Media Savvy

 One of my favorite staples for information is The New York Times. Lately I've been reading The Washington Post too. I've recently come across some information about the people who own these newspapers. But before we get to that, let's look at the pudding, for some proof.

Two articles on the same subject, Fossil Fuels, and a third offering a practical alternative.

Here's the first in brief:

Gas Lite
By DAVID BODANIS
Published: October 3, 2005
London

IN the early 1600's, the Flemish alchemist Jan Baptista van Helmont planted a willow sapling and measured its weight as it grew. After five years the tree weighed 169 pounds.

Where had the solid bulk of wood come from? Not from the soil, which had lost only two ounces in all that time. Rather, Helmont's measurements led to the discovery that a tree's new wood comes from tiny bits of carbon that float in the air, in the form of carbon dioxide.

That simple insight tells us a great deal about the problems that bedevil American energy policy. Coal and oil ultimately derive from ancient vegetation that soaked up carbon in the planet's primeval atmosphere. Breathe in car exhaust or the air near a coal plant today and you are inhaling the earth's ancient geologic atmosphere, in the form of carbon that accumulated over millenniums. But the carbon dioxide we release as we burn fuel builds up in the air, leading to global warming.

The good news is that not all fuels store the same amount of ancient carbon. And the United States can have a cleaner, low-carbon energy future if it makes greater use of a low-carbon fuel - namely, natural gas. The advent of natural gas was a major advance in the history of energy use, but American regulations have held the United States back from embracing its full benefits.

And he makes this comment about South Africa:

South Africa has used a similar technology for 50 years, and now makes 200,000 barrels per day of synthetic gasoline and diesel.

We (South Africans)all know how stinky and dirty the Vanderbijlpark area is where SASOL is based. When you drive through there in winter, the smoke is so thick you have to slow down on the national highway because you can only see a few feet ahead of you. It's this technology that creates that extremely toxic smoke.

And then, this article, right below it (yes, in the same newspaper):

The Other Black Gold
By BRIAN SCHWEITZER
Published: October 3, 2005
Helena, Mont.

AMERICA has a substance abuse problem, and Montana may have a cure.

It is easy to forget, but before the hurricanes bumped up already outrageous fuel prices, President Bush was forced to ask the royals of Saudi Arabia - the country that gave us 15 of the 19 Sept. 11 hijackers - to lower the price of oil so Americans could afford to drive. He was refused.

In truth, he had no choice. America is addicted to foreign oil, and like any addict we are at the mercy of the pushers and require an intervention. Montana, among other states, is trying to help America get clean by promoting a range of modern domestic energy strategies. Yet our biggest idea is actually a very old recipe: gasoline made from coal instead of oil.


Here's the problem. The first article espouses the use of natural gas when America is already importing 20% from Cananda. It consumes all of its own production and then some. So how can you offer natural gas as a solution when you don't even have enough for home heating. Ding ding, is this guy suggesting we use natural gas for cars? Ridiculous. Writer...David...go and drink several cups of coffee and then possibly write some columns again after more research, and more importantly, after you wake up into this world. This real world.

Next we have some bright spark suggesting we use coal. Okay I am not sure where to start. Coal is an extremely toxic (read polluting) reservoir for oil. It's a poor substitute because the costs to the environment are huge, and the costs to get the oil in the first place (in terms of energy costs) are pretty hight too. The writer mentions nothing of the environmental impact, of course, but does say this:
So what are the drawbacks? The hurdle in making synfuel has always been the cost of production, about $35 a barrel, more expensive than oil has historically been.
These costs, both environemental and economic, come at a time when we can simply not afford them. We'll have to make do with the economic costs, but if we put even more pressure on the planet, and that's a choice that is still pending...have we learnt anything yet? We will soon have the opportunity to demonstrate whether we have learnt anything.
We are are already reaping the Hurricanes, and we want to double or triple the amount of greenhouse gases by getting our oil from coal?

What is the answer? The answer is nuclear. I posted something earlier on E=MC2, and that is our answer. You melt matter down and then get the energy from that process. It's not energy that you can put in your fuel tank, it's not immediately useful for that, but it is the sort of energy that might allow us to create cars running on electric power and eventually Hydrogen.

Hydrogen is not an alternative source of energy. Hydrogen is merely a way to store energy. Hydrogen is something that we have to make, and store. Hydrogen is like MAKING a battery. And the energy it takes to make the battery is about the same as the energy you get from it. None of these writers seem to have a clue about the real world.
It's that teenage phenomenon when you embark on an idea and think it's fresh, that no one has thought of it before, and gasp, it might work.
Oil is not easy to replace, and nuclear power takes 5-10 years to set up. We're very far behind.
We're already far enough behind for scooters and bicycles to become real alternatives.

Some finding two wheels are better than four
00:00 am 10/03/05
JOHN BUCHEL State Journal

Madison attorney Tony Delyea bought scooters for his law firm, Delyea & Cornia, to get to the courthouse quickly and save money on parking Downtown.
(JOHN MANIACI - State Journal)
The day after Hurricane Katrina hit Louisiana, disrupting oil production along the Gulf Coast, Madison attorney Tony Delyea went to buy two more scooters for his law firm.

Delyea & Cornia already had two scooters, and its attorneys found them so easy to park on courthouse trips that they would argue over who got to use them. The scooters' great gas mileage was an unexpected bonus as fuel prices shot up, Delyea said.

It turns out that Delyea isn't the only one recognizing the benefits of scooters. As gas prices shot up again this week after a brief dip, Madison-area commuters are investigating alternative modes of transportation, according to workers at scooter and motorcycle dealerships, bicycle shops and the local bus system.

"I've heard the word 'gas' more in the last two weeks than I have in my entire life," said Randy Knudson, who owns Scooter Therapy, 9 N. Ingersoll St.

When gasoline prices hit $3 per gallon last month, scooter sales began to pick up. Now, distributors can hardly keep up with the demands of dealerships across the country..

Be careful what you read in the papers. Just because it's called The New York Times doesn't mean the powers thatdon't want a monkey say, monkey do status quo.

Investing now in coal and natural gas is like a man in the desert stopping halfway to the Oasis to dig a hole. Even if you find water, the energy wasted in the digging for it makes it a foolish idea. We don't have the patience to do long term planning, but we simply must. Because you know, the land belongs to someone, someone who wants to make a profit from it, a short term profit. He's asking you to do the digging. He wants to make money out of a well, or a mine, even if you can find one.
Even if you do find water(subsitute oil, natural gas) it will still only last a short time. In the end you have to find an alternative. You have to get to the Oasis. The Oasis represents an alternative to oil. And water represents our thirst for life, for energy. The hole in the ground is oil, and it's an uncertain fate. The Oasis represents salvation. Our focus should be on the Oasis, not on other fossil fuels, not on digging more holes for ourselves.

We're not monkeys, even if they think we are.