![[personal profile]](https://www.dreamwidth.org/img/silk/identity/user.png){kind=small}
The End Of The World, Part 5,235
Aug. 13th, 2008 06:17 pmI was looking at CNN online, and read this interesting article about making diesel fuel from e.coli poop. Although the title is cute, the concept seems sound enough, and more then a few companies are working on similar concepts.
Now, don't pop the champagne corks just yet - we're two or three years out from a pilot plant and optimistically ten from any significant production volumes, if these schemes work. But assuming one or more of these schemes get this scaled up sufficiently, we may be able to solve fuel and carbon problems with one shot.
Which makes this entry from ClusterFuck Nation even more ludicrous. For those not clicking through, the author, Jim Kunstler, thinks that $4 / gallon gas means that Civilization As We Know It is Over. This Kunstler fellow is dead serious! Now, the British SF writer Charles Stross, who provided the pointer, thinks Kunstler's "over-egging the pudding," which is a wonderfully British expression that I shall have tosteal borrow. (Stross was paying $11 / gallon in the UK, and hadn't seen the backside of $8 / gallon for years.)
More generally, Kunstler seems to be making a living spreading his message of doom and gloom, so this post is not a one-off. Don't get me wrong - we have plenty of problems in the world, but panic is not helpful. Especially since, as far as I can tell, Kunstler has no technical training or expertise to evaluate our economic or technological future. I'm reminded of a line in Frank Herbert's book Dune, "fear is the mind-killer."
Now, don't pop the champagne corks just yet - we're two or three years out from a pilot plant and optimistically ten from any significant production volumes, if these schemes work. But assuming one or more of these schemes get this scaled up sufficiently, we may be able to solve fuel and carbon problems with one shot.
Which makes this entry from ClusterFuck Nation even more ludicrous. For those not clicking through, the author, Jim Kunstler, thinks that $4 / gallon gas means that Civilization As We Know It is Over. This Kunstler fellow is dead serious! Now, the British SF writer Charles Stross, who provided the pointer, thinks Kunstler's "over-egging the pudding," which is a wonderfully British expression that I shall have to
More generally, Kunstler seems to be making a living spreading his message of doom and gloom, so this post is not a one-off. Don't get me wrong - we have plenty of problems in the world, but panic is not helpful. Especially since, as far as I can tell, Kunstler has no technical training or expertise to evaluate our economic or technological future. I'm reminded of a line in Frank Herbert's book Dune, "fear is the mind-killer."
