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  • From: Toby Hemenway <toby@patternliteracy.com>
  • To: permaculture <permaculture@lists.ibiblio.org>
  • Subject: Re: [permaculture] what about lubrication?
  • Date: Fri, 28 Mar 2008 19:58:17 -0700

So Brazil imports about 62 million bbls a year of oil; that's hardly "no oil." And a little googling shows that Brazil produced about about 700 million barrels of oil in 2007, so they are as oil-dependent as the rest of us. They produced 21.3 billion liters of ethanol, or, I think, 133 million bbl for the year, which means they are using five times as much oil as ethanol. I assume they use petroleum for lubricants.

Dave Blume's book, people tell me, is great on how to make ethanol (I'm not qualified to judge), but he does exaggerate (polite word) in his numerical arguments. As one example, he argues that demand for ethanol isn't the reason corn prices are going up, using some suspect numbers. Blume wrote that "only 7.5 % of US prime cropland is used for growing corn," out "1.5 billion acres." But the whole US is only 2.3 billion acres. To arrive at his 1.5 billion acres of "prime cropland," you have to include ALL farmland, all rangeland, and all forests, leaving out only desert (700 million acres) and cities. To say that parched rangeland and mountainous forest is "prime cropland" is, well, stretching things. In truth, corn uses 92 million acres, or about 25% of the 380 million acres of all qualities, not just prime, that the USDA says is planted to crops. So although oil costs are boosting corn prices, demand for corn ethanol is a huge factor too. Similar statistical stretches can be found elsewhere in the book.

So I'd be very careful about quoting Dave's arguments without doing some checking. As a manual on small-scale ethanol, people say his book is outstanding. I'm sorry to see an otherwise excellent book marred by dubious arguments that are easily exposed.

Toby
http://patternliteracy.com



Scott Pittman wrote:
Before one accepts such hyperbole it is an easy matter to check out the
source and other sources.
Blumes book has considerable hyperbole, and the statement that "Brazil
imports no oil what-so-ever" is another example of that tendency.

Brazil's imports of crude oil in 2008 averages 169,000 barrels per day, and
petroleum is 225,000 barrels per day according to the Energy Information
Administration a U.S. government tracking office. While that is a
considerable reduction from the past it certainly isn't importing "no oil
what-so-ever". That's not to say that they don't use more oil than that but
the rest is from their off shore oil fields.

The cost to the ecology of Brazil is enormous as they slash and burn primary
rain forest to grow more ethanol. Brazil now is the worlds largest exporter
of ethanol putting even more pressure on their forests. Ethanol does not
seem to curb rapacious greed.

Nothing comes without cost and it is wistful thinking to presume that
ethanol is the magic bullet that lets us go our merry, two car family, way.
We are destroying the planet with our profligate use of oil products and we
will continue to do so with ethanol anyone who says otherwise is delusional.


Scott Pittman
Director
Permaculture Institute
www.permaculture.org

trevor william johnson wrote:
i just saw david bloom speak on a youtube video and he said that brazil imports no oil what so ever. what about lubrication oil for the engine? how can we make this out of renewable resources?


There are a lot of synthetic oils on the market today, and, in fact,
if you love your engine, you should be using them rather than petro oils
as they are much superior, reducing friction and heat. That's not to say
they are made from all renewable sources, but it's a start.
Also, biodiesel works great for two-stroke lubrication -- the gas
mix in chainsaws, etc. Canola oil works great for the bar/chain lube in
chainsaws, except when it gets too cold.








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