The Ethanol Papers - Paperturn manuscript - Flipbook - Page 510
economic limits under which all human societies had formerly existed were
blown apart. A life of back-breaking drudgery was no longer the inescapable
condition of the overwhelming majority of mankind."
Her premise is incorrect. I'm not saying that coal isn't related to crude oil and
natural gas in its original derivation, but I am saying that you can no more credit
coal with our high standard of living than you can credit gasoline, petroleum
diesel fuel, and natural gas for our high quality of life.
In the first place, any accolade due to our high quality of life should be given to
the inventions that utilize various fuels...regardless of what those fuels are, not
to the fuels themselves, and certainly not to coal or gasoline or petroleum diesel
or natural gas. The inventions were all created without consideration to any
specific fossil fuel. Internal combustion engines were created before the invention of either gasoline or diesel petroleum fuel.
Alex also references Matt Ridley and his book "The Rational Optimist," but not
until page 81 when he quotes Ridley:
"A modern combine harvester, driven by a single man, can reap enough wheat
in a single day to make half a million loaves."
Based on this quote, Alex writes:
"A single man, made into an agricultural Superman by the power of oil," and
follows it with, "Another example: Oil-based transportation causes a dramatic
increase in the amount of farm products that can be brought to market."
This single man isn't transformed into an agricultural Superman by oil, but by
the machine, a machine that could just as easily and efficiently run on an alcohol-based fuel. The same dramatic increase in the number of farm products to
be brought to market can be ethanol-based transportation.
As for coal, coal was used for heat and light for thousands of years before the
invention of the practical steam engine. So you can't applaud coal for its role in
making life better via the steam engine because of all those centuries of deprivation prior to the invention of the steam engine. If coal, in itself, was the salient
ingredient to a high quality of life then surely the great scientific geniuses of
earlier times would have invented usable steam-powered devices to propel
trains, boats, and stationary machinery. They knew that steam existed, and how
to produce it; and they had the ability to make and mold metals.
