DIY Ethanol
Apparently, biofuels are not all that they’re cracked up to be. In fact, it seems that the clearing of land to produce a variety of biofuels (corn and palm oil, for instance) not only destroys land that might otherwise be used for staple crop production but also makes less staple crops available for use as food. These problems are particularly worrisome given the current global food crisis. Perhaps worse, biofuel cultivation reduces the amount of carbon trapping forest that exists, making its production even more costly in terms of carbon emissions than fossil fuels, negating the premise of biofuel utility outright.
So should biofuel cultivation be given up altogether? It seems there are still some worthy options, particularly in the field of sugar and grass ethanol. Another way to salvage the potential of biofuels is a new home ethanol production device. By making fuel out of surplus sugar produced in Mexico and elsewhere, the device sidesteps the major pratfalls of current ethanol production. Whether it’ll catch on or not, at least it’s a fresh take (at $10,000 a pop) on a promising, but alternately troublesome idea. But what are the general steps society needs to take to curb carbon emissions, and how will it happen?
Jim Moriarty of the Surfrider Foundation sees the greening of the business world in the last year as a positive step, and advises that you never, ever buy a plastic bottle of water again.
On the business end, Sir Richard Branson has educated himself (with a little help from Al Gore) about global warming, set up a prize to figure out how to remove carbon from the atmosphere, and tries to make sure that Virgin addresses the challenges of global warming from a number of angles.
On the grassroots end, Majora Carter, the executive director of Sustainable South Bronx, focuses on measures that can be taken by individuals to counteract the problem.
