This is the forty-second issue of my free newsletter. Your feedback is most welcome!
EARTH & US: "SEEing" the Future
September 22 marks the Fall Equinox: a time of coming into balance between light and darkness on our planet, as the day and night are—for a fleeting time--of equal length. Dark and light, yin and yang, feminine and masculine, coolness and heat, soft and hard, the inward and the outward, the subtle and the blatant—all of these can now come into equilibrium, in our personal as well as our larger worlds. What are you intending to balance in your life? Where have you lost your rhythm, hence lost your balance?
On the macro level, we see the extreme inequities of wealth and power, in the Gulf states’ hurricane tragedy. Those hardest hit were the poor and black, those without transportation or connections or well-off relatives elsewhere. We see the callousness of government officials and agencies that cut the funding for the maintenance and improvement of the Lake Pontchartrain levees for years, despite the well-known risks of devastation in a hurricane; and whose response to those suffering from lack of water and food was shamefully late and inadequate, causing countless preventable deaths. We see an environmental and economic disaster whose effects will last decades. And we see the very real consequences of global warming wrought on our own country.
I dream of a future in which the causes of global warming—fossil fuel consumption in our transportation, homes, and factories—are tapering off while benign, renewable technologies such as wind and solar are rapidly brought on line. The hard energy path is replaced by the soft energy path. I see a future in which energy ownership is decentralized, not held in the hands of a few extremely powerful corporations which control the world’s finances and use violence to maintain their dominance. I long for a future in which children have clean air and water, not mercury poisoning from coal-burning power plants and mountains of debris where once stood the Southern Appalachians.
In late August, I attended the Southern Environment and Energy Expo (SEE) and soaked up information on biofuels and renewable energy. Did you know that US passenger vehicles consume 10% of the world’s oil? In West Asheville, we now are blessed to have Blue Ridge Biofuels, a cooperative which will soon be producing 1000 gallons of biodiesel per week, with a goal of ½ million gallons per year. (Compare that with the fact that last year, just 30 million gallons of biodiesel were produced in all of the USA.) They pick up the waste grease from some 600 restaurants in the area and render, produce, and distribute biodiesel, with a fueling station in West Asheville, and even a fuel delivery truck for home heating biodiesel delivery. Currently charging $3.09 per gallon, they are becoming competitive with gasoline prices, and hope to drop their prices even lower once their infrastructure is completed. Some forecasts say that gasoline prices may double again in one year or less. In Europe, where gasoline is around $6 per gallon, biodiesel already costs less. Blue Ridge Biofuels has the first public pump in the southeast to offer B99 (99% biodiesel, 1% diesel fuel—it is not yet legal to sell 100% biodiesel). Progress Energy, the electric power company in Asheville, has stated that they want 3,000 gallons per week of B20 (20% biodiesel, mixed with 80% diesel fuel). There is a strong possibility that local school buses will soon be running on a biodiesel blend.
Compared to regular diesel, biodiesel has 75% lower over-all emissions, significantly less particulates, carbon monoxide, and sulfur dioxide (and some new studies now show that nitrogen oxides are also lower with biodiesel). Hydrocarbon emissions of biodiesel are slightly over half those of petroleum fuel. Even animal fat can be made into biodiesel; other possible sources include palm oil and algae. Biodiesel has a high “net energy ratio” (the ratio of fossil energy required to produce it, to energy gained): for every one unit of fossil energy needed to produce biodiesel, 3.24 units of energy are gained. By comparison, gasoline’s net energy ratio is 0.8:1 (only slightly better than 1:1). Biodiesel is less toxic than table salt, and fully biodegrades. Purchasing biodiesel supports the local economy, rather than the giant oil companies. The young people at Blue Ridge Biofuels are clearly a group with a mission, sometimes working completely as volunteers, in a decrepit old building, bringing their dream to life. They’ve subsisted on small grants from NC Solar, New Leaf, and now finally a larger grant from the NC state energy office. See www.blueridgebiofuels.com.
Note: Bush’s new fuel efficiency standards call for a 1.8 mile-per-gallon increase over the next 5 years (and Humvees are exempt)!
Cecil Bothwell, a local writer, environmentalist, and political activist, shared his personal vision of the future after the decline of cheap oil. Those with high-efficiency cars (such as hybrids) could save $3100 a year. Wal-marts will fail, as the cost of out-sourcing and shipping products from China becomes prohibitive. Cars will get smaller, and carpooling and mass transit will increase. Money for a parking garage and for widening highways, if spent on public transportation, could allow for free buses downtown. (Chapel Hill did it.) Solar hot water is a good investment, even now. Government buildings will have to get more efficient in their lighting and heating, and laws will be passed requiring efficient green buildings. Within ten years, air travel will be only for the super-rich; many airlines will go bankrupt over the high cost of jet fuel. In cities, people will live in denser communities on transit corridors, and will work closer to home. Good bottomland will be preserved for farming instead of being sacrificed for housing developments (since trucking produce from California will not be an option). Local farms will once again flourish. To help make positive, sustainable changes happen, Cecil exhorted us to vote for progressive local officials—a mere 11% can decide an election!
Wishing you all the blessings of the Equinox.
Cathy Holt
"Kindness is the light that dissolves all walls between souls, families, and nations." - Paramahansa Yogananda
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