Route 80 is an amazing American road. It stretches from New York City and the Atlantic ocean to San Francisco and the Pacific. I had the pleasure of traveling on this American road (our second longest) for 15 hours from New York to Iowa. Countless trucks. And two enduring images.
First: An eighteen wheeler carrying a wind turbine blade. The blade curves gently over the length of the truck. Its huge length means it’ll produce more energy than anyone thought possible with wind ten years ago. Energy with no greenhouse gases and no contribution to climate crisis.
Second: An eighteen wheeler carrying a massive tiller. Dragged across farms soil to kill weeds and prepare for planting. As the metal tears open the soil, carbon in the soil reacts with oxygen in the air and is released as carbon dioxide. When farmers spend hundreds of thousands of dollars on plows like this, they must farm huge fields of commodities to pay of their debt, growing high fructose corn syrup.
They have no incentive to add compost to their soil or build their soil by growing winter cover crops. This kind of farming, produces about one fifth of greenhouse gas emissions.
When we reach peak oil in 2014, which type of truck will be likely to see??
Article by Eliav Bitan appearing courtesy Celsias
1 comment
Peak oil is the point in time when the maximum rate of global petroleum extraction is reached, after which the rate of production enters terminal decline. M. King Hubbert created and first used the models behind peak oil in 1956 to accurately predict that United States oil production would peak between 1965 and 1970. According to the Hubbert model, the production rate of a limited resource will follow a roughly symmetrical logistic distribution curve based on the limits of exploitability and market pressures.
Comments are closed.