The Implications of Biofuel Production for United States Water Supplies

[phantom power]

I thought this graph was a pretty interesting way to summarize impact. This comes from near the end of a rather long analysis.

Energy and water are but 2 of the central inputs that power our modern society. Many of the key resources are either not currently valued by the market system, or may give too late a market signal of scarcity for effective mitigation. The figure above (not from the NAS report..;) gives a conceptual example of potential tradeoffs that a concerted efforts to increase liquid fuel production (or any limiting variable that has linkages to other limiting inputs) might engender. The columns on the left in blue (and red) are when we are in a perceived liquid fuels shortfall. The columns in purple are the amount of resources remaining after a portion has been devoted to an 'increase liquid fuel policy'. As can be visualized, successful addition of the variable in shortage may come at a cost, which might not be immediately visible or financially recognized, but a cost nonetheless.

http://www.theoildrum.com/node/3285

[robinlynne]

1. I''ll say it again. solar energy and electric cars. easy. job creating. no downside.

[phantom power]

2. Clap harder.

[robinlynne]

3. hey Tinkerbell. haven't seen you in years!

or are you calling me a silly dreamer? It is just so obvious and easy to make the switch. It will be painless, except for a handful of oil companies. Everyone else will be much happier.

[phantom power]

5. It was the part where you said "there is no down side."

Sure there will be a down side. The environmental impacts of energy generation with solar or wind come in the form of manufacturing and installation. They are "clean" when they operate, but now when you build the hardware, or mine the materials to build it, etc.

If anybody ever manufactures, for example, enough wind and/or solar to provide 10 exajoules per year (which is a bit less than 1/10 of our current yearly energy usage here in the USA), I guarantee you that people will be fucking shocked at the environmental impact of all that manufacturing, to say nothing of the materials extraction impact, or the impact of installation and maintenance.

It may or may not be shocking in the sense that it's out of proportion to the benefits, but it will definitely be shocking because people are unconsciously habituated to thinking of wind and solar as "clean," "green," or "zero impact," etc. When we build enough to really make a difference, the impact will be very very far from zero.

[madrchsod]

4. biofuels are great for the production of grains/produce

and that`s about it.food production should not rely on petroleum based fuels or oil products.