Most Grand High Fellow Ecologgers:
Speaking of Mexico and corn, there's a great pair of photographs in
A. Starker Leopold's "Wildlife of Mexico: the game birds and mammals"
(1959) illustrating several feet of soil erosion of a corn field and
the resulting apparent loss of "yield." (I don't recall any mention
of the ecosystem that was destroyed (that caused the soil to
accumulate in the first place) to make the corn field, or any notes
on its productivity and utility as an uncultivated, and thus "free"
and sustainable source of nutrition. And I recall flying over the
northern coast of Turkey in 1962, and observing the browning of the
Black Sea by the sediment-laden rivers, then, up those rivers seeing
great landslides in action, dumping stunted trees and stumps from
unceasing logging and corn fields, cultivated by gangs of men with
great hoes, on slopes so steep one could barely stand on them. I
thought of this process, not to mention the huge flocks of goats
cutting down just about every other form of vegetation, and how many
years this process had been going on, wondering how much longer an
increasingly impoverishing "living" could go on utterly decimating
ecosystem productivity there in the name of agriculture and
forestry. I couldn't help but wonder just what the "Land of Milk and
Honey" farther south might have been like a few thousand years ago,
and what it was like before the domestication of plants and animals
drove the last vestiges of Eden from "The Promised Land."
Back here in "River City" (San Diego CA USA) I could snorkel for
abalone (big ones, too) on a single dive in 15 feet of water in the
early 1970's and heard tales of old-timers (indigenous people in this
case) driving a wagon into a stream on their way to a 4th of July
picnic in the early part of the 20th century and spearing large trout
from it for the feast. The local historical society has at least one
photograph of a ten-foot-high wagonload of huge Pismo clams destined
as fertilizer for the oat fields that displaced vernal pools (unique,
small ecosystems--just about as contained as a subset of the earth
ecosystem as you can get) on the mesas (now, by the way, clogged with
shopping centers, parking lots, and "Big Box" stores stuffed with
consumers of stuff I don't want and wouldn't eat. The San Diego
River, and many others, even in this semi-arid region, supported a
steelhead fishery, now long gone, its watershed increasingly paved
and landscaped, and damed to the maximum. Local "environmentalists"
like to crow about the San Diego "River's" (mostly a ditch between
shopping centers and golf courses and sports stadiums)
"restoration." True, it beats a concrete-lined channel (which part
of it is), but the meanders and the riparian woodland and most of the
marshes are now gone, the few remainders largely mud-holes that are
far from the species-rich habitats wasted by development of the flood
plain, made possible by the dams upstream. So far, the county
remains the most biologically diverse in the nation, according to
local authorities, but how long can that statistic last? It is
apparently largely the result of a gigantic historic ecotone where
two major floristic associations and their associated animal biota
have come together, sharing species and genes and having a good ol'
time mixing 'em. To some extent it might be an artifact of time and
even greater degradation elsewhere. The motto of "modern" culture
might be, "Today biofuels ("they" are actually again proposing that
this diverse ecosystem--aka "brush" be cut, chipped, pressed, and
used as fuel), tomorrow the Promised Land!" (You know, I don't doubt
it for a second.)
All this is to illustrate Warren's point with some specifics that
illustrate principles and build on it. I'm not sure whether or not I
was deluded enough to think that "trickle-down" economics had only to
do with our getting some crumbs from the tables of the mega-feasters
and licking their plates. Warren's story hit me in the face--"we"
are running our SUV's on the crumbs (increasingly subsidized by
US--under which peanut hull or corn cob doth the pea rest?) once
trickled down to Mexico's poor.
Terrorism or "sustainability?"
WT
"As ye sow, so shall ye rape." Anon
"I laugh, lest I weep." Anon
"Soil is a lot cheaper to save than to make." Anon
At 07:56 PM 1/31/2007, Warren W. Aney wrote:
>I've just heard a BBC news report of protests in Mexico over the increasing
>price for corn flour and tortillas (an important diet product made from corn
>flour). Apparently the U.S. is a big source for this corn, and a reason
>given for this increased price was the (potential? actual?) increased demand
>for corn to produce ethanol.
>
>Warren Aney
>Senior Wildlife Ecologist
>
>-----Original Message-----
>From: Ecological Society of America: grants, jobs, news
>[mailto:[EMAIL PROTECTED] Behalf Of Esat Atikkan
>Sent: Tuesday, 30 January, 2007 21:13
>To: [email protected]
>Subject: Re: Ethanol (in)efficiency
>
>
>Burning EtOH or biodiesel will still add CO2 to atm
> Esat Atikkan
>
>"Ron E. VanNimwegen" <[EMAIL PROTECTED]> wrote:
> Hello ECOLOG-ers,
>
>These are excellent points, and another is worth considering: if we
>divert our energy harvest from ancient to contemporary carbon sources,
>aren't we still shifting an inordinate amount of carbon from the earth
>to its atmosphere? If our entire energy burden were placed on any "bio"
>source, how long would it take us to strip the planet down to bedrock?
>It sounds like alternative energy can be fueled (pun fully intended) by
>political reasons (independence), environmental reasons (too many for
>parentheses), or both. This is just armchair thinking, so the facts or
>alternatives might prove my concerns moot.
>
>Ron
>
>==========================
>Ron E. VanNimwegen
>Ph.D. Student, Division of Biology
>232 Ackert Hall
>Kansas State University
>Manhattan, KS 66506-4901
>[EMAIL PROTECTED]
>==========================
>
>
>
>Maiken Winter wrote:
>
> >Hi all,
> >
> >We just had a discussion on ethanol on the Tompkins Sustainability
> >listserv, and I would like to share one of the most interesting inputs from
> >an employee of an independent energy firm in our area:
> >
> >At Cornell, a study has shown the inefficiency of ethanol; please see:
> >
> >http://www.news.cornell.edu/stories/July05/ethanol.toocostly.ssl.html
> >
> >"It seems as if the final word on energy efficiency is still out.
> >Pimental, who is widely and correctly quoted, is viewed as an extremist.
> >( He may still be right), Most research indicates a tiny bit of positive
> >energy produced with corn to ethanol9 10-20%, and a little better for
> >Biodiesel from soybeans.
> >
> >Some interesting articles are listed below:
> >
> >Drunk on Ethanol- Audubon Society:
> >http://magazine.audubon.org/incite/incite0408.html
> >"But the reformulated-gasoline program has turned out to be a colossal
> >failure, and the ethanol industry has transmogrified into a sacrosanct,
> >pork-swilling behemoth that gets bigger and hungrier with each feeding.
> >Ethanol dirties the air more than it cleans it. Its production requires
> >vast plantings of corn, which wipe out fish and wildlife by destroying
> >habitat and polluting air, soil, and water. Of all crops grown in the
> >United States, corn demands the most massive fixes of herbicides,
> >insecticides, and chemical fertilizers, while creating the most soil
> >erosion."
> >
> >"Does it take more energy to make ethanol than is contained in ethanol?
> >That question continues to haunt the ethanol industry even after 27
> >years of expanding production. Over the years more than 20 scientific
> >studies have examined the question. This document contains links to the
> >major studies of the subject completed during the last decade."
> >http://www.newrules.org/agri/netenergy.html
> >
> >
> >Here is a good article from renewable energy access, by LesterBrown of
> >Worldwatch.
> >http://www.renewableenergyaccess.com/rea/news/reinsider/story;jsessionid
> >=DDB1143EA1BF449D5EFC92ADE6723FDE?id=47092
> >
> >"The U.S. Department of Agriculture (USDA) projects that distilleries
> >will require only 60 million tons of corn from the 2008 harvest. But
> >here at the Earth Policy Institute (EPI), we estimate that distilleries
> >will need 139 million tons -- more than twice as much. If the EPI
> >estimate is at all close to the mark, the emerging competition between
> >cars and people for grain will likely drive world grain prices to levels
> >never seen before. The key questions are: How high will grain prices
> >rise? When will the crunch come? And what will be the worldwide effect
> >of rising food prices?
> >"From an agricultural vantage point, the automotive demand for fuel is
> >insatiable. The grain it takes to fill a 25-gallon tank with ethanol
> >just once will feed one person for a whole year. Converting the entire
> >U.S. grain harvest to ethanol would satisfy only 16 percent of U.S. auto
> >fuel needs.
> >
> >The competition for grain between the world's 800 million motorists who
> >want to maintain their mobility and its 2 billion poorest people who are
> >simply trying to survive is emerging as an epic issue. Soaring food
> >prices could lead to urban food riots in scores of lower-income
> >countries that rely on grain imports, such as Indonesia, Egypt, Algeria,
> >Nigeria, and Mexico."
> >
> >Today's Ithaca Journal has a report on "Mexican President tries to
> >contain tortilla prices" due to a surge in corn prices driven by the US
> >ethanol industry. Seems like the riots are about to start...
> >
> >And Iowa may have to import corn next year, from who knows where?
> >http://www.farmandranchguide.com/articles/2007/01/05/ag_news/letters_and
> >_editorial/letter02.txt
> >
> >According to IATP numbers, the biofuel boom - if fulfilled - will
> >require Iowa to import 200 million bu. of corn, rather than export 670
> >million bu. as it did in 2005/06. Nebraska would need even more, 421
> >million bu., to fill its ethanol-made hole."
> >
> >Now, here is just one sentence from myself:
> >If - as it seems - ethanol is a hoax, shouldn't we speak up, also for the
> >sake of the remaining prairies that might be at stake?
> >Maiken
> >
> >Maiken Winter
> >Cornell Laboratory of Orntihology
> >Ithaca, NY 14850
> >
> >
> >
>
>
>
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