For a recap, the carbon cycle is driven by photosynthesis. When plants absorb carbon dioxide, they use sunlight to split water molecules. The oxygen is released, and the hydrogen is bound to the carbon dioxides (in different quantities for different types, of course), to form simple sugars (Glucose, Sucrose). Sometimes these will be converted into more complex sugars such as Fructose, and oftentimes they will be eaten (either by animals, or by bacteria). When eaten, the sugars are “burned” in our blood, the energy stored is released, and our muscles thus move.
These are the short (simple-sugar) carbon cycle, because it takes only a week or so (judging by my blackberries) to replenish and store the released carbon dioxide. They do not store it for long, but they store a lot of it.
This is things like Ethanol or Methane, which take further processing from the simple-sugar phase to run properly. Ethanol is not hard to produce, as it is released from plants when they begin to decompose. This is the component of alcoholic beverages that makes you tipsy. Methane is converted inside your body constantly, but a far better supply is from cows. Imagine, we could cut away a major source of pollution AND gain thousands of tonnes of extremely powerful fuel at the same time, as well as boosting the agricultural industry by putting more usages for cows in it.
These are fossil fuels, they can take many thousands or millions of years to form. They store immense amounts of carbon dioxide, and release it when you burn them, adding an imbalance to the system. These cannot be replenished quickly, and our short-term carbon cycle is not capable of handling the strain, because of deforestation and oceanic pollution (seaweed and coral are great for carbon storage!).
The Oil industry controls a large splotch of the economy. They determine who gets elected (lobbyism), and are so powerful they can actually trigger wars (remmeber the 70s? I don’t, but my grandparents do). Switching to partial biofuel, like Brazil, would provide a cheaper and easier form of fuel, not a good thing for the oil industry. As Ethanol is optimally produced from corn, one of America’s largest crops, but can be produced from almost any fruit or vegetable, agricultural waste now has a use. Brazil (with high fluctuation) requires a minimum of about 20% Ethanol in gasoline, this requires only a minor adjustment in car engines, going fully Ethanol would likely require no more than the existing Flex cars. Miles per gallon would go down about 35 percent, but gas prices will go down as well because expensive oil will no longer be necessary.
If we switch to Ethanol, our climate impact will shoot down, and by putting ethanol back in the mines that we used to get oil from, we may actually be carbon-negative.
We’re in a battle with global warming. It is either money or the future of the human race, and industries are choosing money in the form of oil. The oil industry has the option to either adapt or collapse, and I fear they will prefer to collapse. The world economy will take a hit, maybe even collapse, into the void left by oil. Millions will be jobless (although they will hopefully be employed by bio-fuel), and wars will start all over the Middle East as our reasons for peace deteriorate.
In the end, is it better to die in fire or ice?
My friend's blogs: Wizardwatch's overall site, Sawyer's blog (the .org part bemuses me), Luke's site. If ryleu decides to actually put something on his site, I'll link it here.