A while back I posed the question if burning corn, or any other food crop is immoral.
Check this out: http://tinyurl.com/24gqmk Here we see immediate results of corn crops being diverted to make ethanol fuel and its effect on the ice cream business. Now obviously, no one is going to starve to death from lack of ice cream. But this same problem has arisen in China in a shortage of pigs. They actually have national pig reserve, similar to our nattion petroleum reserve. These are essentially the first two symptoms of what could be a disastrous diversion of corn to make ethanol for fuel, with third world populations suffering the most. While no one questions the necessity of finding alternatives to petroleum, I think it incumbent on thinking people to point out that pursuing inefficient methods such as this are merely diverting us from finding real solutions to the problem. In this case, this whole enterprise is just a government subsidy to Archer Daniels Midland and their cohorts. They lobbied hard for this in the congress. This is just another feel-good useless program to make it appear that someone is "doing something". Personally, I feel that the so-called hydrogen economy is another policy wonk's solution to a problem better solved by other methods. I went to the L.A. Auto Show a few months ago, where BMW was displaying its hydrogen powered vehicle. Some fellow was touting this as the next wonderful thing, explaining that only water vapor was coming out of the exhaust. Keep in mind, this guy was not just a car show barker; he was a BMW engineer. I asked him where he thought the hydrogen came from. Like most people suffering under the same delusion, he informed me that the hydrogen was made from water. When I told him that virtually all the commercial hydrogen on earth was reformed from natural gas and that the other byproduct was the much vilified carbon dioxide, he was rendered temporarily speechless. My point is this. If a person who is heavily involved in creating the "hydrogen economy" doesn't know this, how can any intelligent decisions be made about it? M. _______________________________________________ Join Excite! - http://www.excite.com The most personalized portal on the Web!
