The series provokes the effect (at least in me) that if we have any intentions of leaving a planet to live on for our children and their children, we will have to change a few things to live within sustainable means. It does not look like you can apply the credit principle to a closed loop system - our planet. Some say that we may already be beyond the point of no return (I do disagree on that count).

In addition we get a daily tepid dose of "news"trying to scare us into fear frenzies regarding either terrorists or fuel prices. This can get rather disconcerting to say the least. An eternal optimist and proactive thinker, I try to remember the words of the wise man who once said:

Maybe understanding is just around the corner if we only peek... Back to biogas. I think few would argue that our demand for energy is on a collision course with the supply of fossil fuels - the heartbeat of our present society. Fossil fuels - as the term implies, are derived from fossilized - once living organisms that over a very long time (millions of years) have been transformed by our planet into hydrocarbon compounds, which, when burned, liberate energy - much like the first fire our stone age ancestors discovered... While we process a portion of our liquid fossils into plastics, shampoos, baby oil, etc. - we typically indentify fossil fuels with gas pumps and potentially even with the fact that we can turn on the lights whenever we want to. The point that a lot of people seem to forget and ignore is: fossil fuels are actually a renewable resource. Remember: we live on a planet, which is a closed loop system and sooner or later "re - cycles" everything.

The problem is the "sooner or later"... Our speed in mastering the universe, understanding nature's best guarded secrets, - advancing - appears almost inbred after only a thousand years or so... We are trained and educated to think, live work and play always harder, always faster. Earth on the other hand "thinks, plans, works and plays" in terms of millions of years. As a result we are using fossil fuels a lot faster than mother nature can possibly produce them. To us and our time frame, fossil fuels are a "non" - renewable resource. To be re - newable, we either have to be able to re - source within a timeframe we can recognize or the source has to have an availability horizon that is beyond our comprehension. This certainly appears to be the case with hydro, wind and solar. Unfortunately they are subject to the "whims of nature". If the sun doesn't shine or the wind doesn't blow - what then ? We need a stable and reliable fully renewable supply of fuel in order to keep our society "moving" now. (and maybe progress a little towards sustainability)

I believe we are already generating a tremendous amount of 100% renewable resources, which at present, we are not only ignoring, but actively discarding for mother nature to deal with as she sees fit. Over 60 percent of what we discard is organic (carbon based) and can readily be transformed into fuel and valuable co - products using earth's own kitchen of natural processes. The resulting fuel is biogas.

Composed of methane, carbon dioxide and trace gases it is part of the same carbon cycle as us, recognized by nature as a natural short term horizon hydrocarbon and "burns" just like a fossil fuel. Even better and very different from oil, its lifecycle sources, re - sources and availability can be defined and reconciled within our own time horizons. For starters we are generating loads of it already from our "landfills". Just think what we might be able to accomplish if we actively processed our "garbage", re - claim the 60 percent organics and process them as a re - source before they ever make it to a "land - fill"? High energy potential organic crude re - sources, which we presently "discard", are produced by virtually all of our activities.

Fostering the realization of these tremendous energy potentials should be one of our top priorities if we consider ourselves stewards of our children and consider ourselves forward thinkers who include their grandchildren, great grandchildren and descendants within their horizons.
Maven, August 2004