permaculture

[robert waldrop <rmwj@soonernet.com>]

Anne Schwarz wrote:
> Also, something I think will interest everybody... There is now a way to> 
> turn compost garbage (and most other types of garbage) into oil, 
> >gassoline> and minerals.  Check out:  
> >http://www.discover.com/may_03/featoil.html

This has received a lot of play in the media, both mainstream and
sidestream, but I remain dubious because if you are making energy out of
something else, you will always get less energy out of it than you put
into it.  In the "garbage into fuel" scenario, first you must create the
garbage, and it must be a waste product not useful for anything else,
and that process by itself is going to consume a huge amount of energy,
more than the end product will yield as useful work. 
This is because of the laws of thermodynamics, which dictate that energy
transformations always lose energy.  Unfortunately, there is no
exception to the laws of thermodynamics for "high energy civilizations
dependent upon fossil fuels".  The garbage into fuel process may be
marginally useful in managing the coming energy decline, but nobody
should think that it will make it possible for most people to maintain
and use private automobiles. 

I am still a car owner and user, but figuring a way out of car ownership
and use is increasingly high on my list of permaculture priorities.  The
top of that list right now is continuing to permaculture our urban inner
city living situation (which is a duplex on a city lot) and retrofit our
1929 era dwelling with R 50 insulation all around, an attached
greenhouse and etc. But going car free is next on the list after
finishing this. It's going to happen to virtually all of us anyway over
the next 10, maybe 20 years, so those who manage to do this now will be
way ahead of the curve as world petroleum production peaks and begins to
decline/crash. 
> 
> If this takes off, it seems that the fossil fuel shortage has reached an
> end...  As well as foreign fuel dependency and so many other problems.
\
No, even if this thermal depolymerization or whatever they call it takes
off, it will not do this; it is physically impossible for this to
happen, due to the aforementioned laws of thermodynamics. I used to
think there was a way out, but there really isn't. 

We are all going to have to get used to getting along with a lot less
energy in the future, and the time to learn of course is now.  It's
taken us going on four years, but we are finally learning how to stay
comfortable during Oklahoma summers without air conditioning.  So I
figure if we can do that, I can also learn how to live and work without
an automobile. It's a challenge of course, but I'd rather figure that
out now rather than later.  

Robert Waldrop, OKlahoma city
http://www.bettertimesinfo.org/2003garden.htm (info on this year's
gardening adventures)

(For info on future energy supplies, and the lack of abundance thereof,
I suggest starting with http://www.oilcrisis.com which has links to most
of the important stuff on the internet about the issue.)