Art-ology

If you sometimes sit back in your chair and watch, with an element of incredulity, the violence that inevitably breaks out whenever climate related political summits occur, then you can see an element of the tension that is slowly but surely building up around the world. Now we are coming to understand how unsustainable our lives are. Such anger and violence may be alien to most of us and we could wonder what drives these people to be so impassioned, but when we concentrate on some of the scientific evidence now available, we can see how our extravagant lifestyles and requirements are at odds with the planet. Everyone of us has to take steps to cut down, in aggressive fashion, the energy that we use, both at home and at work and be responsible for what is happening all around us. Greenhouse gases are building up in our atmosphere due to our use of those traditional fossil fuels – gas, coal and oil, raising our Earth’s temperature and threatening considerable harm to future generations unless we act quickly.

As always, political developments are slow and we are often frustrated by the inability of our political leaders to make headway. Recent and crucial talks in Copenhagen resulted in only moderate agreement and few, tangible results. As individuals, we all know that we can make a difference if we take action and really focus on how we use transportation on a daily basis. Public transportation is very underused and we tend to scoff at the idea of carpooling, riding a bicycle, or even walking! If environmental reasons are not enough to cause us to constrain our use, we should remember the events of 2008 when gasoline prices spiked considerably.

Our cars, trucks and buses are huge polluters of the environment and the automotive industry in the United States in particular is slow to shrug off the vestiges of an era when gas guzzlers were totally acceptable. It used to be okay to drive a car that was way too big, cumbersome and inefficient for our actual needs and as much as anything else, when gas was only 50 or 60 cents per gallon.

Now we know that biodiesel fuel represents a much more palatable option. The fuel is derived from agricultural products which are generally widely available. It is produced by mixing vegetable oil or leftover fats with methanol through separation. If you are suitably inclined, making biodiesel at home is a good option. As a rule of thumb, homemade biodiesel in undiluted form can be used in your diesel engine vehicle with no additional effort, but many vehicles use a blend of conventional petrodiesel and biodiesel, called B20, B40, etc.

Biodiesel may not yet have “arrived” in terms of popular culture, but as our desire to cut back on consumption, to explore alternative hybrid vehicles and to generally live greener lives increases, we’re sure to see more emphasis on this renewable form of energy. When this special fuel does eventually become widely available to people all around the world, we will have a much better chance at slowing the incredible rate of global ecological change.