Water is something most of us take for granted. We let the spigot run without giving it a thought. With regard to the environment, we take many things for granted or perhaps many of us choose to remain ignorant.
It is difficult to listen to the news without some mention of global warming or climate change as it is now often referred to. Even watching the Super Bowl we were treated to a clever commercial involving the environmental police. Perhaps, we have become so inundated with discussions of the environment we turn a collective deaf ear.
Steven Solomon has just published his most recent book, Water, The Epic Struggle for Wealth, Power and Civilization. If you are at all a student of history you will find this a fascinating read simply for its entertainment value. There is so much more to it than entertainment, however.
Even for those of us who have picked up the environmental mantle and made such items as the diminishing water supply something to focus on and rail about, this book offers so much insight into the most elemental force that has determined the path of civilization.
“It is earth’s most potent agent of change,” writes Solomon. “Water in Ancient History,” Water and the Ascendancy of the Wet,” “Water and the Making of the Modern Industrial Society,” are beginning chapters in a study of water and its impact that, if nothing else, will make your jaw drop.
Seemingly new is the Presidents recent nod toward corn ethanol and clean coal. In the first place clean coal is a highly inflammatory subject and many would argue there is no such thing. Secondly, corn ethanol is not nearly as efficient as the President and his staff would have the public believe.
Today in Biofuels Opinion: Reaction to Obama Administration on new …
“The only way to invest into biofuel programs correctly is to make sure the public gets real environmental protection for our climate, our water, our wildlife and our health. …. Despite intense pressure from the corn ethanol industry to exclude emissions from indirect land use change the EPA found that such emissions are a major source of heat-trapping pollution from food-based biofuels such as corn ethanol. This finding affirms the view of 200 scientists and economists …
Biofuels, clean coal top White House energy initiative | NewsWatch …
Friends of the Earth was glad the EPA took into account land use policies when considering the ultimate environmental impact of biofuels, but found many of their conclusions too optimisitc: … The EPA’s prediction that in 2022 most corn ethanol will result in less carbon pollution than regular gasoline is surprising and strikes us as highly optimistic, especially since the EPA acknowledged in its rule finalized today that corn ethanol production is driving the …
Is Corn Ethanol Cleaner than Crude Oil? – Environmental Capital – WSJ
Really it’s hard to comprehend how a superpower whose cotton and other producers are laying waste to farms all around the third world, is suddenly getting so sensitive when it comes to ethanol land and water use tradeoffs. …
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