Jaiku Talks about Biofuels

golden october in schwedt,
black smoke
from the 'finery.

18 hours, 23 minutes ago in Schwedt, Germany.

7 comments so far

• 

  Does it mean Refinery? You have a big and strong chemical industry in Germany. Is there a move or discussion about transition towards a less oil dependent and more bio based industrial structure. Is these move based on solid and sound environmental principles?

  14 hours, 12 minutes ago by visualradio.

• 

  yeah refinery, i'm living right next to one: http://pck.de/index+en.html?&L=1

  "After a large-scale investment program, PCK exclusively supplies sulphurless fuels to the consumers.". sure there's always talk on energy dependency, from russia etc., now there's a talk on opening more brown coal strip mines in brandenburg, and the german renewable energies law (EEG) is considered amongst the most modern in the world etc., but it's all a wee bit complicated and mayhaps not so suited for witty chit-chat by debate misfits like myself.

  "A little learning is a dangerous thing; Drink deep, or taste not the Pierian spring: There shallow draughts intoxicate the brain, And drinking largely sobers us again."

  Alexander Pope (1688-1744)

  p.s. eins zwo gefährliches halbwissen is a seminal german hip hop album. 10 hours, 1 minute ago by cervus.

• 

  "The refineries in Germany have a crude-oil processing capacity of 113 million tons per year.

  PCK annually processes 10.5 million tons of crude oil, covering 9.3 percent of the complete processing capacity, or more descriptive: about every tenth ton of crude oil used in Germany is processed in Schwedt."

  8 hours, 31 minutes ago by cervus.

• @visualradio: there are notions that biofuel ain't that much better if produced in industrial amount - amount of crop/biomass needed as source material requires more energy (for all related efforts) than typical process output capacity.

  7 hours, 33 minutes ago by silpol.

• 

  oh wow, that's exactly what one debater said. apparently quoting a OECD study and all. mmh.

  6 hours, 13 minutes ago by cervus.

• @cervus: well, after personal Chernobyl experience I am not proponent of any dangerous fuels, be it fossil or nuclear. Yet, I don't want any crazy unsustainable "biofuel scheme" - it will ruin reputation of sustainable energy for ages, and it is too dangerous for current world. I want leave my kids and further sustainable world.

  5 hours, 57 minutes ago by silpol.

• 

  We are definitely between a rock and a hard place here regarding energy resources. I think we will have to keep diversifying our energy sources. That means that despite my sympathies to the green movement, I'm not against nuclear energy, because the alternative could be in extreme cases starvation. Energy in general is always risky. On a cellular level each bit of energy that is burned in the powerhouses called mitochondria releases oxygen radicals which are detrimental to the longevity of the cells. So by living the life we are always doing a balancing act. Cells try to protect themselves with antioxidants and likewise we have to develop methods to protect ourselves from the dangerous act of generating and using energy.

Go back to Jaiku to follow the discussion...

We got an interesting energy Jaiku going on. There are no easy ways out. Energy conservation should rise higher on the list. We still think in terms of GNP and growth is driving the economical thinking in China, India and a little nation like Finland. We've a very energy intensive industry. The Finnish ecological footprint is large (norther, cold climate, industry, long distances, etc.). There are a number of nice words like sustainable, clean energy, green building, eco building, etc. but the search for fundamentally new lifestyles is still very minimal. Biofuel is just one alternative. There is a lot of politics involved as well. Energy is global policy issue. @jknive is right: Diversifying our energy sources is just one of the roads on the roadmap. Western people use 10 000 to 15 000 watts of energy per day. I remember some professor said, We could take it down to 1 000 watts per day. But then we have to change the way we live. What about networking more and traveling less, living in smaller apartments and...what are the real solutions? Here is good link http://www.myfootprint.org/