Make More Garbage to Produce More Energy?
Everyone please remember when reading, writing or talking about global warming, our oil dependency and population growth:
“Energy is not renewable. Only some earth-based sources give that appearance. “
An article on CNet regarding the use of garbage and waste to generate power made a statement regarding renewable energy.
“Solar energy isn’t the only renewable resource: there’s also garbage.”
Remember, all net energy additions to the planet come essentially from the sun. We do not “create” or renew energy.
“Energy is not renewable.”
I think we’d all agree that garbage is far from a resource we’d like to keep renewing. We should be looking to reduce or eliminate the waste from production.
The fuels we choose to use to convert to a form of energy more helpful to us, convert in a variety of efficiencies and with a variety of side-effects e.g. CO2 production from combustion, silted rivers from hydroelectric dams and food cropping sacrificed for fuel cropping.
The recent “Tortilla Crisis” is an example of an unintended side-effect of shunting more corn into the fuel cycle and out of the food cycle.
In the short-run over the next decade, our best approach to mitigate climate impact, reduce pollution and lessen our dependence on foreign sources of fuel:
- Avoid excess use (conserve) and reduce waste.
- Emphasize solar and localized wind generation.
5 comments June 22nd, 2007
