Ethonal

The world is dying. There’s no two ways about it. With our fossil fuel consumption exponentially increasing, the earth is slowly paying for it. Even though global warming is now commonly accepted, our politicians still show how little they actually care. Instead of actually doing any research they find the quickest, easiest, and the stupidest solution. What I’m talking about is biofuel, more specifically ethanol. It’s supposed to be our way out of the death hold oil has on the U.S. even though research shows it is far from that. Even yet all the presidential candidates have thrown their support to biofuels only for votes. Ethanol is not the resource our planet needs.

First, a let’s take a look at what biofuel is: biofuel is a form of fuel produced from organic matter such as corn, sugar, switchgrass and other plant life (Grunwald 40-42). One such fuel is E85, which is made from 85 percent of corn-based ethanol and gasoline. Biofuels, such as E85, can be used to fuel cars, thus reducing oil use and lowering carbon emissions, right? Well, not really. Michael Grunwald recently wrote an article in Time called “The Clean Energy Scam” which points out the negative aspects to biofuels: “The basic problem with most biofuels is amazingly simple … using land to grow fuel leads to the destruction of forests, wetlands and grasslands that store enormous amounts of carbon” (42). Not only is this a huge threat to the environment, it’s a huge threat to the thousands of species that live in these various environments, that’s not all either. Using corn for fuel instead of food has bumped the global price into record highs. Grunwald puts it bluntly, “The grain it takes to fill up an SUV tank with ethanol could feed a person

for a year” (42). Those are just some of the problems our “savior” from oil has. There are many others, most of which are just ignored by our politicians.

Politics is quite the interesting subject, indeed quite the popularity contest. It amazes me that, given the research done on ethanol, all three of the major political candidates support biofuels with such vigor. Democrat Barack Obama states in his book The Audacity of Hope, “The bottom line is that fuel-efficient cars and alternative fuels like E85, a fuel formulated with 85 percent ethanol, represent the future of the auto industry” (170). I wonder what Obama would say if he knew that “the future of the auto industry” would leave hundreds of thousands starving. It seems that no one told Mr. Obama about the environmental impacts nor the humanitarian implications of ethanol because he not only supports ethanol, he makes us pay for it; “We provided tax credits to gas stations for installing E85 fuel pumps” (Obama 326). Barack isn’t the only politician to disregard research on biofuels; both Hillary Clinton and John McCain praise the “virtues” of ethanol. Perhaps the biggest supporter of ethanol, though, is Congress. Grunwald states “Members of Congress love biofuels too, not only because so many dream of future Iowa caucuses but also because so few want to offend the farm lobby, the most powerful force behind biofuels on Capitol Hill” (44). Quite frankly, such utter disregard for the planet and humanity by the people that run our country is heinous.

To think I have to point out alternative fuels for the alternative fuel our nation is embracing, is sad. There are many truly renewable resources to consider, indeed many of which are quite obvious. There’s been a lot of talk recently about creating nuclear fusion to fix our energy woes; it’s a great idea and all, but it’s a waste of money at this point. Fusion has already been discovered. What’s 1,000,000 times bigger than earth and creates enough fusion to light the world for, well, forever? The sun! I’m glad I’m not the only one to see this wonderful star as a resource. In Al Gores book, An Inconvenient Truth, he asserts just how powerful the sun is, “On a bright sunny day the sun shines approximately 1,000 watts per square yard” (166). Now think, the sun shines roughly 300 days a year here in New Mexico; New Mexico is also the 5^th largest state, that’s a lot of power. Another clear solution to the world energy crisis is wind energy. In The Rough Guide to Climate Change the author, Robert Henson, shows just how powerful wind energy can be, “It’s been estimated that the U.S. could generate up to 11 trillion kilowatt hours of wind power per year, about three times the total from all U.S. power plants” (316). To address Obama’s automotive future I think it would be wiser to invest our tax dollars in hydrogen fuel cells. There are no carbon emissions and the only waste material is vaporized water (Henson 324). Those tax credits being wasted on ethanol pumps could be going to new technologies that make the production and storage of hydrogen cells easier and more productive.

In conclusion, ethanol is far from Earth’s green alternative and it’s, in reality, far from green. In the end, our government only cares about two things: Who has the money, and how to get easy votes. We should not give up hope. There are plenty of truly renewable resources out there that are readily available. Combine solar and wind energy with hydrogen fuel cells and it then becomes possible to overthrow the oil tyrants. Though we may feel powerless, every one of us can make a difference. Invest in some

solar panels, which will increase the overall value of your home, or just give your local energy provider a call about ways to go green.

Works Cited

Gore, Al. An Inconvenient Truth. New York: Viking: 2006.

Grunwald, Michael. “The Clean Energy Sam.” Time Apr. 2008: 40-45.

Henson, Robert. The Rough Guide to Climate Change. New York: Rough Guides: 2008.

Obama, Barack. The Audacity of Hope. New York: Three Rivers Press: 2006.

So I wrote this research paper for my English 101 class. Its not too bad but its certainly not very good either. I did it over like 3 days tops and quite frankly its suppose to be argumentative but.... I don't really care too much about the topic so its kinda half assed. I should get it back on Tuesday so we'll see what I get on it. It is kinda interesting how our politicians jump on the easiest and quickest 'solution' without doing any research. Oh well.. maybe they'll figure it out at some point.