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  • From: John Irwin <jwirwin@epix.net>
  • To: permaculture <permaculture@lists.ibiblio.org>
  • Subject: [permaculture] Ethanol book - not so bad?
  • Date: Thu, 30 Aug 2007 12:25:44 -0400

Pc Buddies:

Look what came to me! (a while ago, but now it may be relevant)

I met Dave Blume once before a controversial course in California

that divided the Pc community a bit. I heard several versions of

what happened, but could not figure out how Bill Mollison and

Scott Pittman could have taught so many courses without

controversy & then Dave Blume seems to be the source of

disruption. In other words, without knowing the situation first

hand, I was inclined to give Bill and Scott my vote ( I took one of

their courses a few years earlier).

AND

I had been under the impression that ethanol never was a solution

to the energy crisis, just another way of polluting the planet through

its production & putting $$$ in the hands of the bad guys.



Then I received this notice for this pricey tome.

Dave has an excellent list of book reviewers: Thom Hartmann, Larry Korn (editor of "The One-Straw Revolution"

by Masanobu Fukuoka), John Schaeffer, President and Founder of Real Goods, and Executive Director of the Institute for Solar Living, Albert Bates, author, The Post Petroleum Survival Guide and Cookbook: Recipes for Changing Times,

Ernest Callen bach, author of Ecotopia, Ecotopia Emerging, and Ecology: A Pocket Guide, Joe Jordan of NASA, Joel

Saladin, well known family farmer, and Dr Jack Martin, scientist.



Assuming you are pretty savvy about ethanol, and have read the synopsis of this

new book (I was sent a much longer email than this, and, of course, you can go to

the website for more: http://www.permaculture.com/site/node/360 )



My conclusion is that he must be recommending a small-scale production

method which is efficient and unlike current processing via the typical big bad guys.



-------------------------



Alcohol Can Be A Gas Book Is Done!

To quote an old saying that I first learned when boatbuilding,



"The first 90% of the job takes 90% of the time. The last 10% of the job takes the second 90% of the time." That certainly has been true of the editing and layout process for Alcohol Can Be A Gas. Between vacations and family emergencies for the editors and three car accidents that happened to me (in all cases I got rear-ended), it was a tough time these last few months. But at long last the book has gone through a very thorough editing process and has been slimmed down to our target of about 275,000 words. It's amazing that-what with the editors constantly sending me requests to elaborate on this, expand on that, introduce this, and with lots of writing chores-the book kept getting shorter, not longer!

But after four years of constant work, the book is finally done and is now in the hands of the printer. The book contains a 700 word glossary and a very detailed index making it possible to easily naviagate the 596 pages. We ended up with 514 charts, photos, and illustrations.

Its got an very detailed 6300 entry index which was a big project compared to the simple indexes most books get. There is 473 endnotes culled from the nearly 2000 studies and documents that were referenced during research for the book.

Now that the book is off to the printer we should get it back and start mailing out prepublication orders at the end of August.

Pre-Publication Special Offer

If you haven't ordered a book yet, NOW is the time to go to http:// www.permaculture.com/site/node/276 and take advantage of the pre- publication deal. You'll get a first-edition hardback book for the price of a softcover (a savings of $12). You'll also get a copy of the 2 hour and 40 minute DVD of my alcohol fuel talk (a savings of $20), and reduced postage and handling. Plus, of course I'll autograph your book for you. This package is an $87 value for $53 - and it's limited to the first 500 buyers. These pre-publication sales are important in helping us afford to afford the first print run. To print fewer than 3000 books at a time causes the price per book to climb dramatically. We have gone a bit out on a limb ordering enough copies to keep the per book printing price down and keep the price reasonable for readers.

If you go to the site, you can get a taste of what the book is like by checking out excerpts from many of the freshly laid-out chapters. Over the next week or two all the chapters should have excerpts posted.

Early Praise for Alcohol Can Be A Gas!

"Brilliant! This book should be on the reading list of every American!!" - Thom Hartmann, New York Times best-selling author, and nationally syndicated host of The Thom Hartmann Program on Air America.

"Humanity has used up roughly half of the world's oil and topsoil. Just in time, David Blume has given us Alcohol Can Be A Gas! It's a practical road map for supplying all of our energy needs without drilling, strip-mining, and/or depleting the soil. In fact, following Blume's model, soil fertility would actually increase worldwide; energy production would be not only sustainable, but democratic- and highly profitable on the small scale. This is a brilliant visionary work. And, with Mr. Blume's witty personality, reading it is certainly a gas." - Larry Korn, Soil Scientist, Translator, and Editor of The One-Straw Revolution: An Introduction to Natural Farming.

"Dave Blume has written the definitive opus on alcohol as a fuel. From the 30,000-foot view to the most minute technical detail, Alcohol Can be a Gas! makes a strong case for the practical, ecological, political, and economic sense in converting to ethanol. It's heartening to see the world's original "alcohol pioneer" stay abreast of the times with a book that has the promise to knock some sense into our insidious fossil-fueled economy. This book is much needed in this era of Peak Oil and fast-accelerating climate change." - John Schaeffer, President and Founder of Real Goods, and Executive Director of the Institute for Solar Living.

As intersections of the food-energy-climate matrix form in Iowa cornfields, Amazonian rain forests and Canadian gene splicing labs, and end-game battles for their control pit theocratic flat-worlders against biologists, climatologists, and tree-huggers over the very survival of life on Earth, David Blume emerges like a wizard on a misty pinnacle, back-lit by the full moon, revealing a gemstone in his extended palm.
Albert Bates, author, The Post Petroleum Survival Guide and Cookbook: Recipes for Changing Times

The over-arching importance of this delightful book is that it demonstrates how beside the point is the current pseudo-debate about the net energy from corn ethanol. As Blume demonstrates, fuel alcohol must be an important component of our solar-based future. It can be made from a huge variety of feedstocks, including sugar beets and cane, nuts, mesquite, Jerusalem artichokes, algae, even coffee-bean pulp; there is no real scarcity of land to grow fuel. There is a scarcity of independent, original thinking--and Blume's book provides plenty of it, along with ample doses of amazing, startling, and sometimes scary information--ecological, technological, and political- economic. This is a vast, detailed compendium drawn from decades of experience by an alert, smart, and skeptical hands-on thinker. Blume has given us his biofuels bible, and we can learn from him and survive quite nicely, or follow what he calls MegaOilron into oblivion.- Ernest Callen bach, author of Ecotopia, Ecotopia Emerging, and Ecology:A Pocket Guide

What a tour-de-force! This is the most comprehensive and authoritative guide through all the controversy about ethanol as transportation fuel, showing it as a clear winner in the quest for solutions to our environmental and geopolitical problems. Engagingly written, full of important and amazing information and resources, this book meets every challenge to the vision for a clean, democratic path to a prosperous future for all.-Joe Jordan, Atmospheric Researcher, NASA/Ames Research Center

Finally, an alcohol book for the layman and backyard enthusiast. In our culture's collective, industrialized love affair with mega- everything, Blume cuts across the government-subsidized factories with ecologically practical models. Here is a viable energy system that can be embedded in a region, linking rural producers to urban users of energy and food. Self-reliance and resiliency follow community-based alcohol production, and we all owe a debt of gratitude to Blume for codifying his life's passion in what is a veritable compendium of information. - Joel Salatin, Farmer, and Author of You Can Farm and Everything I Want to Do Is Illegal.

Ethanol champion David Blume has completed his opus, Alcohol Can Be a Gas! It is a great read. The history of petroleum, history of alcohol, technical coverage of production process, vehicle development (conversion), and feedstocks: It's all in the text, complete with charts and pictures. David's wit, wisdom, and hardcore experience illuminate this biofuels potential. We have eagerly awaited this publication and will use it in our Sustainable Transportation and Biofuels courses. - Dr. Jack Martin, Appropriate Technology Program, Appalachian State University; Vice-Chair of Renewable Fuels and Transportation Division, American Solar Energy Society


  • [permaculture] Ethanol book - not so bad?, John Irwin, 08/30/2007

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