Comments peakoilboy has made

  • About David Blume

    Yes, Blume does answer the ag questions.

    He is a farmer, permaculturist, alcohol fuel specialist... and all around genius.

    Permaculture has been proven to improve soil as well as deliver higher-than-normal yields from crops. He fed over 400 people as a CSA farmer with just a tiny amount of acreage.

    I highly advise ordering a copy of his new book, "Alcohol Can Be A Gas". Here are some early reviews:

    "Brilliant! This book should be on the reading list of every American!!" - Thom Hartmann, New York Times best-selling author, and nationally syndicated host of The Thom Hartmann Program on Air America.

    "Humanity has used up roughly half of the world's oil and topsoil. Just in time, David Blume has given us Alcohol Can Be A Gas! It's a practical road map for supplying all of our energy needs without drilling, strip-mining, and/or depleting the soil. In fact, following Blume's model, soil fertility would actually increase worldwide; energy production would be not only sustainable, but democratic- and highly profitable on the small scale. This is a brilliant visionary work. And, with Mr. Blume's witty personality, reading it is certainly a gas." - Larry Korn, Soil Scientist, Translator, and Editor of The One-Straw Revolution: An Introduction to Natural Farming.

    "Dave Blume has written the definitive opus on alcohol as a fuel. From the 30,000-foot view to the most minute technical detail, Alcohol Can be a Gas! makes a strong case for the practical, ecological, political, and economic sense in converting to ethanol. It's heartening to see the world's original "alcohol pioneer" stay abreast of the times with a book that has the promise to knock some sense into our insidious fossil-fueled economy. This book is much needed in this era of Peak Oil and fast-accelerating climate change." - John Schaeffer, President and Founder of Real Goods, and Executive Director of the Institute for Solar Living.

    As intersections of the food-energy-climate matrix form in Iowa cornfields, Amazonian rain forests and Canadian gene splicing labs, and end-game battles for their control pit theocratic flat-worlders against biologists, climatologists, and tree-huggers over the very survival of life on Earth, David Blume emerges like a wizard on a misty pinnacle, back-lit by the full moon, revealing a gemstone in his extended palm.
    Albert Bates, author, The Post Petroleum Survival Guide and Cookbook: Recipes for Changing Times

    The over-arching importance of this delightful book is that it demonstrates how beside the point is the current pseudo-debate about the net energy from corn ethanol. As Blume demonstrates, fuel alcohol must be an important component of our solar-based future. It can be made from a huge variety of feedstocks, including sugar beets and cane, nuts, mesquite, Jerusalem artichokes, algae, even coffee-bean pulp; there is no real scarcity of land to grow fuel. There is a scarcity of independent, original thinking--and Blume's book provides plenty of it, along with ample doses of amazing, startling, and sometimes scary information--ecological, technological, and political-economic. This is a vast, detailed compendium drawn from decades of experience by an alert, smart, and skeptical hands-on thinker. Blume has given us his biofuels bible, and we can learn from him and survive quite nicely, or follow what he calls MegaOilron into oblivion.- Ernest Callenbach, author of Ecotopia, Ecotopia Emerging, and Ecology:A Pocket Guide

    What a tour-de-force! This is the most comprehensive and authoritative guide through all the controversy about ethanol as transportation fuel, showing it as a clear winner in the quest for solutions to our environmental and geopolitical problems. Engagingly written, full of important and amazing information and resources, this book meets every challenge to the vision for a clean, democratic path to a prosperous future for all.-Joe Jordan, Atmospheric Researcher, NASA/Ames Research Center
    Finally, an alcohol book for the layman and backyard enthusiast. In our culture's collective, industrialized love affair with mega-everything, Blume cuts across the government-subsidized factories with ecologically practical models. Here is a viable energy system that can be embedded in a region, linking rural producers to urban users of energy and food. Self-reliance and resiliency follow community-based alcohol production, and we all owe a debt of gratitude to Blume for codifying his life's passion in what is a veritable compendium of information. - Joel Salatin, Farmer, and Author of You Can Farm and Everything I Want to Do Is Illegal.

    Ethanol champion David Blume has completed his opus, Alcohol Can Be a Gas! It is a great read. The history of petroleum, history of alcohol, technical coverage of production process, vehicle development (conversion), and feedstocks: It's all in the text, complete with charts and pictures. David's wit, wisdom, and hardcore experience illuminate this biofuels potential. We have eagerly awaited this publication and will use it in our Sustainable Transportation and Biofuels courses. - Dr. Jack Martin, Appropriate Technology Program, Appalachian State University; Vice-Chair of Renewable Fuels and Transportation Division, American Solar Energy SocietyOn Would the biosphere care? posted 2 years, 3 months ago 41 Responses

  • To the farmers

    Folks, I have been studying and active in Peak Oil circles for a long time now.

    I have moved beyond the idea that real leadership will arrive in time for cultural changes needed to head off a calamity.
    The US peaked in oil production in 1970-71. Since then, we have been importing oil to meet our needs. In that respect, we have been "Clinging" to a lifestyle fueled by the stuff, and now we are holding a gun to the heads of our many dealers, desperate for our fix.

    Americans, either ignorant or apathetic, have refused to revolt against the policies set by our government. That means no leadership has told people the hard truths that require action in the form of complete relocalization.

    Now, how are people in apartment building supposed to grow all the food they need for a year? Okay, that won't happen, so they would rely on local farms.

    Unless those farms diversify their crops to grow multiple edibles that provide the mixed nutrition needed, it won't work. For instance... if farmers remain tied to the "system" and grow mono-crops, then you have local populations stuck with bulk items of a limited nature.

    To me, it seems, national leadership should immediately help farmers diversify their crops for both food and fuel use, and hire David Blume as a national consultant.

    Right now we need smart farmers, not war-minded politicians.On Would the biosphere care? posted 2 years, 3 months ago 41 Responses

  • Advertising in the Age of Peak Energy

    First and foremost, so long as eco/green/enviro products cost more than cheaper, more convenient alternatives, getting the mainstream to make purchases is a long battle to slog through.On Get your copy today! posted 2 years, 8 months ago 24 Responses