What is Sustainability?
Everyone has a different idea of what sustainability is or is not. It looks like Keith is well on his way to realizing the dream. Formal definitions don’t give a full understanding of all the facets. Very few people or groups can live completely sustainable lives. In its simplest definition sustainability is a balance between production and consumption. For a process or activity to be totally sustainable it needs to consume resources at exactly the same rate that they are being produced by some other process or activity. People everywhere study the interaction of all the laws of nature that regulate this process.
In everyday life the sustainability model can be described by the diagram below. Here a balance between social, environmental, and econimic influences contribute to a sustainable world.
To truly evaluate how sustainable an activity is you need to look at it from start to finish. At first glance the new E-85 ethanol based gas seems like a good idea. You make fuel out of something that you can replenish quickly. However, when you include all of the fossil fuels that are consumed in the production of it, it is not so good. I have read that it costs $2 for every $1 of corn based Ethanol produced, not to mention all the CO2 produced by the farm machinery used to harvest the corn. A better approach might be the way Brazil makes their ethanol. First they start with a plant that can be used in its entirety like sugar cane. Because you don’t use just the fruit like with corn or soy beans you get a lot more gallons per acre. Also because sugar cane distils into more ethanol per pound of input stock it is a better deal all the way around. Next they harvest by hand and make the ethanol right there at the field in small distilleries. No trucking the supplies here and there, only the end product is shipped. This is kind of the way moonshine was made back in prohibition times. You are probably thinking, well that would be great Chuck, if we could grow sugar cane. Well good news, we can and currently do in Hawaii, Florida, Louisiana, and parts of Texas. But almost none of that is used for making ethanol, instead we refine it to extreme purity…and eat it. I guess we have things backward. We make ethanol out of what we should be eating and we eat what we should be turning into fuel.
Well, that’s my “soapbox” subject for this time but seriously why are we waiting to switch? Here are some additional pages to read:
http://yaleglobal.yale.edu/display.article?id=6817
http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Ethanol_fuel_in_Brazil
http://money.cnn.com/2007/08/06/news/economy/sugarcane_ethanol/index.htm
The last article emphasizes some of the problems with producing ethanol from sugar. Some of these are valid but some are just people unwilling to change. All of the problems have solutions once you put them up against good old American ingenuity. And finally, at least one company already has half the solution, available right now to make your own ethanol. Just find a supply of cheap (and sustainably produced) sugar and your fuel problem is over.
http://www.efuel100.com/t-technology.aspx
Enjoy…
Chuck