Ok... so I've come to the conclusion that no matter what I drive, it's still a car and it still sucks.
If I buy gasoline for my car then I'm supporting big oil, war, and all of the atrocities, including human rights violations, that happen in countries like Sudan. As well, I'm definitely contributing to CO2 emissions.
If I fill my car with ethanol, since most of it is made from corn grown in second and third world countries instead of corn made here, and also because it's made from a food source that isn't very energy efficient, I'm supporting starving people rather than letting them have food to eat and still contributing near the same CO2 emissions.
Not only that, but the cost of producing 1 litre of ethanol is about $1.24 inculding tax subsidies. That's $4.59 a gallon!
Even worse, the good byproducts do NOT outweigh the bad byproducts! Corn crops contribute the most herbicide pollution and soil erosion that any other crop grown! Also, ethanol plants are not held to the same standards as other refineries when it comes to chemical pollutants. That means that they can, and do, produce and introduce into the environment more pollutants than other fuel refineries.
Ethanol from sugar cane costs $0.33 per litre. That's certainly better... and people don't need raw sugar to survive. Unfortunately, it also amounts to a net negative energy savings.
Apparently the only thing that *might* be a viable renewable fuel source is not a liquid fuel at all. It's a pellet. Switch grass pellets have an energy return of about 1:14.6 kcal. Pellets can also be a good alternative source of energy in stoves for heating. Unfortunately, I don't see any automakers rushing out to make pellet fueled cars and trains.
So... I guess as long as I'm driving a car and as long as the city continues its 20 year argument of *how* and *where* to build a commuter rail, then I'm stuck being responsible for killing and raping people in Sudan or starving people in South America.
Damned if I do. Damned if I do.
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3 comments:
There are a couple of solutions to your dilemma. First, and way easiest... is just cease caring. It's the American way.
If you have a peculiar lack of selfishness that makes the first solution impossible for you... then have your head checked. You're not a proper citizen of the USA. Why do you hate America?
I might suggest that a second, way-more-challenging-but-fulfilling solution would be to replace car culture with bike culture. Is there a job you can take within biking distance? Is there a school you can go to within biking distance? Is there anyone in your neighborhood already commuting down that way... someone who might be willing to split gas costs and carpool?
What if you had absolutely NO access to a car? What would you do? The bike / bus solution you have seems pretty workable, honestly...
The bike/bus solution would be much more workable if the bus ran more often. As it is now, I have to get up at 4:00AM to catch the bus at the airport terminal at 5:15. That's about hour for crawling out of bed, getting some breakfast, taking a shower, getting dressed, throwing on a hat, gathering my books, and trekking my fat ass to the airport.
Then there's the 15 minutes, give or take, to wait for the bus, unhook all my bike gear, and load my bike into the undercarriage (they don't have racks).
I get to the train station at about 6:30AM. From there it's a good half hour (if I'm not riding into the wind) ride to work.
I arrive at work at 7AM and have to leave at exactly 3:00PM to catch the bus home. After the ride, bus, and ride to my house, I get home at about 6:00PM because there's more stops on the way home.
If I miss the afternoon bus, I have to wait until 7:00PM to catch the next one... putting me home around 9:00PM.
This is a viable solution in the summer and if I were working 10 hour days, this wouldn't be a bad thing as long as school and kids weren't involved. On the 8 hour day, this means no breaks or lunch and definitely no school or kids.
I really wish my employer were more open to me telecommuting. I do computer work and can access all my servers from home. Anything that I already do at work is usually done in emails rather than face-to-face. The only thing that telecommuting would really change is that I wouldn't have to commute 2-4 hours a day.
I didn't realize the bike / bus solution took so long.
*shrug* It's all about the trade-offs, isn't it? You work the job you do for whatever reasons. You go to that one particular school for whatever reasons. You live where you do for whatever reasons. If those reasons are more important than the guilt you feel ("damned if I do") for driving (and I'm not saying they aren't), then your only real option is to accept that and move on, as long as you've determined that driving is the only way to travel between the various places in your life.
Looking into car-pooling or a fast electric bicycle are two other options that I can think of that might be viable. You can get a pre-built electric bike that would fit your needs for around $4,000... or you could "roll your own" for a lot less than that.
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