III: Natural Gas Fuelled Cars; The Precursor to Biogas Cars.

Although normally defined as a conventional source of energy, natural gas is a form of fossilized solar power. Fossilized natural gas is a limited natural resource and therefore cannot be regarded as a long term source of energy. Its importance is that it could pave the way for energy derived from either Biomass (Manure) or Phytomass. Natural gas is explored in this work not because it is a form of solar power but it is a precursor to biogas. To a large extent the future success of biogas depends on the spread of fossilized natural gas. Biogas will inherit much of the natural gas infrastructure.

III.A: The Development of Natural Gas Fuelled Cars.

The numbers of natural gas fuelled cars are growing rapidly around the world. It has been estimated that a million vehicles have been converted to run on either compressed natural gas or dual fuel. In the united states, gas fuel stations have opened up in los angeles. In southern california, the united states mail and private courier services are experimenting with gas fuelled fleets. Much more importantly, "In the US, a bill legislating increased use of compressed natural gas (CNG) was passed this October. The bill should ensure CNG captures 30% of the US vehicle market by 2010."; "Natural gas is .. attracting attention as a vehicle fuel, as cities struggle to cope with air pollution. In the United states, many local governments have begun to promote these vehicles in public and private fleets." In great brutland, "British Gas is promoting natural gas powered cars with a £1.5 million research and development programme. Claiming that such vehicles are environmentally friendly because they can reduce carbon monoxide and carbon dioxide emissions up to 70% and reduce emissions of sulphur and particulates to almost zero, they also say that driver and passenger comfort is increased through less noise, engine service intervals are lengthened, fuel costs reduced, engine life prolonged and no lead emissions. There are now 9 refuelling stations for natural gas: Livingston, Warrington, Loughborough, Dudley, Bristol, Slough, London Southampton and Thornaby; while BG are developing ‘home refuelling’ apparatus."

A number of car manufacturers are experimenting with cars which run on compressed natural gas, "Manufacturers have developed a new generation of lightweight all-composite gas cyclinders that will make it possible to build natural gas vehicles - even the smallest passenger cars - with a range similar to their gasoline powered equivalents. An industry study estimates that as many as 4 million natural gas vehicles could be on the roads by 2005."

III.B: The Vast Quantities of Natural Gas.

The reason for the increasing interest in natural gas powered cars is the availability of colossal quantities of natural gas. Natural gas is to be found in most of the world’s oil deposits. It has been suggested that gas reserves may be even more abundant than those of oil.

The use of natural gas has spread rapidly during the 1990s .. "the pattern of world energy use is undergoing a radical transformation that is also lowering carbon emissions. After increasing sixfold between 1950 and 1979, oil use has levelled off, actually declining 7% from 1979 to 1993. Production of coal which had been growing rather steadily from mid-century onward, dropped more than 5% from the peak year of 1989. By contrast, the use of natural gas is climbing, its growth driven both by price and because it is clean burning, particularly compared with coal and oil. Within the next few years, the surging reliance on natural gas is likely to move it above coal, making it second only to oil as an energy source."; "World production of natural gas, the world's third largest energy source, reached a record 1,974 million tons of oil equivalent in 1993, according to preliminary estimates. Natural gas now provides 21% of the world's primary energy.The late eighties and early nineties were marked by expanding use of natural gas throughout most of the world." Even more startlingly .. "use of natural gas can be expected to double or even triple during the next few decades. Since world oil production is likely to grow only modestly from the current level, and then decline, natural gas could become the most important fossil fuel by 2010 - building a long term bridge to an energy economy that is fueled by hydrogen gas generated from solar energy."

III.B a) The Global Network of Natural Gas Pipelines.

The natural gas pipeline network already covers large parts of the world, "The USSR has 38% of global gas reserves. The Soviet block accounts for 35% of global gas exports. Over the past two decades, it has increased gas production (which now stands at 815 billion cubic metres) by 400%. By the mid-1990s, Soviet production is set to reach 1 trillion cubic metres. The former Soviet block has a gas supply system which is unrivalled in the world; 210,000 kilometres of main pipelines strung out across more than 500 operating gas fields, with a further 94 ready for development and 349 being appraised."; "Russia has 125,000 miles of oil and gas pipelines, and Greenpeace reckons that half are past their expiry date."

There are plans for a massive extension of the natural gas network, "In Europe, major new pipelines are being extended from Norway, Russia, and northern Africa .. Reliance on natural gas is also expanding rapidly in the developing world, including Argentina, Mexico, Egypt, and the former Soviet republics of Kazakhstan and Turkmenistan. Soon, new pipelines will allow Bolivia to sell gas to Brazil, and Myanmar to sell it to Thailand. China, which relies minimally on natural gas today .. is building major new pipelines in Guangdong and Szechuan. Plans are also being made to extend an undersea pipeline from the rich gas reserves of the middle east to the one-fifth of humanity living on the Indian subcontinent. Japan, meanwhile, is considering a domestic pipeline system, including undersea connections to Russian oil fields off Sakhalin Island and to south east Asia, which would open the way for a Far Eastern pipeline network."

III.C: The Geophysiological Damage Caused by Natural Gas Powered Cars.

Given that biogas will inherit most of the natural gas infrastructure then the geophysiological damage caused by biogas should include that caused by fossilized natural gas. However, for the purposes of this work the two are kept distinct.

III.C a) The Damage to the Demand Side of the Carbon Spiral Caused by Natural Gas.

1. The Phytosynthetic Damage Caused by Natural Gas Powered Stations.

Natural gas powered stations cause much less damage to the Earth’s Phytosynthetic capacity compared to coal fired power stations, "The 1,875 MW Teeside power station (gas fired combined cycle heat and power station) occupies 23 acres compared to 800 acres for a coal-fired plant."

"Potentially the most damaging consequences of the (1989 US-Canada) FTA have resulted from the deregulation of United States investment and the removal of restrictions on energy exports from Canada (one of the main United States objectives in negotiating the FTA). Under a $10bn project agreed in 1990, the Canadian subsidiaries of Esso, Gulf and Shell - all of which vigorously promoted the FTA - have been given export licenses entitling them to open up the Mackenzie Delta in the Canadian Arctic to gas exploration and to export up to 87% of the area's natural gas reserves. Apart from undermining previous resources conservation measures, their operations are likely to have adverse environmental consequences for the region's unique and fragile ecosystem, including the major fish spawning areas on which much of Canada's coastal fleet relies."

III.C.b) The Boost to the Supply Side of the Carbon Spiral Caused by Natural Gas.

1. The Pollution Caused by the Extraction and Transmission of Natural Gas.

The extraction and transmission of natural gas generates huge amounts of pollution. Methane itself is a major greenhouse gas and some commentators believe it will eventually become more important than Carbon dioxide. There are a number of different sources of methane emissions but the extraction and transmission of methane is significant, "The use of natural gas as an energy source liberates enormous amounts of methane. Natural gas extracted from gas fields is typically transmitted by pipeline to distribution centers or liquefied and shipped. During transmission to the user, gas is lost by leakage or venting. The rate of loss is poorly known, but estimates range from 1 to 5% in North America and Europe and higher, possibly up to 10% in some centrally planned countries, especially the Soviet Union. The amounts lost to the atmosphere may be substantial, they may range up to 50 million tons per year."; In Russia .. "where the leakage rate of the Moscow city system is estimated at 17% (compared with less than 1% in most US cities." The belief that american technology is superior to that in russia and thus loses only 5% may be a bit of cold war rhetoric, "Some American investigators believe that pipelines carrying the gas (to power stations) leak up to 10% of their contents. Since unburnt methane is a greenhouse gas, the pipelines may be a growing source of global warming as may gas vented from some oil fields."

2. The Pollution Caused by Natural Gas Accidents.

"At 5.43am the Mexico City shanty town suburb of San Juan Ixhautepec was rocked by a massive explosion that enveloped it in flames. This was the initial blast of an hour-long series of disturbances registering 0.5 on the Richter earthquake scale. Fireballs measuring 300 metres in diameter roared through the streets for nearly two hours, destroying entire blocks of houses and incinerating every form of life in their path. The reason for the explosion was careless storage of liquefied petroleum gas, mostly in the form of propane, at the state-owned pemex Oil Company's gas complex at Ixhautepec. Well over 1,500 died in the disaster, and least 7,000 were seriously injured."

3. The Pollution Caused by the Use of Natural Gas Powered Cars.

Gas powered cars release less pollution than petrol driven cars, "The International Gas Union .. found that gas produces up to 90% less nitrogen oxides (NOx) than coal or oil. Compressed Natural Gas (CNG) also produces less ozone pollution, less carbon monoxide and less methane. CNG was found to produce 80-90% less greenhouse gases when used in vehicles." According to brutish gas, natural gas vehicles are .. "environmentally friendly because they can reduce carbon monoxide and carbon dioxide emissions up to 70% and reduce emissions of sulphur and particulates to almost zero .."

III.C c) Conclusion.

Some commentators believe the contribution of natural gas to the greenhouse effect could be so substantial that it negates the switch from heating oil, "A study by Dean Abrahamson of the University of Minnesota found that, compared with oil heating, the methane leaking from natural gas distribution systems has such a powerful greenhouse effect that it offsets any CO2 reduction benefits of switching to gas heating."; "It is conceivable that cars running on natural gas would produce more ‘CO2 equivalent’ than conventional petroleum driven vehicles, because of methane leakages occurring during the production and distribution of fuel."

IV: Biogas Fuelled Cars.

This section looks at the geophysiological damage caused by biogas cars.

IV.A: The Sources of Biogas.

Just as there are a number of sources of solar energy which could generate electricity for battery powered cars, so there are different sources for biogas. Biogas can be generated through Biomass (Human, and Animal, Manure), Phytomass and organic waste.

IV.B: The Geophysiological Damage Caused by Biogas Cars.

IV.A.a) The Damage to the Demand Side of the Carbon Spiral Caused by Biogas.

Just as was noted above with the creation of plantations for Phytomass crops to generate electricity, vast areas of land might have to be turned over to the growing of crops to produce biogas.

IV.A.b) The Boost to the Supply Side of the Carbon Cycle Caused by Biogas.

1. The Pollution Caused by the Transmission of Biogas.

Biogas would be less polluting than natural gas since it would not have to be extracted from oil deposits. In addition, the risks of biogas escaping during transmission would be smaller than that for natural gas, since biogas could be produced in a far more decentralized way than natural gas. Biogas is unlikely to need as extensive a transmission system as natural gas.

2. The Pollution Caused by the Use of Biogas Driven Cars.

"The potential for CO2 reduction is said to be in the region of 19% when CNG is derived from natural gas and 100% when it is derived from biomass. The latter however gives rise to the release of methane, another potent gas."

IV.A.c) The Net Zero Emissions Scenario.

As far as biogas derived from Phytomass is concerned, it is argued that the amount of pollution created by biogas powered cars is irrelevant because it would be offset by the growth of Plants needed to provide further supplies of biogas. There would be a balance between Carbon emissions and Carbon absorption which would not harm the Earth’s life support system. However, there are a number of problems with this alleged ecological harmony.

* Firstly, the methane spiral is much more extended than the Carbon dioxide spiral. When Carbon dioxide is released it can be taken up immediately by Photosynthesis but this is not the case with methane which has to be broken down into Carbon dioxide before it can be absorbed by Plants. Thus even where the same amounts of Carbon are involved the delay in the breakdown of methane will boosts global warming.

* Secondly, there is too much Carbon in the atmosphere at present so this excess would have to be removed before the biogas spiral is established. If it is not it would maintain this excess and continue to cause geophysiological damage.

* Thirdly, there are climatic conditions under which it would be dangerous to have a balanced Carbon spiral in which Carbon emissions equal Carbon absorption. Because the Earth’s climate changes over time, the biogas Carbon spiral would have to be regulated in such a way as to help stabilize the climate.

Developing biogas from Manure is an entirely different and far more ecologically dangerous prospect. Quite simply, the greater the amount of Manure, the greater the amount of biogas. Biogas developed from Manure encourages the production of more Manure whether this might be through increasing the ooman, or Animal, livestock populations.

IV.C: Conclusions.

Natural gas powered cars are by no means as rustic as electric cars. The ‘profile’ is a gas fired, high-tech, futuristic so-called green car. Although it’s a new concept in cars it’s hardly a new concept in motoring - if anything it’s worse than what exists already, "A new 150mph high performance car from Ford runs on natural gas as well as unleaded fuel. The Profile’s 240 horsepower all-aluminium, 24 valve, 2.5 litre V6 engine is fuel injected and supercharged, has achieved an average top speed of 150mph during testing. The Profile’s sunroof incorporates a solar panel which provides up to 30 watts of continuous power on a sunny day."

V: Bio Liquid Fuelled Cars.

V.A: The Sources of Bio Liquid Fuelled Cars.

There are three main bioliquid fuels; ethanol, methanol and esters. Ethanol derives from sugar beets (sugar cane), maize (corn), cereals, and potatoes, and can be mixed with regular petrol. Methanol is a wood alcohol. Esters come from oilseeds and can be mixed with diesel fuel, "Another form of plant-based motor fuel is ‘biodiesel’ - essentially vegetable oil derived from a variety of energy crops." All three bioliquid fuels can also be produced by synthetic means.

V.B: The Introduction of Bio Liquid Fuels.

Bio-liquid fuels are already widespread in america although it is rarely appreciated. This is because some bioliquid fuels are marketed as petrol additives which are designed to reduce the hydro-Carbon emissions causing smog. So-called oxygenated fuels consist of petrol topped up with bioliquid fuels to boost fuel efficiency thereby reducing certain types of pollution (only of course to create other types of pollution), "One way to reduce pollutants (from car exhausts) is to add 10-15% of oxygenated compounds to the fuel blend. The additional oxygen encourages the fuel to burn more cleanly .. The oxygenated compounds include alcohols (produced from US grain) and ethers such as methyl tertiary butyl ether (MTBE), the most widely used oxygenate. It is already added in small quantities to unleaded fuel as an octane enhancer. The proponents of oxygenated fuel - which not unsurprisingly include Arco, the American company that makes most of the world's MTBE - point out that the product is relatively cheap to produce, can be added to leaded and unleaded petrol, does not require modified petrol pumps, and would only put half a penny on the price of a gallon of fuel. Arco has recently launched a campaign outlining the benefits of oxygenated fuel in Britain. The initiative has the backing of .. Dr Simon Wolff. This is not music to the ears of the large petroleum companies .. who have already invested heavily in producing unleaded petrol with enhanced levels of aromatics .. According to Wolfgang Luding of Europia, the European Petroleum Industry association, MTBE has its disadvantages: "MTBE has a positive effect in winter when there is a carbon monoxide problem but in the summer it creates high levels of formaldehyde, which is a very aggressive ozone precursor.""

V.C: Ethanol (Bio-petrol) Fuelled Cars.

V.C.a) The Development of Ethanol (Bio-petrol) Fuelled Cars.

There are already a large number of cars around the world which run on ethanol or ethanol mixed fuels. The brazilian government has funded a massive ethanol industry to supply fuel for domestic cars. One commentator provides a rosy view of brazil’s ethanol industry - less pollution, no contribution to global warming, and a massive saving in oil imports, "The world's biggest experiment in alternative fuel, Proalcohol, was set up in 1975 as a response to the oil crisis in the 1970s, and now provides ethanol from sugar cane to power around one-third of Brazil's 12 million cars. It produces fewer pollutants and does not contribute to the greenhouse effect. (sic) (But) world oil prices have fallen so far as to make ethanol too expensive without government subsidies. A motor running a car on ethanol produces 20-30% less Carbon monoxide and insignificant levels of sulphur; the two fuels generate roughly equal amounts of hydrocarbons (from unburned fuels) but unburned ethanol is non reactive and so does not contribute to the formation of photochemical smogs. Ethanol run cars generated 15% less nitrogen oxides. The production of CO2 by ethanol-run vehicles is balanced by absorption in new cane. Gasohol cars run on 78% petrol-22% ethanol. Roughly $9 billion was invested in increasing cane production and building around 600 distilleries. Car adaptions to run on ethanol cost $500 per car. Over the last ten years, Proalcohol saved the country an estimated $20 billion in oil imports."; "Brazil has the world's largest alcohol fuels program, with about 72 million barrels of ethanol derived from sugarcane annually."

V.C.c) The Geophysiological Damage Caused by Ethanol.

1. The Damage to the Demand Side of the Carbon Spiral Caused by Ethanol.

1.One: The Phytosynthetic Damage Caused by Growing Energy Crops.

Just as was the case with biogas, vast areas of land might have to be converted to growing crops to produce ethanol. In brazil, "Local production of ethanol provided a crop for 10% of Brazil's farmland .."; "More than 6 million acres of the best agricultural land are now devoted to feeding cars .."; It has been estimated that .. "each alcohol distillery needs about 15,000 acres of land to be viable ..." In europe, "Surplus agricultural land could be made available for cultivating both oil crops and plant-based alcohols."

1.Two: The Ecological Damage Caused by the Construction of Ethanol Distilleries.

The land on which distilleries are constructed would no longer be capable of carrying out Photosynthesis. In brazil there are around 600 distilleries.

2. The Boost to the Supply Side of the Carbon Spiral Caused by Ethanol.

2.One: Car Exhaust Emissions.

One commentator has argued that, "The potential for reducing CO2 emissions by switching to biofuels is considerable." Other commentators have argued, "From an emissions point of view, both ethanol and methanol (fuelled cars) produce fewer of the toxins associated with petrol engines, although carbon dioxide levels are often higher and formaldehydes are much higher than with petrol. Furthermore, fuel efficiency is reduced."

3. The Net Zero Emissions Scenario.

It has been suggested that if cars ran on ethanol there would be net zero emissions of CO2 because CO2 pollution would be reabsorbed by the Plants producing ethanol, "In principle, a biofuel plantation which grows as rapidly as the vegetation is removed can have almost zero net emissions of CO2"; "It (ethanol) produces fewer pollutants and does not contribute to the greenhouse effect."; .. "if the alcohol is produced from crops, as in Brazil, the carbon dioxide released can be equivalent to that absorbed by the growing crop in the first place, so that there is no net increase in carbon dioxide." The errors afflicting this scenario are the same as those outlined above for biogas derived from Phytomass.

Whilst it is theoretically possible to develop a self-contained ethanol cycle, in the case of the brazilian experiment huge amounts of oil are being used to help produce ethanol. Although sugarcane is an agricultural product which could produce energy within the limitations of the Planet's Carbon spiral, in reality it is a monocultural crop which is highly dependent on large quantities of oil, in the form of fertilizers, pesticides, herbicides, etc., which causes considerable ecological problems. Oil is also needed as a fuel to drive combine harvesters/tractors/crop spraying planes; to power alcohol refineries; and to power the vehicles transporting the finished product from refineries to petrol filling stations. The brazilians are in effect using substantial quantities of crude oil to produce similar quantities of ethanol. From a geophysiological perspective, all they are doing is taking crude oil for a biological walk around the Planet's Carbon spiral- and, in the process, damaging the Earth’s life-sustaining processes.

The one major advantage that would accrue if ethanol became the sole source of fuel for cars would be that vast numbers of cars would have to be taken off the roads because it could never meet current fuel demands, "The Worldwatch Institute has calculated that up to 40% of the entire US corn harvest would have to be earmarked for ethanol production in order to meet just 10% of current fuel demand.".

V.C d) An Energy Balance of Ethanol Driven Cars.

The conclusion of the Carbon spiral analysis above is roughly confirmed using an energy analysis, "The net energy obtained from biomass is the energy obtained from using the fuel, less the energy expended in growing the biomass, harvesting it, converting it to the fuel and transporting it to the point of use. (Comparing) the estimated energy costs of producing ethanol from sugarcane in Brazil and in southern USA. The amount of ethanol produced per hectare was similar in the two regions. The energy costs on the farm include not just the fuel used by the tractors and other machinery, but also the energy used to make that machinery, to make ammonium fertiliser and pesticides chemically, to mine and transport other fertilisers. The energy in the food eaten by the farm workers is also included, but is a small proportion of the total. In Brazil the total energy used on the farm was nearly a quarter of the energy content of the ethanol produced, and in Louisiana it was nearly a half. The difference betwee the two areas was partly due to greater use of fertilisers and pesticides in Louisiana, and partly due to more use of machines there and less of human labour. Another major energy cost arises because (of distillation). The energy required for this is more than half the energy content of the pure alcohol. The result is that in Louisiana the total energy expended to obtain the ethanol is more than the ethanol contains, so no energy is actually gained; the amount of energy is a negative number. In Brazil the net energy is a positive amount .. about one-fifth of the total energy in the ethanol."

V.C e) The Economic Cost of Ethanol Driven Cars.

In the past brazil, like many other third world countries,was being crippled by its oil imports - mainly for consumption by the military and ruling elite, "The resulting dependence on imported oil often cripples the already strained economies of these countries. In a country like Brazil , for example, the value of oil imports in 1985 was some 43% of imports as a whole." The development of an ethanol industry has meant that, "Over the last ten years, Proalcohol saved the country an estimated $20 billion in oil imports." This impressive saving seems overshadowed by the huge amounts of money being devoted to cars, "Brazil obtains .. 28% of its energy needs from sugar cane biomass reserves. This represents a major saving on petrol imports amounting to US$8.9 billion from 1976 to 1985." In other words, despite being able to meet 28% of its energy needs from ethanol, brazil was still importing oil amounting to 43% of its total import bill.

The alleged savings on petrol imports are offset by government subsidies for ethanol. Without subsidies, ethanol would be much more expensive than petrol and motorists would be reluctant to buy it, "Local production of ethanol provided a crop for 10% of Brazil's farmland and employed 850,000 people. The product was so successful that, until last year, 90% of all new cars sold in Brazil ran on it. Since 1985, the state has spent $10 billion on subsidizing consumption, because each barrel of alcohol costs about $30 more to produce than one of imported petrol."

One of the reasons for this huge subsidy is that large amounts of oil are required:-

* in the form of fertilizers, pesticides, herbicides, to boost sugar cane output;

* as a fuel to drive combine harvesters/tractors/crop spraying planes, alcohol refineries, and,

* vehicles to transport ethanol from refineries to petrol filling stations.

Given the huge quantities of oil needed to produce this oil substitute it is obvious why it could never be profitable. Even if petrol prices rise, ethanol won't become more economically attractive because of the cost of buying petrol to produce ethanol. Ethanol will never undercut the price of oil.

Just as the amount of petrol saved by using ethanol has been offset by the extra oil that needs to be imported for the sake of maintaining the ethanol industry, so the financial savings obtained by reducing oil imports are offset by government subsidies to the ethanol industry.

V.C f) The Comparative and Political Costs of Ethanol Driven Cars.

The comparative cost of ethanol is perhaps far higher than the financial costs. The vast are of land used for growing sugar beet could be used for better purposes, "Brazil has 8 million cars running on a mixture of petrol and ethyl alcohol. More than 6 million acres of the best agricultural land are now devoted to feeding cars .." Politically, the consequence of creating sugar cane plantations for cars was a considerable shift in political power .. "because each alcohol distillery needs about 15,000 acres of land to be viable, production has fallen entirely into the hands of large plantation owners."

V.D: Methanol Fuelled Cars.

Brazil also seems to be experimenting with methanol, "In Brazil, where yields average 12 tons per hectare annually, eucalyptus is cultivated for charcoal and for methanol production. To supply a plant with sufficient feedstock to manufacture 1,000 tons of methanol a day, 72,000 hectares of eucalyptus must be harvested on a 7 year cutting cycle."

V.D a) The Geophysiological Damage Caused by Methanol.

1. The Damage to the Demand Side of the Carbon Spiral Caused by Methanol.

1.One: The Phytosynthetic Damage Caused by Growing Energy Crops.

See above for ethanol.

2. The Boost to the Supply Side of the Carbon Spiral Caused by Methanol.

2.One: Synthetic Manufacture.

.. "the quest for petroleum alternatives has focused largely on "clean" fuels such as methanol, made from coal or natural gas, and alcohol substitutes distilled from corn and other crops. But methanol contributes to ozone formation and, if derived from coal, to climate change by emitting twice as much carbon dioxide per unit of energy as gasoline does."

V.D b) The Human Damage Caused by Methanol.

The main anthropogenic health problem caused by methanol is its carcinogenic emissions, "methanol suffers the handicap of causing its own special exhaust emissions, most notably formaldehyde which not only smells vile but is high on the suspect list of carcinogens."

V.E: Bio-diesel Fuelled Cars.

V.E a) The Development of Bio-diesel Fuelled Cars.

The intensification of agricultural, and factory, pharming brought about by the european agricultural policy has created a vast area of surplus agricultural land. In many countries pharmers are taking the opportunity to use this land to grow rapeseed to provide biodiesel. In germany, "Biodiesel, the alternative fuel derived from rape seed .. could displace as much as 400,000 tonnes of fossil fuel a year in Germany - equivalent to 640,000 tonnes of CO2 - which is 0.5-0.7% of the country's total emissions .. and would cost 1.1 billion DM (£400million). Set aside land can be used to grow biodiesel." In great brutland, oilseed rape is the country’s fastest growing crop. In 1984 only 61,000 tonnes were harvested where by 1993 it had leapt to 1,300,000 and now constitutes a £350 million business for brutish farmers. "Germany’s fleet of diesel powered mercedes taxis are about to be converted to run on canola oil.." The scale of the land which could be used for rapeseed production is colossal .. "the European Union’s current strategy is to take land out of production and move from a system of price support to one based on income support via area payments for land in production. To qualify for such payments farmers must set aside 15% of their eligible land area. For the UK some 650,000 ha has now been entered into the various set aside schemes. For the whole of Europe the figure is in excess of 4 million ha."

V.E b) The Geophysiological Damage Caused by Bio-diesel.

These are the same as for ethanol.

V.F: Comparisons between Bio-gas and Bio-liquid Fuels.

The distinction made above between biogas and bioliquid fuels is not very satisfactory since it is relatively easy to turn biogas into bioliquids and vice versa. In addition the two types of fuel come from similar sources: biogas can be generated either through Biomass (Human, and Animal, Manure), Phytomass and organic waste whilst as far as bioliquid fuels are concerned ethanol (biopetrol) derives from crops, methanol derives from Wood, and esters (biodiesel) derives from oil rapeseeds/vegetable oils. In effect it would have been just as valid to compare the differences between crops, Wood, organic waste and Biomass.

V.F a) Comparing Crops with Wood Plantations.

"The overall energy ratio of short rotation coppice (SRC) is approximately 15 to 20:1 based on practical trials (energy out: energy in). This is substantially higher than energy balances of other biofuels such as biodiesel (with an energy balance of 1.3-3.8), produced from arable food crops. This difference is explained by the fact that the production of woody biomass requires very low levels of external inputs. Consequently the large scale production of woody biomass as an energy source offers the opportunity to decrease the intensity of agricultural production and level of agricultural pollution whilst providing a clean and renewable energy source. It is expected that the coppice production cycle can be repeated several times during a plantation’s predicted 30 year or so life."

VI: Algae Fuelled Cars.

This section is included primarily as a note since algae is a source of energy which is still being developed. It could be used to generate electricity as mentioned above or it could be turned into either biogas or bioliquid fuels, "There’s a new fuel that can be grown, eats sewage and carbon dioxide, and is stuffed with hydrocarbons. It’s a remarkable alga called Botryococcus braunii .. a green collection of cells that bulges with hydrocarbons, up to 86% of all its dry weight is oil. .. there is a growing suspicion that when its ancestors laid down their lives they made some of the world’s great oil fields. To create your own oilfield, all you have to do is grow the alga, harvest it and burst it open. The first part is no sweat because it grows on treated sewage. The harvesting is okay because you grow it in tanks and then filter the algae off. The tough bit is extracting the oil because its trapped inside the cells. Scientists at the National Institute for Resources and Environment (have a cheap technique for doing this which) involves boiling the cells in a chemical brew which squeezes out three-quarters of the algalm oil. The oil can be upgraded into high octane fuel by old-fashioned refinery techniques. And because the alga is a photo-synthesizing plant it absorbs carbon dioxide. So burning algal oil would make little overall difference to carbon dioxide levels in the atmosphere .."

VII: Hybrids.

This section is also added as a note since it is another possible source of energy, "Motorists of the future could have their electrically driven cars fuelled by the wind as they drive along the motorway. A British inventor, Derek McShane from Merseyside, has patented a system for harnessing wind energy by placing "energy blades", linked to turbines, along the motorway central reservations. He believes that laser devices, powered by the wind created by passing traffic, could re-charge solar panels on cars driving in the charging lane. The system could also be used to power motorway lights and prevent roads icing up. Mr McShane believes that his energy blades, placed alongside railway tracks and at airports, could produce a "colossal" amount of energy for the national grid by harnessing the wind created by the movement of trains and planes. So he has a lot of interest abroad but would like to see his invention developed in Britain."

VIII: The Overall Ecological Devastation Caused by Solar Energy Fuelled Cars.

The large scale conversion of the car, and car related, industries from fossil fuels to solar power would produce a considerable amount of pollution. As an indication of the scale of the pollution that could be released, it has been estimated that, "It will cost $55 billion to set up a methanol supply infrastructure - everything from production plants to forecourt pumps - in the US alone." Although alternative power could reduce CO2 emissions its biggest threat would be to the Earth’s Photosynthetic capacity. Whilst it would be possible, as greenpeace suggests, to abolish fossil fuel emissions, and thereby dramatically reduce the greenhouse effect, it would boost ecological devastation and thus global warming. In the end it could prove to be every bit as destructive as fossil fuels.

The ecological devastation caused by the alternative energy industry would be as follows:-

* Biofuels from Crops: Vast areas of land would have to be covered in crops to provide Phytofuels for consumers, and perhaps even supergreens, to drive to out of town hypermarkets. Every unexpropriated bit of land around the world could end up being covered in monocultural Phytomass crops to meet the ever-growing demands for this ‘environmentally-friendly’ form of energy.

* Biomass energy (Manure): The vast quantities of Manure produced by humans and factory pharming could be used to produce biomass energy either in the form of electricity or biofuels. As far as the use of Animal Manure is concerned, this would make factory pharming cheaper and more profitable. Thus, the greater the number of factory pharmed Animals, the greater the Manure they produce, the greater the energy that can be created, and the greater the profits. In other words, green cars give an economic boost to factory pharming and, consequently, factory pharming makes green cars feasible. Green consumers driving out for a beefburger could congratulate themselves for the fact that by eating meat they were also increasing the supply of ‘ecologically friendly’ biofuels in a world of increasingly scarce fossil fuels.

* Solar Power Stations: Deserts and so-called ‘derelict’ land will be covered in solar power stations. The amount of energy which could be generated by solar power stations totally dwarfs the energy currently being obtained from fossil fuels, "A 1,000-megawatt solar thermal facility would require 24 square kilometres of land. Meeting all US electricity needs with this technology would thus require about 29,000 square kilometres, an area one tenth the size of Arizona."

* Wind Power: Wind-swept beauty spots will be blotted by wind pharms and their soul-mates electricity pylons. The ecological danger posed by wind power is not merely the manufacture of wind turbines and the use to which electricity from wind power could be put but that wind pharms are compatible with the most ecologically destructive industry on Earth, "Although wind farms that produce an equivalent amount of power (to the 1,000-megawatt solar thermal facility mentioned above) would cover a wider area, they would not really occupy the land in the same way; indeed, cattle grazing and other activites could go on as before."

* Hydro-electric Power: Small scale hydro-electric dams will be built on all small rivers. These dams could cause considerable disruption to aquatic ecologies.

* Tidal Barrages: Tidal barrages would cause significant ecological damage to coastal estuaries and to the hundreds of millions of birds which depend upon mudflats during their migrations.

In conclusion, it would be folly to convert from fossil fuels to alternative energy solely because of lower CO2 vehicle exhaust emissions, no matter how dramatic the reduction might be, if there is a considerable increase in Photosynthetic damage caused by the manufacture, distribution, and retailing, of alternative energy.