Sometimes kids are smarter than adults
As we slowly move to more green methods of powering our vehicle there are a lot of discussions going on about the best alternative to gasoline we should be using. High on the list is the use of ethanol and the money being made in growing corn for power instead of food. As much as we might like to push it as the best solution we seem to be forgetting how much corn is relied on as a food staple around the world; or what the cost of producing ethanol really is.
That is except for Madeline Stewart who wrote this letter to the editor of the Monitor newspaper
We have been polluting our world too much. Naturally, we have tried to do something about it. What we use to create energy is the big problem, so people have tried to come up with a new, renewable energy source that is easily obtained. We have already figured out several non-polluting techniques: wind, water and solar power. But another attempt is not working out so well: ethanol. The problems start at the very beginning.
Most ethanol is made from corn. However, that corn must be supplied in enormous quantities, and corn is used in much food for humans and animals. If we use corn for fuel, more will need to be grown, on huge farms receiving government subsidies. We are paying extra so that our food can be used for fuel.
The corn is grown using chemical fertilizer, which is awful for the environment. Most pesticides are made from petroleum, exactly what ethanol is supposed to be preventing the use of. Also, the machinery on big farms needs massive quantities of gas.
The next step is even worse. The corn, grown with petrochemicals, must be distilled in factories to become ethanol. These factories need to get their energy from somewhere, and that somewhere is fossil fuels. It takes about nine-tenths of a gallon of fossil fuel to make a gallon of ethanol. Ethanol pollutes the environment about the same amount as if we just used fossil fuel.
To add insult to injury, ethanol is not as efficient as fossil fuel. In short, ethanol is stupid. It just doesn’t do what it’s supposed to do – namely, reduce our carbon footprint. Our government needs to start focusing its attention elsewhere. Wind, water and solar energy could use some boosting.
Not bad for a 13 year old eh?
