For many decades, oil was available to meet all of our energy needs. It flowed from the earth; the challenge was to extract and refine it. The supply itself has only recently become a problem, and governments and businesses are scrambling to find a new source of energy that will once again allow us to power all our beloved technology without worries.
There is a problem with this hope, though. It is based on a worldview formed under an illusion. The oil reserves of our planet have functioned like a huge savings account, which we have been drawing from thirstily since we learned how to do so. Now that we are within sight of the end of the savings, we have to realize that another such supply does not exist on our planet.
Biofuels are a recent darling of the misguided hope for endless energy. Burning them for energy produces less pollution than burning fossil fuels. They are renewable, coming as they do from plants. At first blush, biofuels certainly do seem like a solution.
There are, however, problems. This New York Times story, for example, describes the growing trepidations in Europe over biofuels:
There is increasing evidence that the total emissions and environmental damage from producing many “clean” biofuels often outweigh their lower emissions when compared with fossil fuels. More governments are responding to these findings.
The problem, it turns out, is that the plant stock used to make the biofuels must be grown and processed. The land on which it is grown, the methods of planting and harvesting the crop, and the system of processing it into biofuel, are all factors that must be accounted for.
A recent AP article also highlighted these concerns:
But in recent months, scientists, private agencies and even the British government have said biofuels could do more harm than good. Rather than protecting the environment, they say energy crops destroy natural forests that actually store carbon and thus are a key tool in the fight to reduce global warming.
Our ravenous appetite for free energy is the problem, not any particular shortage of fuel sources. For decades we were living off the accumulated energy savings of millions of years. That kind of bounty won’t come again. We need to reorganize our way of thinking about energy, including funding for light rail transport systems, funding for the lowest impact energy sources (solar and wind), and public education about the problems of our current energy lifestyle.
More Logging, More Problems
Following on my recent post on biofuels, I want to mention this article from the Washington Post, which details a recent effort by the Bush administration to allow road-building and logging in pristine forest.
This is essentially a similar problem: we have gotten used to acting as if the earth contains infinite supplies for our needs. The truth is, it does not–we have been living off of millions of years of savings. In addition, though, when it comes to logging, it is possible to manage forestland to produce timber in an ecologically feasible way, but it is not a good idea to manage all available forestland. There are ecological benefits to leaving large areas of forest untouched. They create species diversity and trap carbon dioxide.
This passage captures the problem nicely:
Logging creates jobs for people, and people want jobs. Recreation here means road access–another instance of putting ourselves first. It is necessary for us to realize that, in terms of our ability to impact the earth’s environment, we have grow up. It is no longer possible to treat the earth as our playground, because there will be consequences that will hurt us.
Cut down forests and build networks of roads, and you increase carbon-dioxide concentration in the atmosphere and increase the possibilities of flooding and mudslides. These tradeoffs happen whether we take them into account or not. The Republican party seems to be completely ignorant of this fact.