Stop Whining About Gas.

It’s everywhere - the newspaper, TV and it’s apparent in that dent in your wallet. Gas prices have reached an all-time high. There are a few reasons why this could be. Maybe it’s because the oil hounds are wringing us dry. Or perhaps it’s because our president is using the profits to line his down-feather bed. It could be attached to the food price crisis and ethanol craze. But, most likely, they are high because they can be.

Environmentalists have made this issue a cornerstone for the “go green” campaign. I find some of the arguments pretentious, but most of them do have a good point - that gas is running out and we can’t replace it.

On May 15, motorists were encouraged via an e-mail not to buy gas as a protest against the big oil companies. Not many people followed through, as gas is a necessity in the world. The companies know this. Why else would they milk us for every cent they can?

In a recent Lantern survey, 12 percent of respondents claimed they “would buy gas no matter the cost.” I drive a gas guzzler - a 1993 Crown Victoria that struggles to get 22 miles per gallon. There is an argument for having no other option besides driving, but why not carpool?

There is too much arguing and complaining going on, and not enough doing. A few brave vigilantes have taken the big oil companies on their gambit and found an alternative route, but the rest of us whining is not going to change anything.

Lifestyle or otherwise, we can make a difference. Our economy is capitalist and our government is democratic. Without us and our money, these institutions are nothing.

But, as long as we listen to them, we’re no better off than the words they feed us or the prices they charge us. If a grocery store charged $6 for a gallon of milk, we would pay for it. So things are crappy. What are we going to do about it? I don’t expect anyone to change the world, but we do have a chance to give them a clear message.

Global Food Shortage–Blame Shifting

The price of rice has increased more than 90 percent in the past year, and several Asian nations have cut off rice exports for fear their supply will run dry.

Investors and food suppliers are doing nothing to mitigate the situation. Similar to our oil industry, these profit-seeking hounds have bought up rice and sold it at higher than market value, only contributing to the high prices.

Food riots have riddled Indonesia, the Philippines, Ethiopia and Haiti. Bangladeshi textile workers have been protesting. Demand in China and India is on the rise due to increasing populations. Japanese markets are in an uproar as hagglers fight for the right to purchase their next meal.

Key United Nations development agencies are going to be meeting in Switzerland to discuss the matter. After weeks of leaders sitting on the sidelines, watching their people fight over rice grains or giving their last savings to buy enough to feed their family for a few days, they’ve finally found the sensibilities to take action.

Biofuels are partly to blame. A lot of grain that could be used for food is being transformed into fuel. Not to mention that industrializing nations have an increased demand for higher quality foods and meat products, and livestock eat a lot of grain.

Now, I’m sure the question is: Why does this matter? I’m not pointing fingers and blaming anyone for being ignorant, because it’s impossible for one to know what’s going on in the world if it’s not being reported on.

The coverage I’ve found has been little more than analysis and feeble calls for supply and demand to be re-examined. The blame falls on a lack of price caps and poor leadership. But this food shortage will make its way here. Our farmers have already been trapped in subsidies here in the States. They are able to undersell their grain to make a small profit, but in these struggling nations, fields are lying fallow because they cannot afford to farm them.

It’s about time the UN decided to sit down and chat about this. Our hope is that they will decide that there is more at stake here than profits, mob affiliations or additions to their mansions. We only have one world, but is there enough of it to sustain all of our high-cost demands? Everyone wants a bigger piece of the pie, but there isn’t enough to go around.

Biofuels… is nature still giving?

Second column to run in the Lantern - my University’s newspaper.

I’ve felt burdened by all of the arguments revolving around alternative energy, and thus this column was born. You can access it on the Lantern’s website here:

http://media.www.thelantern.com/media/storage/paper333/news/2008/04/02/Opinion/New-Fuel.Ideas-3297839.shtml

Here is the full text. I’ve added a bit to it, since I had a 500 word limit to work with and I felt as though there was room for more argument. Unfortunately in the few comments I’ve gotten so far, a lot of people misunderstood my tone. It is sarcastic on purpose.

Without further ado:

This alternative/renewable fuel craze has become legendary. Not only are gas prices at an all-time high (according to Lyndon, it is because they can be), our economy is slowly edging toward recession. Our wallets are empty and so are our gas tanks. However, there is hope on the horizon.

Chevrolet has gone to the extreme and produces cars that run on biofuels. Honda and others have released hybrid cars. Don’t have that option? There is another.

Yes, I am talking about ethanol and biodiesel. We all know what it is - alternative biofuel made from the fibers of corn stalks or whatever. Alternative energy production is extremely important for preservation of fossil fuels. However, the energy it takes to clear the land and produce the crops necessary is depleted before any of the crops are harvested. In other words, corn biofuel production is self-sustaining.

Production of biofuels is a severe mix of technologies. Development within farm engineering, car design, economic ramifications, all of it is a mess. A few years ago, corn was looked at as the answer to all our problems, but it has created new ones. It only helped to increase carbon emissions. Think about it. Cutting down forests to create arable land to grow more corn. It just does not add up.

However, there are two overlooked weeds that can grow on the worst soil without yearly rotation, need little or no attention, require no chemical fertilizers or pesticides and grow wildly on their own. I am talking about hemp and jatropha. I can hear the snickers now, but in all fairness, these weeds are both fibrous and abundant.

Hemp, made famous by Cheech and Chong, produces oil at $43 a barrel, which is nearly $40 less than it takes to produce a barrel from corn. Hemp is also a useful source of paper, cloth, etc., but as far as I know the cotton industry scared them off. Compared to corn, hemp produces 10 tons more biomass per acre, saving the space and energy to cultivate it in the first place.

Jatropha, which grows wildly from China to Brazil, is just another neglected weed that is having land set aside to be cultivated. Easily compared to switch grass (its American cousin), jatropha has seeds that contain 40 percent oil, and this oil is perfect fodder for diesel fuel.

It is estimated that 500 million acres of farmland are unused within rotation each year, and crops such as hemp would thrive on this empty land. This would not only help to recharge the soil, but eliminate some carbon dioxide in the process.

Why waste so much usable land when our point in the first place is to start conserving? Corn seems to be the friendly answer, but when degredation of the earth’s resources is at stake, are we going to stop at friendly? I can picture us now, sitting in line at the gas station and angrily shaking our fists at the man changing the prices in front of us to a dollar higher while we’re waiting. In times of crisis we tend to lean on ravenous, and at that point friendly answers won’t be enough.

Getting the government to accept hemp’s alternate use would not be an easy task due to its relativity and similarity to its cousin, the cannabis plant. However, nature is not two-dimensional, and in this case I think we have taken a big step out of the fossil fuel box, but we can take a step or two further.