Quote:
Originally Posted by Patrick
So suppose you don't use any fertilizer and then use ethanol to do the distilling? And run all the farm implements on ethanol? Is that not sustainable?
And you'll just have to change your DNA every 30 minutes.  |
That would be sustainable, as that would be a closed loop, which takes CO2 from the air and makes in into fuel, then turns back to CO2.
I don't think anyone is going to try to do this. Corn farmers loose money growing corn, only gov subsidies put them back in the black (well some of them). So it is not economical for them to do anything that would reduce their yields. The subsidies reward using huge amounts of land and growing lot and lots of low quality feed corn (with the cheapest most effective fertilizers available).
For ethanol to truly be sustainable it would be far to expensive for anyone to use. Unless, that is, there is a major change in the whole system.
Personally I have my bet on algae or other microbes being the sustainable fuel choice of years to come.
Why is everyone so afraid of nuclear energy? A tiny reactor could be sealed well... until you crash in to something.... or hit too many pot holes... or the cooling rods stick, and your car has a meltdown.