths of starving people, as I have always prided myself on my scepticism when it comes to industry funded research and politics.

It was when David Blume in his addresses as the Ecoshow last weekend drew attention to the work of David Pimentel that my ears really pricked up. I have yet to buy Blume's book Alcohol can be a gas! but do have his DVD.

I spent many years as Director of ASH (Action of Smoking and Health) and used to really enjoy untangling the truth from the fiction in the studies on passive smoking that were emerging. The tobacco industry was terrified that science might prove that breathing other people's smoke might lead to illness or death so was frantically trying to present the issue to politicians and the public as a 'controversy'. The industry used to fund research from a small group of tame scientists, then wheedle them somehow into respectable scientific gatherings. Chest physicians were often looking for extra funding for their symposiums or publications. Lots of naive scientists were taken in and didn't notice what was happening under their noses.. Of course the tobacco industry funded stooge would always manage to get a say in what came out of the conference. They worked with highly paid PR companies to get the message out that the science on passive smoking was "unclear".

Industry funded scientists can be very respectable in other matters. One of the statisticians at the Community Health Dept of Auckland accepted tobacco industry funding. Nice money it was for him too, but I really lost my respect for him.

Yes I can well imagine what the oil companies are up to now to prevent biofuels from being used.

I guess there are scientists on this site who can look at the credibility and funding of David Pimentel and his mates. Maybe Blume is right, maybe wrong, but I really hope some on this site will research the funding and validity of the various studies.

I don't know whether David Blume is right because there were inaccuracies in some things he said about NZ in his talks and he didn't always answer questions fully. He sidetracked a bit. Besides he has really hyped up his book sales and charged big fees, so my mind is open.

Tags: biofuels

Views: 1

▶ Reply to This

Replies to This Discussion

Permalink Reply by Geoff. Waterhouse on October 14, 2008 at 16:57
Hello Deirdre
There were 3 really siginificant things to me that he said. China using alcohol as a fuel at the Olympics, the 1.6 Billion Bushel corn surplus and Waste Vegetable Oil is a worse polluter than Bio Diesel and, if I remember right, ordinary diesel. You saw from what i sent out that he appeared to be right about the alcohol fuel in China, I also Googled the corn surplus and came across the Kansas Grain Growers website which did confirm what he said, in fact, according to that website, the 2007 surplus was 1.8 Billion bushels. There is some other interesting stuff on that site. As far as Waste vegetable Oil being a worse polluter, I haven't found anything from my search yet that confirms that particular statement. I will go back to my contacts at "www.biofuelsforum.com" and ask them as there are many of them doing exactly what I am doing.
Look forward to seeing you tomorrow Deirdre
Regards
Geoff. Waterhouse
Permalink Reply by Ted Howard on October 16, 2008 at 9:37
Hi Deidre

Thanks for staying open!

I was alarmed at the hype, and IMO over-confidence in his message, and the lack of stating on a regular basis that though alcohol will allow some small/regional fuel to be available, it will not meet present flow rates. In his book David admits to the need to a powerdown, and using less, but I don't think that came through in his talks. What I saw was a lot of people grasping for a 'silver bullet' to allow a greenwashed version of business-as-usual.

David is a saleman, and has to be that way to sell his book and videos. His talks were taylored to do just that. Thomas on the NZTT list posted this link to free downloadable book on alcohol as a fuel: http://journeytoforever.org/biofuel_library.html is you're interested in this, but don't want to buy, or can't afford David's book.

As a peak oil activist for over 10 years, with connections to geologists, scientists, engineers, I remain unconvinced that business-as-usual REGARDLESS of the fuel we use, is sustainable. The need for a whole industrial process to create and maintain the vehicles, the roads, the alcohol stills and the rest of infrastructure we would consider "normal" within the Global Industrial Civilisation, is unsustainable.

As a transition technology, alcohol may play a part, it may even become very important, but the time to install small local plants and get a true low impact poly-cultural growing system to create the biomass for it was either yesterday or the day before. It's now quite late in the game...exciting times!

Regards
Ted Howard
Nelson
Permalink Reply by Deirdre Kent on October 16, 2008 at 12:27
Yes there can be no suggestion of business as usual because peak oil has now meant the end of economic growth worldwide and a global financial system staggering to keep alive. If the whole thing collapses, as it must eventually, then how much will the NZ dollar be worth? Will we be able to afford oil? So it is not just an interim measure it may be something we really need and if it is done with good permaculture design, then extra food is also produced.

Global economic collapse is sort of overtaking everything else and we rethink the scenarios according to that now.

▶ Reply to Discussion

RSS

Groups -- Login Required to Join

Events -- NZ Time -- Record and Share Notes

© 2012   Created by Deirdre Kent.

Badges  |  Report an Issue  |  Terms of Service

Sign in to chat!