<div>Megan et. al.</div>
<div> </div>
<div>Your comment on vegetarianism resulting in less fossil fuel use to produce the food compared to a more meat eating diet is excellent. Fossil fuels are so integrated into every aspect of our economy it is easy to forget the fossil fuel costs hidden everywhere.
</div>
<div> </div>
<div>Consider, though, the local hunter who kills a deer a few miles from his home, and does their own butchering...They are getting a lot of food with a minimal fossil fuel impact, an entirely different situation from the beef grown in Brazil on former rain forest land, cut and burned to make way for highly profitable cattle, releasing massive amounts of CO2, beef then raised, transported and sold to the USA, again using more fossil fuel in the process. Talk about an argument for local food to reduce CO2 emissions, even if it is a locally "grown" deer! Depending on how the food was fertilized, grown, harvested and transported, in some cases a local wild deer might provide more food for less fossil fuel use than vegetarian food. We should consider that keeping the deer meat frozen for months will have a fossil fuel impact associated with this energy use... I suppose the meet could be dried and salted or something, removing this energy use. And if everyone in the Quad cities area was getting their meat from local deer, could the deer population remain stable or decline?
</div>
<div> </div>
<div>Also, about your use of biofuels, if you can run your biofuel vehicle on what would otherwise be thrown away vegetable oil from restaurants, what a deal, and, as you pointed out, "carbon neutral." </div>
<div> </div>
<div>However, biofuels are only truly carbon neutral when the entire process of growing, harvesting and processing the biofuel and delivering it to vehicles does not use fossil fuel. Some systems of biofuel production show a limited gain in reduction of fossil fuel use and CO2 emissions when considering all fossil fuel impacts. Much of the fertilizer and the energy for the machinery for large scale agriculture come from petroleum. The US ethanol industry seems like it might radically reduce our need for foreign oil, and reduce CO2 emissions, but according to this detailed analysis, this is questionable:
</div>
<div> </div>
<div><a href="http://petroleum.berkeley.edu/papers/patzek/PublishedEDS2005.pdf"><font color="blue" size="2">http://petroleum.berkeley.edu/papers/patzek/PublishedEDS2005.pdf</font></a><font size="2">.</font></div>
<div><font size="2"></font> </div>
<div><font size="2">If this analysis is even just mostly correct, ethanol from corn is not a profound solution to dependence on foreign oil or lowing CO2 emissions.</font></div>
<div><font size="2"></font> </div>
<div><font size="2">Almost certainly the vegetable oil from restaurants that you use for biofuel came from biomatter grown, harvested, processed and transported with fossil fuels.</font></div>
<div><font size="2"></font> </div>
<div><font size="2">Also, to rely on biofuels on a large scale to replace fossil fuels might have a very negative impact on food production, taking land for fuel away from food.</font></div>
<div> </div>
<div>However, the new cellulosic biofuel process allows for less upstream fossil fuel impacts to produce biofuel, some claim, and can use straw or wood chips, not food biomatter. But the efficiency of a entire biofuel production/delivery system using this more sophisticated process, a system that would need to be mostly powered with biofuels or other CO2 neutral energy to really be mostly independent of fossil fuels, still remains in question.
</div>
<div> </div>
<div>Allan Greenspan, former head of the Federal Reserve, was on C-Span recently lecturing members of the US Congress on our need to stop dependence on foreign oil, and mentioned the cellulosic biofuel potential in Idaho as a solution.
<br> </div>
<div>Supposedly Iogen from Canada was going to open a large scale cellulosic biofuel production plant in Southern Idaho, utilizing Idaho's huge agricultural production of straw, if I recall correctly:</div>
<div> </div>
<div><a href="http://www.free-press.biz/2-2006/Cellulosic-Ethanol.html">http://www.free-press.biz/2-2006/Cellulosic-Ethanol.html</a></div>
<div> </div>
<div>Does anyone know if this plant is being built or is still planned?.</div>
<div> </div>
<div>I just answered my own question, assuming this news is accurate at the link below. Construction may start the Fall of 2007. Idaho may become a major player in biofuels if this plant is built and is economically successful, but note Iogen wants US loan guarantees to cover investors losses if the project fails. This does not inspire confidence:
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<div><a href="http://domesticfuel.com/?p=614">http://domesticfuel.com/?p=614</a><br> </div>
<div>-----</div>
<div> </div>
<div>Ted Moffett</div>
<div> </div>
<div><span class="gmail_quote">On 8/23/06, <b class="gmail_sendername">Megan Prusynski</b> <<a href="mailto:megan@meganpru.com">megan@meganpru.com</a>> wrote:</span>
<blockquote class="gmail_quote" style="PADDING-LEFT: 1ex; MARGIN: 0px 0px 0px 0.8ex; BORDER-LEFT: #ccc 1px solid">
<div>
<div style="WORD-WRAP: break-word">
<p style="MARGIN: 0px 0px 21px">I haven't seen the movie yet (gasp!) since I've been traveling a lot lately, but I do plan to see it. I find it rather funny that Al Gore's lifestyle, like most politicians, is pretty much the opposite of how we need to be living if we hope to combat global warming... but at least he's willing to admit global warming is a serious threat, and that it exists.
</p>
<p style="MARGIN: 0px 0px 21px">I think it is up to each individual to change their lifestyle and make some sacrifices for the environment's sake, obviously waiting for our government to take action on global warming isn't working so well. Americans don't usually like to be told that they need to make sacrifices, though, but there are a lot of little things we can do to create positive change that are relatively easy. I've been trying consciously to decrease my footprint the last few years, so I have some ideas on where to start, but obviously these things need to happen on a grand scale...
</p>
<p style="MARGIN: 0px 0px 21px">So here's what I've done recently in a small effort to make my lifestyle line up with my ideals and try to curb global warming... </p>
<p style="MARGIN: 0px 0px 21px">1. Went vegetarian. Best decision I have ever made. I won't discuss all of the numerous reasons I made this decision (animal welfare, aversion to factory farming, health, world hunger, beliefs, etc...) but a major reason was the environment. Nearly half the water and 80% of the agricultural land in this country are used to raise animals for food. More than one-third of all the fossil fuels produced in the US are used to raise animals for food. Eating lower on the food chain is simply less wasteful: it takes about 20 times more energy to produce meat than it does to produce plants for food. If more of us ate a plant-based diet instead of a meat-based one, we would lower our energy needs, contribute a hell of a lot less pollution, and save precious water and land resources as well. (Check out
<a onclick="return top.js.OpenExtLink(window,event,this)" href="http://www.goveg.com/environment.asp" target="_blank">http://www.goveg.com/environment.asp</a> for more info). </p>
<p style="MARGIN: 0px 0px 21px">2. Converted my car to run on bio-fuels and invested in a bike trailer. For in-town errands, my boyfriend and I use a bike with a trailer that fits all our groceries. For road trips, we use our newly converted VW bus that runs on waste veggie oil & bio-diesel. Bio-fuels are carbon-neutral (the plants used to grow them compensate for the carbon emitted when they are burned), have lower emissions, and can be grown domestically, reducing our need for foreign oil (and therefore war!). Any diesel vehicle can be converted to run on waste vegetable oil by installing a kit with an extra veggie oil tank. If you're interested, I'm sure my boyfriend (an engineering alumni from UI) wouldn't mind making a living off of converting vehicles. Running on grease is better for longer trips, since you have to warm up on diesel or bio-diesel, and yes, the exhaust does smell like french fries. Speaking of veggie oil, does anyone know of any restaurants (other than the Breakfast Club, who graciously supplies us with oil each week) that want a better way to recycle their waste vegetable oil from fryers? Bio-fuels are only one of many many alternative energy & fuel sources that I hope become more popular.
</p>
<p style="MARGIN: 0px 0px 21px">3. I'm in the process (always) of learning to live more simply, eat more locally-grown food, and simply thinking about the environmental consequences of every action. By being more conscious and spreading that consciousness, we can make green living the norm. Society needs to work towards sustainability, one person at a time.
</p>
<p style="MARGIN: 0px 0px 21px">Just thought I'd share my ideas on the subject of living more sustainably and curbing global warming through a change in lifestyle. What is everyone else doing to help this problem? :)</p>
<p style="MARGIN: 0px 0px 21px">peace!</p>
<p style="MARGIN: 0px 0px 21px">~megan</p>
<p style="MARGIN: 0px 0px 21px"><font face="Times" size="7"><span style="FONT-SIZE: 32px"><b><br></b></span></font></p>
<p style="MARGIN: 0px 0px 21px"><font face="Times" size="7"><span style="FONT-SIZE: 32px"><b>[Vision2020] Inconvenient Truth: What you gonna do?</b></span></font></p>
<div style="MARGIN: 0px"><font face="Times" size="4"><span style="FONT-SIZE: 16px"><b>Nils Peterson</b></span></font><font face="Times" size="4"><span style="FONT-SIZE: 16px"> </span></font><a onclick="return top.js.OpenExtLink(window,event,this)" href="mailto:vision2020%40moscow.com?Subject=%5BVision2020%5D%20Inconvenient%20Truth%3A%20What%20you%20gonna%20do%3F&In-Reply-To=" target="_blank">
<font face="Times" size="4"><span style="FONT-SIZE: 16px"><font color="#0021e8">nils_peterson at wsu.edu</font><font color="#0021e8"> </font></span></font></a></div>
<div style="MARGIN: 0px"><font face="Times" size="4"><span style="FONT-SIZE: 16px"><i>Tue Aug 22 06:40:42 PDT 2006</i></span></font></div>
<p style="MIN-HEIGHT: 19px; MARGIN: 0px 0px 8px; FONT: 16px Times"><br></p>
<div style="MARGIN: 0px"><font face="Courier" size="3"><span style="FONT-SIZE: 13px">So did you see Al Gore's movie? My sister, the infamous 'Rock Doc' of the</span></font></div>
<div style="MARGIN: 0px"><font face="Courier" size="3"><span style="FONT-SIZE: 13px">DNews went, prepared to debunk Gore's latest invention since the Internet.</span></font></div>
<div style="MARGIN: 0px"><font face="Courier" size="3"><span style="FONT-SIZE: 13px">She came away saying the science was solid, but not saying she had any</span></font></div>
<div style="MARGIN: 0px"><font face="Courier" size="3"><span style="FONT-SIZE: 13px">actions in mind.</span></font></div>
<div style="MIN-HEIGHT: 16px; MARGIN: 0px"><br> </div>
<div style="MARGIN: 0px"><font face="Courier" size="3"><span style="FONT-SIZE: 13px">My immediate thoughts are along the lines of conservation rather than</span></font></div>
<div style="MARGIN: 0px"><font face="Courier" size="3"><span style="FONT-SIZE: 13px">running out to by a Prius.</span></font></div>
<div style="MIN-HEIGHT: 16px; MARGIN: 0px"><br> </div>
<div style="MARGIN: 0px"><font face="Courier" size="3"><span style="FONT-SIZE: 13px">Which folds into another thought that has passed through v2020. I posted a</span></font></div>
<div style="MARGIN: 0px"><font face="Courier" size="3"><span style="FONT-SIZE: 13px">response to talk about making an 'internal bypass' of Hwy 8 along the old RR</span></font></div>
<div style="MARGIN: 0px"><font face="Courier" size="3"><span style="FONT-SIZE: 13px">route between downtown and UI. Aaron Ament later told me he'd biked the</span></font></div>
<div style="MARGIN: 0px"><font face="Courier" size="3"><span style="FONT-SIZE: 13px">route to look closer.</span></font></div>
<div style="MIN-HEIGHT: 16px; MARGIN: 0px"><br> </div>
<div style="MARGIN: 0px"><font face="Courier" size="3"><span style="FONT-SIZE: 13px">If we were to heed Gore and cut car trips down we wouldn't need the bypass.</span></font></div>
<div style="MARGIN: 0px"><font face="Courier" size="3"><span style="FONT-SIZE: 13px">Just a thought</span></font></div></div></div><br>=======================================================<br> List services made available by First Step Internet,
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