JChan111’s Recent Comments

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  Sugarcane Doesn't Replace Amazon Forrest

  As some one correctly pointed out to me on another post here on Grist, Brazilian sugarcane is grown in areas that were once prairie lands essentially, and a recent 1 hour news broadcast on NPR about Brazil also said pretty much the same for the soy bean fields used to supply China with millions of tons of soy annually.

  However, has massive worldwide investment in ethanol and the biofuel industry indirectly contributed to an escalation in food prices? Now this is a subject worth more discussion as lands used to grow "anything" bio related will surely displace something else (along with the water and energy needed to pump water from wells), unless it is done purely in an industrial process as some algae derived biofuels might.

  Here's the Biofuel Report from July 4th UK Guardian.

  Secret Report: Biofuel Caused Food Crisis

  -JChan

  On Lugar calls for end to tariff on Brazilian sugarcane ethanol posted 1 year, 4 months ago 19 Responses

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  More Info on Biofuels Driving Up Food Prices

  I'm not trying to be hostile here, nor imply that everyone in oil is a bad actor greedy, only for profit. The same for biofuels. However, profit motive should drive new technology insertion and I'm not really seeing it in oil given the huge oil profits lately.

  Biofuels, just getting started in many ways perhaps deserves some slack with regard to time to prove concepts and bring them to market to help replace oil.

  Here's another article from the UK:

  BioFuels Drive Up Food Prices

  -JChan

  On Not all biofuels are the same; we can do biofuel well or poorly posted 1 year, 4 months ago 27 Responses

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  Rainforests vs Savanna : Brazilian Ethanol

  Ron:

  Yes, indeed Brazil has enough Amazon ecosystem issues to contend with, regardless of where sugar cane supporting the ethanol industry is grown.  I can see how it can get confusing from 4000 miles way. Thanks for the clarification.

  I was merely trying to point out that Brazil is indeed unique with respect to the ethanol industry. I doubt anyone else could duplicate their model..

  -JChan

  On Not all biofuels are the same; we can do biofuel well or poorly posted 1 year, 4 months ago 27 Responses

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  Biodiesel...I Admire the Ad Venture...But ..

  First I wanted to applaud you Sir for participating on Grist. Not many venture capitalists would do the same. You have my utmost respect Sir.

  If I may try and play devils advocate for the moment on why biofuels may have economical obstacles (as compared to competing technologies):

  1) Exxon is going to be selling all their service stations nationwide over the next few years. Why don't they just convert these to biofuels or E85 ethanol and help convince automakers to help make more E85 vehicles? Is there a scalability issue?
  If cellulosic biofuels were reasonable to mass produce to make a large dent in the US energy picture, then why would a company with thousands of smart petrochemists shy away from such an investmentin existing infrastructure on every streetcorner in America? Afterall, even in the corn belt of the US there is a dire need for more E85 service stations with willing customers.

  2. Can mass distribution of a "fluid" (take your pick (gasoline, diesel, hydrogen, ethanol, biofuel) by 20th century standards, compete (in the next few years) economically with home plug-in hybrid automobiles and what already exists in every home, namely electricity from the electric grid? I was going to also ad water, but water already also exists in every US home (food for later nano thoughts).

  3. Many people see the Brazilian model of widespread ethanol use, but as Wolverine has pointed out in an earlier comment, there is a tremendous price to pay on the rain forests of Brazil. Brazil is a country mind you, where they monitor forests via satellite (a concern for the Brazilian gov), but even then trading millions of acres of ethanol producing sugar cane for a lush dense rain forest and all the dependent animal and plant species may ultimately be a huge price to pay for energy independence down the road. As ethanol becomes more expensive and treasured by Brazilian consumer markets (compared to the price of oil) this will only cause more farmers to clear cut forests and try to become a grower. They may appear to be managing this on the surface, but eventually with growing cities this model may become environmentally unsustainable in the years ahead.

  -JChan

  On Not all biofuels are the same; we can do biofuel well or poorly posted 1 year, 4 months ago 27 Responses

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  Collateralized Debt Obligation (CDO) ..Definition

  Here's my take whu Humanity id having a meltdown ...greed and mass consumerism replacing common sense:

  We've become a world of consumer capitalists, who are replacing common sense with greed, and  spiritual values with mass consumption of many varieties.  

  We've become a nation of credit card manufacturers who don't make anything except debt. A capitalist trading system of pump and dump and how to creatively resell that debt in various forms so that we can purchase products from foreign countries (whom we taught how to manufacture what we used to make and sell), and are now teaching others how to manufacture yet again, what we don't make any more.

  All the while, we throw the marketing envelopes away we taught them how to make, and that they are now mailing back to us as junk mail.  

  Yep, in many ways we make and sell junk now as a commodity.

  And why do we do this?

  To massively consume everything left on this planet like a bull dozer clearing the last sacred forest,  leaving nothing for the next generation, but an 'I owe you' to mother Earth.  

  Now that's what I call a collateralized debt obligation (CDO) !"

  -JChan
  

  -JChan

  On Living on the ice shelf posted 1 year, 4 months ago 6 Responses