Biodiversivist’s Posts

• WWF, Global Warming, and the Point of No Return 0

  Posted 6 days, 21 hours ago

  
  
  I put together a Microsoft Excel interactive pie chart that can be opened or downloaded (file downloaded from this link is guaranteed not to have a virus) that may help people to put into perspective various efforts (like doubling the efficiency of the US car fleet, or the elimination of coal for electricity generation) to reduce greenhouse gases.
  
  I read the WWF study last night. At first I was a little shell-shocked, but as I read on I grew Read More

• A2B verses A123 0

  Posted 2 weeks, 1 day ago

  

  I've seen a couple of these A2B machines running around town. I finally spotted one on display at a scooter store. That's my electric bike parked next to it. Some yahoo wanting to purchase an electric scooter to drive from his yacht at one end of a dock to the mailbox at the other end had waylaid the proprietor so I never got a chance to test ride it. You can find a video of a test ride done by the WSJ here.
  
  From the above video:
  
  "…after people ride it for a while… Read More

• Bicycles, Trauma Centers, and Injury Severity Scores 0

  Posted 2 weeks, 1 day ago

  
  Two recent articles have motivated me to do another biking post. First up is this one, from Science Daily
  

  Despite the wide-spread attention paid to the importance of wearing helmets, helmet use did not change during the time period of the study, and more than 33 percent of 329 bicycle injury victims had a significant head injury. Even more alarming, the number of chest injuries increased by 15 percent and abdominal injuries rose three-fold over the last five years. “We were astounded by that data,”
  
  “We’re talking about injured spleens and livers, internal bleeding, rib fractures, and… Read More

• Transgressing identified and quantified planetary boundaries 0

  Posted 1 month ago

  Apparently, we've punched through three of those boundaries already, two of them big time. See here. You can read the entire paper in the journal Nature here.

  Now, largely because of a rapidly growing reliance on fossil fuels and industrialized forms of agriculture, human activities have reached a level that could damage the systems that keep Earth in the desirable Holocene state.

  
  
  Note that of the two causes listed, one of them is industrial agriculture, which is also wholly dependent on fossil fuels. I don't have the answer but it surely isn't mixing the products of industrial… Read More

• Corn Ethanol Hoses Police Fleet 0

  Posted 1 month, 1 week ago

  According to Green Inc., lab tests have confirmed that a high ethanol blend was to blame for taking about 70 police cars out of service in Baltimore. At first it was suspected that diesel had contaminated the fuel. Here is a video of the mechanics flushing out the fuel injectors. According to the maintenance supervisor in that video the cars were misfiring and some were running on only two cylinders resulting in low power. If you have ever fantasized about escaping from the police in a high-speed chase, you just missed your chance. I suspect that the ethanol… Read More

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Biodiversivist’s Recent Comments

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  How odd that he ignored global warming. Guess he didn't want to alienate potential book buyers. Another example of science taking a back seat to profit. Our brains are large enough to hold multiple contradictory opinions and ideals.On Michael Specter's new book 'Denialism' misses its targets posted 5 days, 3 hours ago 43 Responses

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  Nice work, Blackbird Those are well-deserved bragging points ;) Hope others are secretly envious and making plans to emulate you. It will get easier and easier to do so as consumer demand spurs companies to compete for their dollars. Where would we be without early adopters?On The long and wind-powered road posted 6 days, 4 hours ago 7 Responses

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  Nice article, Slide # 2 of the bioethanol plant is interesting. The caption says: "..The idea is to use straw left over from farmer's fields rather than from corn.." According to this link: http://www.google.com/hostednews/ap/article/ALeqM5i7vUtLGiDHp6gRom-AZMaRObyzTAD9BK80F00 "Farmers might be paying a price if they sell plant residue from harvested cornfields. The leftover plant material — also called corn stover — is being bought by some energy companies. They turn it into pellets and sell it to coal-fired power plants. Some companies will pay up to $20 a ton for long-term contracts. At an average of 3 tons per acre, a mere 100-acre field could yield a gross profit of $6,000. But University of Nebraska-Lincoln farm experts say that residue is even more valuable to the farmer by adding nutrients and lending structure to the soil. Experts say the nutrient value of corn residue ranges from $17 a ton to $46 a ton. Without that residue, the farmer will have to add more fertilizer, raising input costs." Another case of one step forward, two steps back. The caption also says: Just when the fuel can be produced in a quantity needed for widespread use remains an open question." "When" may very well be "never." We can wait for better biofuels that don't consume the planet. I would think that the battery in a plug-in hybrid could also be used along with wind and solar. You don't need an all electric car for this purpose. I strongly suspect that electrified cars will accelerate consumer purchases of solar panels. They compliment one another and create a non-linear change for the better. PBS, like newspapers, is good for entertainment but a poor media for conveying complex topics. Blogs work better for complexity. PBS viewers will never be told that plug-in hybrids would also work or that the bioethanol plant is likely a waste of valuable funding.On The long and wind-powered road posted 1 week, 1 day ago 7 Responses

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  BEEZKPR, I tend to agree with most of your comment. My family also treats animal products like a valued commodity to be used sparingly and efficiently, like the rest of the world does, even though we can afford to do otherwise. We are careful not to wear that fact on our sleeves (not trying to use it as a JONESY) as some people do, which tends to backfire. Keep in mind that you are the benefactor of a 45-cent subsidy for every gallon of ethanol and a dollar for every gallon of biodiesel that you consume, which came from fellow American's wages. So, in a sense, you are at least in part, using fellow citizen's money to avoid giving money to an overseas trading partner, and also using it to support others in your line of business. Also be careful for what you wish for. Commercially viable cellulosic ethanol would ruin the market for corn, which is presently selling for about $4.00 a bushel, a 100% increase over what it was averaging prior to our corn ethanol ramp up. Cellulosic ethanol is corn ethanol's worst nightmare. Choosing to use food-based fuels to support your business and your fellow businessmen is a rational, even predictable decision. However, choosing to use it to keep money out of the hands of "Arabs" is not rational. Biofuel front groups have been fanning the flames of xenophobia to hawk their product. You may be an unwitting recipient of their successful marketing. Go to any comment thread and you will find God fearing American xenophobes motivated by their hatred for "camel jockeys" and "towel heads" to replace gasoline with moonshine in their gas hog poseur pickups and station wagons (cleverly marketed as sport utility vehicles). They think Iraq was connected to 9/11 and don't know that we haven't imported oil from Iran since 1979. They are unaware that Saudi Arabia and Kuwait were our allies in our last two wars (the oil kept flowing and they paid for over half of the cost of the Gulf war) or that the Twin Towers were brought down by hate-filled Koran-thumping religionist xenophobes--their counterparts. 1) If we don't buy oil from the Middle East someone else will (it's fungible). United States purchases cannot impact their income stream. 2) We have not bought oil from Iran for decades. 3) Extremist religious xenophobes brought down the Twin towers, not Iraq. 4) Extremist religious xenophobes require very little funding. 5) The best remedy for war is mutual trade interdependence. I have yet to meet anyone who says that they seek status (keeping up with the Jones). I think that is in part because it is instinctive, not always at the conscious level. Hummers, Flex Fuel and Hybrid logos, as well as biodiesel stickers are all status displays, depending on monkey troop affiliation ; )On Corn-based meat and ethanol: burning the planet to a crisp posted 1 week, 6 days ago 85 Responses

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  FOODPROVIDER, America can't use Brazil as a model for energy independence. Brazil is energy independent for the following reasons: 1) They use a lot less. For every gallon of liquid fuel used by a Brazilian, an American uses just over six. 2) We don't have as much oil per person. 3/4 of Brazil's transportation fuel comes from their oil reserves. 1/4 is from ethanol. 3) Brazil is a tropical country and can grow vast amounts of sugarcane. 4) The net energy gain of sugarcane ethanol can be almost an order of magnitude more efficient than corn ethanol (8-10 times). 5) There are over 100 million fewer Brazilians. Source: http://i-r-squared.blogspot.com/2009/04/more-brazilian-ethanol-whoppers.html Oh, and keep in mind, America already produces about 25% more ethanol than Brazil. There are rumors we might even start exporting it to Brazil because sugar prices are at a three decade high and the cost of making ethanol out of it has become unprofitable (food producers battling biofuel producers for the same feedstock). Source: http://www.reuters.com/article/latestCrisis/idUSN21494094 http://www.greentechmedia.com/green-light/post/brazilians-switch-to-gas-as-ethanol-prices-climb-a-dark-sign-of-things-to-c/On Corn-based meat and ethanol: burning the planet to a crisp posted 1 week, 6 days ago 85 Responses