We don’t have an energy crisis. We have a consumption
crisis. And Green Illusions(University of Nebraska Press, 2012),
which takes aim at cherished assumptions regarding energy, offers refreshingly
straight talk about what’s wrong with the way we think and talk about the
problem. Though we generally believe we can solve environmental problems with
more energy—more solar cells, wind turbines, and biofuels—alternative
technologies come with their own side effects and limitations. How, for
instance, do solar cells cause harm? Why can’t engineers solve wind power’s
biggest obstacle? Why won’t contraception solve the problem of overpopulation,
lying at the heart of our concerns about energy, and what will? This practical,
environmentally informed, and lucid book persuasively argues for a change of
perspective. The following excerpt comes from chapter 3, “Biofuels and the
Politics of Big Corn.
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Even as legislators flood
cellulosic ethanol and other biofuel initiatives with funding, some biofuel
opportunities go overlooked, mostly because they are boring in comparison. For
instance, wastewater treatment facilities release methane, the main component
of natural gas, but more than 90 percent of America’s six thousand wastewater
treatment plants don’t capture it. As mentioned earlier, methane is a major
greenhouse gas liability since its venom is more potent than that of carbon
dioxide. The sludge output of the average American yields enough power to
light a standard compact florescent light bulb without end. So skimming the
methane from an entire city’s wastewater would not only prevent harmful
emissions but also would produce enough power to run the entire wastewater
operation, perhaps with energy to spare. Although not a large-scale solution,
captured biogas is a reminder of the modest opportunities to draw upon biofuels
without advanced technology.
Another biofuel product that
is now starting to gain more attention is a convenient replacement for
firewood. Burning firewood directly is a relatively dirty practice, emitting
dangerous particulates, hydrocarbons, and dioxins. In poor countries, the soot
from firewood, waste, and dung kills about 1.6 million people per year. It’s
also a local climate changer; soot darkens air and darker air absorbs more
solar radiation. But there’s another way to extract energy from wood besides
burning it—one that was widely employed before the Industrial Revolution but
has since fallen by the wayside—charcoal (recently rebranded as biochar).
When processors heat wood above 300 [degrees celcius] with limited oxygen, in a
process called pyrolysis, it spontaneously breaks into three useful fuels:
biochar, heavy oil, and flammable gas. In addition to its use as a fuel,
farmers can till their soil with biochar in order to reduce methane and
nitrous oxide greenhouse-gas emissions. Archaeologists uncovered ancient South
American settlements in which buried charcoal has been sequestered for
thousands of years, lending interest to the concept of using biochar as
long-term storage for excess carbon.
In all, there may be many
benefits to implementing biochar techniques in place of burning wood and waste
for fuel directly. But this doesn’t make biochar a global solution. Cornell
researcher Kelli Roberts points out that large-scale biochar production, as
envisioned by some eager biofuel productivists, could yield unintended
consequences. As with other biofuel methods, if producers clear virgin land
to grow biochar inputs such as trees and switch grass, the process could
ultimately do more harm than good. Alternately, if producers grow biochar crops
on existing farmland, farmers may be forced onto new land, yielding the same
negative effects on virgin land plus the added risk of local food price
instability. And then there is the hitch with any method for increasing
available energy supply—it inevitability leads to growth, expansion, and increasing
energy consumption—a reminder that smart upgrades in energy practices for
local communities may not have the same positive effects if implemented on a
larger scale.
Excerpted from Green Illusions: The Dirty Secrets of Clean Energy and the Future of Environmentalism by Ozzie Zehner, with permission of the University of Nebraska
Press. © 2012 by Ozzie Zehner. Available wherever
books are sold or from the Univ. of Nebraska Press (800)
848-6224.
