Your Questions About Sustainable Energy

admin answers:

Farm. Farming takes a single grain of corn, and multiplies it into over 1000 grains of corn. That’s a pretty good return on investment in one year. If we can find a way to turn that corn into fuel, we’d be able to sustain itself pretty easily. We (almost) can. Ethanol is produced from corn, and can be used as a primary fuel with a few modifications to the fuel tank, fuel line, and engine. Ethanol (or similiar plant derivitives) can be turned into energy. If you net more energy in the harvest than you put into planting, weeding, cultivating, fertilizing and harvesting, then the net is sustainable.
The effect would be more jobs in the rural communities that farm (and of course less jobs in the oil fields) and a net increase in the value of farm land (with an accompanying decrease in the value of the oil fields.)
If a nation is energy self-sufficient, then it is easier for it to place its own interests over other nations. Can we afford to go to war with Saudi Arabia, when 25% of our energy comes from there? Well, if we produced all of our own fuel, then we could decide if and when to go to war against another nation. Right now, we have to balance the long-term consequences of our national security with the short-term cost of fuel for the average American.

So, if farmers produced all our energy (which really would come from the sun–to the plant–to the consumer), the farmer’s would get more money; less money would go to foreign governments; we’d be able to rattle our sabers at foreigners without a fear of reprisal, and we could fire everyone that works for the evil oil companies. (Oh, unless you happen to work for one of the evil oil companies, then you’d just be unemployed–but you’d be able to find work as a farmer.)

admin answers:

Why not do both with one exhibit?
Waste to energy plants. There will always be some kind of waste so we can always burn it to make electricity.
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