Dave’s auto & tire center

610 NORTH HOOSAC ROAD, WILLIAMSTOWN MA

(413)458-0256

SUMMER NEWSLETTER 2008

Right now the country is in a bit of a crisis. The crisis is going to be long term, whether we want to admit it or not. Global oil consumption is increasing as developing nations strive for a lifestyle that for generations belonged only to those in the west. These countries did not grow in an era of cheap oil so they can mentally adjust more easily than we can to high oil prices. Our advantage is technological—we can create and adapt new technologies faster than anywhere else in the world.

As socially irresponsible as we may view the huge oil company profits that we are generating (I say we because we pay the price at the pump and that money goes into their coffers) they are going to continue as long as we have an oil based economy. We also got ourselves into the middle of an expensive and unending war, drastically curtailing our ability to financially invest in new infrastructure on a nationwide scale. (How many people remember the country before interstate transportation connected us coast to coast?)

In this, and forthcoming newsletters I will be researching the alternative ideas that are out there, many of which are becoming available now. I will probably be more judgmental about these than I should be. However I will try to be evenhanded and present as many sides of the arguments as I reasonably can in a small format. Also, I do not claim to be an expert in any of these technologies, consequently I will be putting a bit of research time into each article in an effort to present each in a fair light.

CBE

Corn-based ethanol

I am forced to admit that before fully looking into CBE I was a strong proponent of it. I have changed my position and now believe that CBE should not play a large part in our energy future. I felt it best to state my bias right up front. Here are some of the arguments, once one accepts that CBE is a cleaner and safer fuel than gasoline.

1. Proponents say that CBE will increase our self sufficiency and energy independence and reduce the trade deficit. It will decrease our dependence on outside sources for energy, but so will just about all the alternatives that are in development, so that argument is not as strong as it might sound. As for the trade deficit, it is a more mixed picture and not as easily determined as it would seem. We import oil and CBE would decrease our oil imports. However, we are a food exporter. Any land converted from food crops to CBE will decrease the amount of food we can export, and will contribute to increases in the price of food here and abroad. I could not possibly calculate how much any offset would be to the deficit, but my guess is that it wouldn’t affect it much. And, here in the US we consume most of our grain by eating beef, pork and poultry which are fed grain. While this is an extremely inefficient use of food (when looking at calories produced per amount of grain raised), it is the lifestyle we have grown up with, and if it changes it will be slowly. Consequently the rising cost of food can be a serious side effect of large scale production of CBE.
2. The environmental benefits are also a mixed bag. Growing corn absorbs carbon from the atmosphere. Though growing anything does, the degree will differ from one plant to another. Large, fast growing plants, such as corn, will absorb more carbon in a season than a tree will. CBE also does not pollute like gasoline does, and it is non-toxic if it reaches water tables through a spill.

When you drive past a corn field in winter you may notice the stubble of the old corn stalks that are left in the field. This stubble is getting pulled out of the earth and used as a major part of the manufacture of CBE. At first you might think that it is good that this is getting some use. But if you are a farmer you already know its use. That stubble and its roots, which are lost in CBE fields, prevent soil erosion, and provide a source of fertilizer when tilled in in spring. In CBE fields there will be serious topsoil erosion and the fields will require massive use of chemical fertilizer. Many small farmers in the mid-west have refused to raise corn for ethanol for this reason. They want farms they can pass down through the generations, and if the topsoil is gone they know they will not be able to do so.

1. Follow the money. These words of wisdom from Deep Throat to Woodward and Bernstein eventually led them to the truth behind Watergate. The same applies here. Archer Daniels Midland spent decades lobbying the government to include ethanol in gasoline. Currently ADM is making record profits from ethanol sales and government subsidies (sound familiar?). Ford and General Motors are receiving subsidies and tax benefits for making flex fuel vehicles, and selling them in parts of the country where E85 is unavailable. Hey, our tax dollars at work.

The arguments go on. The January 2006 edition of Science had an article in favor of ethanol, but the June issue contained several letters from equally revered scientists arguing the point. In February of 2008 Culture Change (www.culturechange.org) published an online article by Alice Friedemann saying that biofuels are unsustainable. This article is actually an excellent beginning for greater discussion because she lists many sources of further information. Though she is clearly biased I would encourage anyone interested to look beyond it to the source material here, as well as in the Science article.

While I have stated my own bias here, please do not merely accept my judgment. This is a complex issue with no clear right or wrong answer, and my decision making quarter has been wrong before.

BOOK NOTES

Orchid keeping is an obsession. The flowers are beautiful, but, often the plants are not. They are generally hard to grow, and if you get them to survive they are harder to get to blossom. I admit to keeping a handful of orchids that I rarely manage to get to re-bloom. But, as any regular reader of this newsletter will tell you my real obsessions are music and books, or books and music. Susan Orleans’ book The Orchid Thief is an excellent study of obsessive compulsive disorder, (it is about orchid people), while at the same time being a true story of crime and self delusion. John Laroche and three Seminole Indians are caught stealing rare orchids from the wild in South Florida. Laroche tries to hide behind the fact that it is not illegal for Native Americans to be taking these plants, and while he is not Native American his companions are. Ms. Orleans was sent down to investigate and planned an article on the affair which eventually turned into her own obsession and this book.

As she traveled around Florida she met many people in the orchid trade and listened to tales from Laroche about the elusive Ghost Orchid. The Ghost is a very rare orchid that consists of epiphytic roots that occasionally flower. It has no leaves. Laroche has grandiose plans to find and clone the Ghost for the orchid trade and make millions. (He has had many such plans in his life.) As you progress through the story, which includes a brief history of the orchid trade and much information about the South Florida orchid people, you can sense her own obsession growing. She wants to see a Ghost Orchid for herself. She manages to convince Laroche to take her to see one in the swamps of Florida, and in so doing she has placed her life in the hands of a sociopathic personality, as together they get lost in the swamp. The book is a quick read, and brings the reader along like a good novel. The story is of interest from many levels, including the author’s interactions. This is not merely a reporter reporting events, Orleans becomes a participant in the story, and somehow that makes it a better story.

A few years ago a small plane crash took the lives of Galen Rowell and his wife. Galen was an outdoor photographer who had literally climbed the highest mountains and traveled all over the world, while creating one of the greatest collections of photographs of the outdoors ever. I have been a fan for many years now, and when I first saw Galen Rowell: A Retrospective, I had to buy it. By Sierra club books, it is a collection of essays about Galen, and a very representative collection of his photographs, which are a beauty that cannot be put into words. Rowell was a master of color as Ansel Adams was a master of black and white. Rowell’s travels, though, took him much farther than Adams’ took him.

From the mountains of the Himalayas to the Andes, from Alaska to Mexico, his photographic trips were adventures documented in a time when few new trips can be made, and new images are hard to come by. How many images of Everest are enough? How can new views be found in Yosemite and Yellowstone? How many shots of polar bears do we need? Rowell manages to capture images that are new, interesting, beautiful. He goes where many have gone before, but what he sees is new. Some of the photographs are similar to many other representations of the natural world we have been seeing for years now. But he manages many fresh images without the use of computer manipulation. His style was still centered on use of the eye and the camera, and his skill with both creates enduring beauty from a single moment in time, in a place most of us never get to.

THE OFFICIAL DAVE’S AUTO & Tire center poll results

We are continuing on our unending quest: knowledge of the ultimate nature of man. In our last poll we had a runoff, and the excitement was extreme. Just last week, an unknown woman accosted me on the street, demanding to know the results of our poll. As I ducked under her swinging, heavily laden, purse, I realized that she looked familiar. So, we hired a team of crack investigators to find out just who she was. When the report came in I was astonished to learn that hidden under all that makeup disguise was my father-in-law. I thought the mustache looked familiar, but the red dress threw me off; he usually wears pastels. The purse, it turns out, was filled with can tabs for the Shriners, which we later added to our collection, after he sheepishly admitted his guilt.

The plot thickens. It turns out that he was working under cover for one of the major news organizations as a consultant, and was trying to help them get a scoop. The deviousness of the American media knows no bounds. Not even that of family. For all I know now my dog may have a camera hidden in her fur. (I thought that surgery was to remove a tumor.) Betrayal, it seems, is everywhere. Just because I’m paranoid doesn’t mean everyone isn’t against me. I also understand that my name has been added to the Nixon enemies list.

Now, with a presidential election hanging in the balance, this news will be released so that each voter can determine for themselves how to incorporate this information into their decision making processes. Neither McCain, nor Obama, have demonstrated the courage to take a stand on this issue, both issuing platitudes about the system working at its own speed, and there being a need for change. But, change can be a good thing, or change can be a bad thing. Remember the days when McDonalds bragged about giving change back from your dollar? (If you do it dates you.)

So now, without further ado, we are ready to release the finalized poll results. In the runoff you were asked to choose mankind’s greatest invention, and you chose electricity. The confusion, and we are filled with confusion, is that we actually didn’t invent electricity. So to avoid the obvious questions that arise from this, and to avoid the gerrymandering issues that have yet to be resolved, we wish to absolve ourselves and obfuscate by saying that man invented ways to generate and harness electricity, so that’s close enough for me.

Don’t forget to continue bringing us your can tabs. We have collected gallons of them for the Shriner’s Hospital for Children. Thanks to all who donated.