Mean Green

With so much talk going around regarding the current state of the environment and how to fix it, it can be incredibly difficult to understand everything. Various phrases and terms are appearing in the news, magazines and just about everywhere else. Terms like ethanol and bio-alcohol have been around for many years already. However, understanding what they are and what they do requires some clarification for many people. Both bio-alcohol and ethanol are viable fossil fuel alternatives. Knowing more about them is essential when it comes to selecting an alternative source that you can feel good about.

Bio-alcohol is simply an alcohol that is derived from biological resources instead of from petroleum. Ethanol is also a form of alcohol. It is often derived from natural sources such as corn fields. Ethanol has been in use over the years as an additive to regular gasoline. It can assist in the way gasoline burns in your car as well as the level of toxins found in your emissions. Most of the ethanol currently in use is grown and harvested in corn fields in the Midwest. Ethanol certainly is not a new idea but it does seem to be increasing significantly in popularity.

Many gas stations offer an ethanol alternative or ethanol blended petroleum to drivers that seek a better way to get the most out of their current vehicle. Flex fuel vehicles are surging in consumer trends. They are designed so that the driver can use either regular gasoline or ethanol instead. Ethanol was originally started as a means to slow the consumption of oil. It also makes your fuel burn much cleaner but it remains to be seen how ethanol’s role will change as time goes on.

Bio-alcohol and ethanol use is directly related to the economy and the ever changing gas trends and prices. If gas continues to go up in price then there is a great chance ethanol will become a product that is demanded more than it is now. Not only is the fossil fuel industry unpredictable in terms of economy, it also is not safe for the environment. Ethanol is currently one of the leading fuel alternatives. It could be something that may be worth taking a closer look at when it comes to finding a mainstream alternative.

Biofuel sources are already quite widely used in places like Brazil. Though it is available in the United States, it isn’t something that is being used as often as perhaps it should be. It currently is not a main source of fuel though it is widely found and made available. Perhaps it is more of a consumer choice. The only real setback that is associated with the use of ethanol and bio-alcohol is that it is not as inexpensive to produce as some might assume. It is currently still cheaper to produce fossil fuels than the alternatives. Until that changes, moving ahead towards a greener earth may take longer than anticipated. It’s important to understand the alternatives so that you can make the best consumer choice possible.

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The world’s leading oil producing nations can really count their blessings that oil – one of Earth’s most valuable resources – is found within the depths of their sovereign territories. Oil revenue has helped to enrich these nations, and the lives of their denizens.

For example, countries in the Gulf Cooperation Council have created Sovereign Wealth Funds, as a result of high oil revenues, rising economic growth and strong domestic demand now and in the foreseeable future. According to Morgan Stanley estimates published in September 2007, the assets of the Sovereign Wealth Funds of United Arab Emirates, Saudi Arabia, Kuwait and Qatar, account for 52% of the world’s total sovereign wealth funds.

To have an appreciation of the magnitude of the wealth of these oil-producing in the Middle East, look no further than the first comprehensive analysis of the Islamic financial industry published by The Banker in November 2007. It is not my intention to leave you breathless, so do not hold your breath as you read the following fact:

Sharia-compliant assets grew by 29.7% over 2006 to reach US$500.48 billion compared to 16.3% for the Top 1000 World Banks in The Banker’s July 2007 global listing.

Thus the rate of growth of Islamic Finance is at a mind-blowing rate of twice the rate of growth of conventional financial services. This can surely attest to rising wealth and liquidity from the recent oil prices boom of oil producing nations, such as Saudi Arabia, United Arab Emirates, Iran, and Kuwait. Institutional and private investors within these countries have also developed an increasing preference for Sharia-compliant Islamic financial instruments.

Who Else Has Benefited from Oil

Of course, it is you and I. Can you ever imagine life without oil?

As you step out of your house, you would have noticed cars, motorbikes, public buses plying your streets and highways. About ninety percent of these vehicles are powered by oil. This is the most obvious example of how we have benefited from oil. Petroleum and diesel, the by-products of the oil distillation process, have enabled us to move around with greater ease, cover greater distances and travel faster than with a bicycle or by walking.

There are also other ways by which we have benefited from oil. By-products of the oil refining process have also produced raw materials for various manufacturing processes, and have created detergents, deodorants, eye glasses, plastics, tires, ink, crayons, bubble gums and heart valves.

So Have We Become Totally Dependent On Oil?

I am afraid the answer is an affirmative “Yes!”. We probably can’t imagine life without our cars yet. The car has almost become part of our body, our entire existence. Should that dire day come when global oil supply is running low, and gas stations are out of gas, you will probably be screaming for help.

What about those crayons? Most of us would probably be not too affected, though artists and children will most probably be lamenting the lack of crayons to express their creativity or doodle around.

Detergents and dishwashing liquids? I am confident that through the ingenuity of mankind, we will be able to conjure up some magical potions, which will replace oil-derived detergents and dishwashing liquids, and be equally, if not more effective at cleaning those stubborn stains and to keep our clothes clean and fragrant.

Many household items are made from plastics. Maybe we could make a switch to metal or earthern ones. With growing myopia syndrome among the world’s population, the shortage of eye-glasses could result in many ‘blind mice’ wandering around blindly. This could be alleviated with the use of Lasik treatment for the correction of eyesight, and hopefully other futuristic non-oil-based alternatives for making eye-glasses.

It is impossible to give an exhaustive listing of the items that have been derived from oil, given the multitude of oil-derived products in our lives. Such is our dependence on oil. This dependence on oil can be a real curse to us when oil runs out.

Oil As A Weapon

Given the pervasiveness of oil and products derived from oil, we would view the fact that oil is being produced by only a handful of nations – consisting of both friends and foes to the United States of America – with caution.

With about eighty percent of the world’s readily accessible reserves located in the Middle East, it is a matter of grave importance to be always prepared for adverse developments arising from unfavourable policies with regards to oil, so that the nation will not be held ransom and be beholden to the whims and fancies of some unfriendly and ideologically different regimes.

Wars have been fought over oil during the late late twentieth and early twenty-first centuries. The most recent being the Iraq War. It is expected that wars will continue to be fought over oil.

However, it is not just wars between nations which we would do well to be cautious about, but also guerilla wars waged by terrorists against governments and oil installations. Their terrorist acts may inadvertently impact the lives of ordinary people, like you and I, adversely.

Hence, this dependence on oil can be a real curse.

How Can You Prepare Yourself For Unexpected Oil Shortages?

There is no simple answer to this multi-faceted question, given the far-reaching effects that oil has on our lives. For a start, you can consider doing the following:

Drive Less. Try to plan your trips in advance. Cover as many destinations in one single trip, instead of using your car to run every single errand. Learn to wean yourself off your car, and try using public transport, or to go by bicycle (if the distance is not too far). Start Using Alternatives. Biofuels and combustion hydrogen can now be used within internal combustion engines. Buy A Hybrid Car or Petrofree cars. Hybrid cars use both petroleum and biofuels for greater engine performance, and helps you achieve greater gas mileage. Electric cars and hydrogen cars, which do not use petroleum, have also been introduced.

It is heartening to note that biological alternatives exist for industrial uses, such as plastic production. Hence, commonplace daily items could be replaced with biologically derived ones, should the price of oil remain high or grow even more exorbitant.

How To Manage This Blessing Or Curse

While we continue to enjoy the blessing that oil has given us, we should prepare ourselves for the worse when oil supplies are cut or depleted. By adequate preparation, we can ensure that this blessing does not turn into a curse on our daily lives.

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If you talk to some Libertarians, they get very excited about the idea of victimless crime. The one they most often mention is drug-taking. If one person take a baseball bat and hits another, this is clearly criminal behavior. The victim has the lumps to prove it. But if one person takes drugs, he or she is doing this voluntarily. There’s no victim. Everything that follows from this behavior is ignored. The Libertarian believes in the now. If you choose to hit yourself with a bat or a street drug, that’s your body and your right to abuse it as much as you want.

Criminals also get blinded by reality when they steal from large corporations. They seem to think there are no victims. So let’s follow their reasoning when it comes to insurance companies. They stage a crash between two vehicles and fake medical reports of injuries. The claims are then worth several hundred thousand dollars. But, our criminals argue, this is just a company, not real people. This is not like a home invasion where you break in and take any loose cash. The problem with such justifications is that they fail to explain where the insurance company gets the money to pay out on the fraudulent claims. The sad reality is that we pay. Everyone who buys an insurance policy is paying into a central fund used to pay out all the claims. If there’s not enough money to pay all the claims, cover the administrative costs of the business, and leave a profit, the insurer raises the premium rates. The more fraud there is, the higher the premium rates.

So just how high are the rates because of fraud. The most research effort has gone into the situation in Florida. This is now considered the fraud capital of America with more than a billion in suspect claims paid out every year. There are a number of reasons for Florida’s leading position, the most important being its status as a no-fault insurance state. Unlike the majority of US states, Florida has preferred to encourage insurance companies to pay out on claims quickly and not worry about deciding who is at fault. In the majority of other states, the courts decide who is a fault and that decides which insurance company will pick up the bill. In the no-fault states, your own insurance company pays for your losses no matter who is at fault. This reduces the incentive for insurers to dispute claims and fight over whether the claims are real and justified.

It’s estimated that the auto insurance quotes for every policyholder in Florida show about $100 per year in additional premium to cover all the fraud. The insurers could employ an army of claims adjusters to investigate every suspicious claim. Over time, these people would pay for themselves, saving more than their salaries. But, in the short term, the cost of this would cut into the insurers’ profits. Not surprisingly, they have suggested the state employs more law enforcement officers to investigate the criminal gangs responsible. Tax payers are not too keen on this. The result is the steady rise in auto insurance quotes for all. We are the victims here.

Bacteria that produce hydrogen, munch waste-water goo and generate electricity in the process may be on their way to producing a viable energy source.

Prathap Parameswaran and his colleagues at Biodesign Institute at Arizona State University have discovered a more efficient method to extract energy from the bacteria. A statement from ASU describes it this way: “Microbial electrochemical cells… are able to use bacterial respiration as a means of liberating electrons, which can be used to generate current and make clean electricity. With minor reconfiguring such devices can also carry out electrolysis, providing a green path to hydrogen production.”

The key? Relationships. Add some bacteria called homo-acetogens to the “sticky matrix of sugar and protein” formed by the original “anode” bacteria and the anodes “could convert hydrogen to current more efficiently,” the ASU report says.

Tina Casey with CleanTechnica.com reported Sunday that while “the field of microbial fuel cells is still relatively new,… it has been developing rapidly thanks in part to interest by the U.S. military’s move away from fossil fuels.” She also mentioned in a post Sunday that “New Zealand researchers have been exploring a process for reclaiming high pressure steam from waste water, which can be used to generate electricity” and that in the United States, a number of companies are converting waste water to biofuel.

And the ASU researchers acknowledge being a long way from commercialization of the process. Cesar Torres, a co-author of the study, said: “I think over the next five to 10 years, the community will bring a lot of information that will be really helpful and that will lead us to good applications.”

For more on microbial energy developments, read this past post on algae biofuels.

The San Joaquin Valley Clean Energy Organization is a nonprofit dedicated to improving our region’s quality of life by increasing its production and use of clean and alternative energy. The SJVCEO works with cities and counties and public and private organizations to demonstrate the benefits of energy efficiency and renewable energy throughout the eight-county region of the San Joaquin Valley.

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One of the ways we deal with the uncertainties of life is to assume none of the bad stuff will happen to us. This is reassuring until it’s put to the test. Then we can find we’ve run out of luck and the bad stuff is happening to us. So, when it comes to insurance, it’s as well to know where potholes are and how to drive safely round them. That way, you can assume none of the bad stuff will happen to you and be right!

Let’s start with the simple rule. You have to accept the insurers are in business to make a profit. That means they will put terms into the policy to limit or exclude their liability. If insurers gave you a blank check and said they would pay for all your losses, no matter how they were caused, they would be throwing gas over their business and driving it into a burning building. So before you buy a policy, make sure you understand exactly what cover is on offer and what specific situations are excluded. If may be you can’t afford anything better, but you should at least know how to protect yourself.

One of the standard exclusions is for intentional damage. Notice this is not “intended” damage. This is not you taking a baseball bat to the bodywork. It’s damage caused by anything you do or fail to do where there’s an element of intention. Take those road rage situations as an example. Another driver rubs you up the wrong way and you get competitive. Perhaps you tailgate and flash your lights. If it goes a tad too far and there’s contact between the two vehicles, you cannot claim. Your driving was intentional. You did not have to drive so close. The fact you thought there would be no damage is no defense. You have to take responsibility for your actions and pay for all the damage resulting.

Then there are the exceptions that deal with “livery”. There’s no problem if you occasionally give a ride to other people or move their property around. But if this gets to be a regular thing or you start taking money to cover the cost of the gas, your policies all lapse. Even though you are not running a business, the exceptions cover any voluntary use of your vehicle to benefit others. Look honestly at what you do. If anyone would think your use was starting to look more professional, you should buy a commercial policy. For the record, most policies cover car pools, but even this is not guaranteed if you take money to cover your costs.

Lawyers are paid a lot of money to draft contracts. They think carefully through all the possibilities and rule out any where you might take unfair advantage of the insurer. The intentional and livery exceptions are just two of the standard terms. So, when the auto insurance quotes come in, they are just a start, giving you the headline price and the option to read through the policy. Always read through the policies before you buy. If you know some things are excluded, you can take care and avoid ever falling foul of these rules. Cheap auto insurance is a game to offer the least possible cover for the lowest possible price. Learn the game before you play!

Most people are skeptical about these ventless wonders. They remember how often a chimney for a wood-burning fireplace gets clogged and how miserable it makes everyone. If anyone in the house has a compromised breathing system, the consternation is even deeper. It’s hard to believe that there can be a fire that gives out warmth and looks inviting without also spewing fumes.

Well, if the room is reasonably ventilated, the ventless fireplaces work well. You usually need to have one window open just a bit, but you’ll find that the warmth it puts out is very nice and you’ll probably not notice any fumes at all.

But wait! It gets better! If you choose a ventless fireplace that burns biofuel, there are essentially no fumes at all. There’s a little steam and a minuscule amount of carbon dioxide, not enough to be concerned about, and not enough that you will smell it.

It’s very good news that there are many of these on the market right now. You don’t need a fireplace with a chimney at all. You can even hang one of these on a wall. You can have two or three around your house to make your living spaces more comfortable and more gracious and heating them less costly. You can be certain that you are not contributing to the environmental gases that are leading us to a global-warming disaster in the not-too-distant future.

Where can you find these? Many dealers are currently marketing them. Some are dealers who are already in the fireplace business. However, there are many new dealers in the marketplace, so look around and do your research.

Just how do these wonders of the 21st century work?

Ethanol is sometimes called grain alcohol or ethyl alcohol and has a unique scent. The reason it is so apropos for a fireplace is that it’s very flammable. However, before it comes to you it will be denatured with additives and will be toxic for human consumption, so you’ll want to be careful where you store. It is ideal for fuel because of its high efficiency.

Even if you live in a small apartment, you can use one of these. The mess and maintenance of wood-burning fireplaces are a thing of the past. The ethanol fireplace is highly appropriate for the age when we live such active lives and are unwilling to allow them to be unnecessarily cluttered. They cost less to operate than the electric fireplaces that have become so popular in recent years and are bound to become more popular as the word gets out.

To find dealers online, just Google ethanol fireplace and you’ll find many dealers and will be able to compare models and prices. You can also find the fuel online.

By the way, if you have an outdoor fire pit, look into an ethanol burner that will work in it. You’ll reduce the fire danger from an outdoor wood fire and you’ll have a convenient means of heating your patio.

Copyright (c) 2009 Wes Fernley

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