Peak Oil and Enlisting Algae
The Guardian, October 22, tells of a report about oil running out by 2030 and the several nasty problems that will lead to.
And just yesterday, I heard a report on NPR’s Marketplace, very upbeat, about the amazing strides being made to genetically engineer algae to manufacture biodiesel, gasoline, jet fuel and such. The ideas mentioned included keeping Pentagon costs down (they said a $1/barrel increase leads to an annual increase of $120 million in the Pentagon budget…), avoiding the tradeoff between ethanol and food production. An idea not explicitly mentioned was oil independence. Wonderful.
But the thing that was not at all mentioned was that just as Mother Nature is giving us a deadline for fossil fuel consumption to help us avoid a more drastic Dead-line of global warming (2030 is a bit late, but nevermind), we’re busy devising ways of getting around that too. Cool. Ain’t nothin’ gonna get in our way.
