Alternative Energy: Ethanol

Alternative energy: Ethanol
In “ Oil: A global crisis,” Murray (2008), said that “ The oil prices have now multiplied sixfold since 2002, compared with the fourfold increase of the 1973 and 1974 oil shock that ended the world’s long postwar boom” (para.4). Today, people have found another alternative, which is ethanol, to replace fossil fuel. However, some experts have started to doubt the feasibility of ethanol because it causes a lot of problems. So, humans should reconsider the consequences of using ehanol as an alternative energy source to replace fossil fuel because it is not good for our economy, its production costs a lot of money, and it will destroy our environment more.

Ethanol is “the fuel derived from plants through a fairly straightforward process” (“Ethanol: Myths and Realities”, 2006, para.4). The primary ingredient is corn. Through a brewing process, the corn becomes beer and then separates alcohol which is ethanol from the rest of the mixture. In the end, the result is completely pure ethanol. In the article titled “Increased US ethanol production requires dedicated pipelines”, “There were only 10 ethanol fuel production facilities in the US in 1980, producing roughly 50 million gal/year” (Hogfoss, 2007, para.5). As the price of oil soars and the world runs out of fossil fuel, more and more countries rely on bio-fuel. Now experts estimate US ethanol production will reach to 5 billion gallons by 2012. There is a big controversy about whether it is a good alternative to fossil fuel. Some people claim that the use of corn for ethanol is too greedy, which is not a good way. Other people assert that it is renewable, can be domestically produced and it burns cleaner than gas. However, observing from the current situation, ethanol is not a good solution.

In my paper, I plan to argue against ethanol because it causes many problems and makes our current circumstance worse; we should not substitute ethanol for fossil fuel. First of all, because the corn is not only human being’s food supply but also the component to produce ethanol, if we keep relying on ethanol, the world will have an unavoidable disaster. Moreover, as population keeps growing, the corn will become less and less, and its price is going to become higher and higher, which means it will destroy our economy. Lastly, making ethanol will accelerate global warming, because farmers need more land to grow corn.

First of all, corn plays an important role in most people’s food supply, and the human population keeps growing in this modern society. In Environment: Problems and Solutions, the author discusses the fact that “There are more births than deaths happening in this world” (Miller, 1994, p.20). This means more people need more food to survive. Also, In “Biofuels blamed for food price crisis” the author wrote, “The use of corn for ethanol has consumed more than 75 percent of the increase in global corn production over the past three years” (2008, para.8). This means demand and supply of corn are imbalanced. Due to this reason, the price of corn is getting higher and higher. In the article named “Food vs. fuel?; Institute sounds warning that producing more ethanol will harm world’s corn market”, one expert said that “What we’re beginning to see is the unfolding of an epic competition between 800 million people who own automobiles and want to maintain their mobility and the 2 billion poorest people in the world, many of whom are spending more than half their income on food already” (Truini, 2007, para.3) So, the poor are poorer and poorer, and we really have to pay attention to this issue.

Secondly, as time goes by, there will be more and more people living in this world, but there will be less and less energy which we can use. So, there are more and more countries which use ethanol to replace oil, especially the US. And their consumption of oil keeps reaching a significant high amount. However, transporting ethanol in pipelines is not an easy thing to control.

According to an article, “Increased US ethanol production requires dedicated pipelines”, “Ethanol’s solubility in water further requires that dedicated ethanol pipelines prevent water infiltration” (2007, para.16). Because transporting pure ethanol in pipelines is easy to get water infiltration, and get contaminated by pipelines and become impure in the end. In order to resolve these problems, we always need to clean the pipelines and maintain quality control. transporting ethanol in pipelines is too expensive for its volumes. So, if we want to deal with these technical issues , it will cost a lot of social costs.

Lastly, as demands on alternative energy increase, the manufacturers of ethanol will try to produce more ethanol to make big money as soon as possible. So farmers have to try to grow more corn to supply production of ethanol; rising demands for corn mean more land which could have a significant side-effect on the environment. According to an article “Rethinking ethanol”, “Rising demands for corn, for food and fuel, can have a profoundly negative effect if it causes farmers to clear previously untouched land, in turn releasing more carbon into the atmosphere” (2008, para.6). This would accelerate global warming. Therefore, right now our environment has had so many kinds of pollution, we should not add another pressure to our environment.

In conclusion, there are many unavoidable problems to use ethanol as an alternative energy in many ways. It causes economic problems, has limited resources to produce it and harms the environment more quickly. Therefore, the government of every country should reconsider this big issue and stop using ethanol as an alternative energy.

References
Biofuels blamed for food price crisis. (2008, July 4). REUTERS. Retrieved July 8, 2008, from www.reuters.com

Hogfoss, R. E. (2007, September 17). Increased US ethanol production requires dedicated pipelines. Retrieved July 7, 2008, from Lexis Nexis

Halperin, A. (2006, May 19). Ethanol: Myths and Realities. Business and Week. Retrieved July 7, 2008, from www.businessweek.com

Miller, G. T., Jr. (1994). Environment: Problems and Solutions. Belmont, CA: Wadsworth Publishing Company.

Rethinking ethanol. (2008, May 11). The New York Times. Retrieved July 7, 2008, from www.nytimes.com

Truini, J. (2007, January 22). Food vs. fuel?; Institute sounds warning that producing more ethanol will harm world’s corn market. Waste News. Retrieved July 8, 2008, from Lexis Nexis

Wallace, E. (2006, April 27). Ethanol: A tragedy in 3 Acts. Business Week. Retrieved July 9, 2008, from www.businessweek.com