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Energy Depletion, Environment, the Dirty Truth About Biofuels

You would think that energy depletion would be environmentally beneficial. Declining hydrocarbon production should decrease the amount of carbon dioxide released into the atmosphere, thereby easing the problem of global warming. Decreasing fossil fuel production would also lead to a decrease in chemical outputs, various forms of pollution, and environmental destruction, wouldn't it?

Unfortunately, this is not the case. The problem is that in our desperation to seek out the energy necessary to maintain economic growth, we will (and are) turning to the worse alternatives to oil and natural gas: coal, nuclear energy, ethanol and other biofuels. In our desperation, we are opening up formerly protected areas in order to get at every last little bit of oil and natural gas, and we are increasing the harvesting of tar sands and heavy oils, the extraction of which has a disastrous result on the environment. Furthermore, many of our so-called 'green' alternatives are not green at all. Hybrids consume more energy than gasoline powered cars, and the generation of ethanol consumes more fossil fuel energy than the amount of energy contained in the ethanol.

The only solution is to cut back consumption. If we want to survive, we must abandon consumer capitalism and replace it with something that is more sustainable, and more equitable for all participants. We must also foster a new environmental and community consciousness to make each of us more personally aware of our connection to everything and everyone one around us, and more responsible for our impact upon the world.

All of these issues are addressed at The Mountain Sentinel. Our New York presentation at the Local Solutions Conference, available for free through our website, gave a large overview of these various problems and what could be done to solve them. We have looked at how oil and natural gas depletion will adversely affect global warming in a series of free articles about climate change.

In the first issue of The Mountain Sentinel, we took a critical look at the coal industry as it expands operations to meet growing demand. We also looked at the greed of major oil corporations like Exxon-Mobile and talked about returning control and responsibility over resources to local communities. We also looked at the failure of the environmental movement and the necessity of revolutionary environmental change.

We speculated on the importance of our remaining wilderness and the opening of ANWR, in the second issue of The Mountain Sentinel. The second issue also contains a major examination of biofuels. The third issue of The Mountain Sentinel examines relocalization, the importance of LA's South Central Farm to the community farming movement, and the whole nature of energy.

In future issues, we will feature in depth looks at global dimming and the coal industry, the tar sands industry, a sustainable community in Baja California, and many other issues important to our environmental and our personal health. You can help us to continue this work simply by purchasing The Mountain Sentinel.

Praise for The Mountain Sentinel

Well-researched and concise, "The Mountain Sentinel" is a very engaging and forward-looking journal. It contains a wide array of topics covering a diverse territory, provides a careful examination of the facts, is thought provoking, scholarly, courageous and compassionate. The format combines news with analysis and offers stories, musings and reflections to encourage the reader to ponder the depth of the Story of Humanity and perhaps make a few personal changes to come into closer harmony with Nature. I find it truly inspirational and an odyssey for the mind and soul.

Anyone who has ever read Annals of Earth by Ocean Arks International will feel right at home with the "The Mountain Sentinel". — John T. Heinen, Advisory Board member for the Association for the Study of Peak Oil and Gas – USA (ASPO-USA). Moderator/Administrator for Peak Oil News and Message Boards. Member of American Chemical Society, American Association for the Advancement of Science, Federation of Environmental Technologists.


Reading "The Dirty Truth about Biofuels" in the Mountain Sentinel, I was greatly relieved to see that it is possible to convey to a general audience the many inconvenient truths about what we do to the earth and ourselves when desperately attempting to prolong our unsustainable lifestyles. Mr. Pfeiffer has done an outstanding job summarizing the confusing and contradictory literature on the subject of biofuels. He has focused the much needed attention on the negative environmental aspects of their production, especially in the tropics. Mr. Pfeiffer deserves very high praise for his article.
— Tadeusz W. Patzek, Professor of petroleum, chemical and environmental engineering, U.C. Berkley. Member of the Society of Petroleum Engineers, the American Institute of Chemical Engineers, and the American Geophysical Union.

Your stuff is fabulous; have been reading at length. Congrats on a heroic effort. Great on energy, and especially good to see the focus on rich world imperialism. — Ted Trainer, School of Social Work, University of New South Wales