Blogging from the Bog

   The use of vegetable matter and plants as alternative fuel sources may not be as far off into the future as we once thought.  With new developments coming onstream daily in the quest for renewable and sustainable energy there is massive interest gaining on this scientific frontier.  Some products such as corn and miscanthus can often consume more energy in the process of conversion to fuel to make them non runners (for the time being); but, as close to home as in Britain they are taking these ideas seriously.

   Processing sugar into fuel accounts for more than 50% of Brazil’s crop production as they have taken advantage of this technology and made it a viable industry.  We used to have a thriving sugar beet industry in this country.  What are the chances of revitalizing that?  The sooner we decrease our dependency on Middle East crude oil the better off we will be both economically and ecologically.  And not alone that, there is growing evidence that the profits from Saudi Arabian oil are also being used to fuel terrorism!

   There is speculation out there that the Saudi’s are playing an intricate game of cat and mouse with their foreign policy objectives.  On the one hand they seem to have the U.S. government convinced they are allies in the Middle East, yet on the other they are financing and undermining the Western way of life.  In an article published yesterday Amy Goodman interviews some experts to determine why the focus, on the insurgencies in Iraq, is being placed on the Iranians instead of the Saudi Arabians where it belongs.

   Even though the Saudi’s are financing a major propaganda campaign attacking the ideals of the United Sates, the U.S. government has it’s sites set on making out that Iran is the major threat to the stability of the new Iraq.  What is going on here? 

   We will all be much better off when we are less dependent on oil production.