…before you are willing to do something about it? 

What am I talking about? I am talking about the cost of gasoline today, and how high the cost must be before you are willing to change your habits.

In my lifetime, I have seen a twenty fold increase in the cost of gasoline, and no matter how I try, I still can’t get my head around it. I know it does not have to be that way. While it is true that the amount of oil is running out, and that electric cars are available, we must face one thing…the greatest number of transportational devices on the planet are of the internal combustion type.

In the vein of being energy efficient, and also not trying to re-invent the wheel, would it not make sense to derive a ‘green’ way to fuel all these vehicles? Also, by looking in places other than the vegetable section of the market, we also alleviate problems with the world’s food supply.

Perhaps the one thing George Bush was right about (yes, imagine that - George Bush being right about something, and at the same time, someone like me pointing it out - what a marvelous confluence of things!) is that hydrogen is a wonderful source of energy for internal combustion vehicles. Where he went astray was not pushing madly for the changes to come as soon as possible.  (This points out one of the problems with George Bush. He is entirely too involved with Big Oil to ever extricate his thinking from that direction.)

Hydrogen is the most abundant element in the entire universe, surely we can find, if we really try, to get an efficient way to collect enough to supply the internal combustion vehicles of our world, without involving oil, corn, or sugar.

A start might be using huge solar farms, located in remote areas, so as not to affect the aesthetic sensibilities of those who usually are against these types of projects, to provide the energy for electrolysis, which produces no pollution, and at the same time gives a source of pure oxygen, and allows complete source efficiency, with no waste produced.

Obviously, it will take much more than solar farms to make enough for the number of vehicles in use today, but it is a start,  One of the areas being investigated is the use of microbial production of hydrogen on a grand scale.

The really important thing to remember is that each time in history when a huge problem was encountered, the method to a solution was not one of simple conservation of a resource, or change in habits. A new direction was taken and a way to a better, not restricted, way of living was found.

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Quote of the day:
To get something done, a committee should consist of no more than three men, two of whom are absent. - Robert Copeland

Tags: hydrogen, oil crisis, ‘green’ energy’, pollution, solar power, electrolysis