Jeremy Leggett on Peak Oil and Agriculture
by Warren McLaren, Sydney on 05. 2.07
The other day Sami made mention of the One Planet Agriculture project under the auspices of the Soil Association. It’s about helping the agricultural industry cope with global warming and peak oil. A handbook is imminent but in the meantime they have a modest PDF publication called the Case for Action. In it you’ll find a piece by the renown Jeremy Leggett, author of Half Gone (titled The Empty Tank in the US), who makes the following points: A quarter of the US’s daily need for oil (five million barrels) comes from the highly volatile Middle East. “The US government could wipe out the need for all their five million barrels, and staunch the flow of much blood in the process, by requiring its domestic automobile industry to increase the fuel efficiency of autos and light trucks by a mere 2.7 miles per gallon.” Instead, between 1987 and 2001, US average US vehicle fuel efficiency fell by 1.8 miles per gallon, noting that during the period 1975 to 2003 SUV market share grew from 2% to 24%. And what’s this to do with our food supply? Jeremy cites National Geo as estimating you could drive a car from LA to NYC on the oil required to farm and bring to market just one cow.
This is not to say we don’t need an economy based on oil. No, the Soil Association also include a calculation from the Irish organisation the Foundation foe the Economics of Sustainability or Feasta who suggest that a 40 litre (11 gallon) fill-up at a petrol (gasoline) station is the equivalent of about four years of human manual work and therefore “a human-muscle-power-based economy would therefore be between seventy and a hundred times less productive than the present fossil-fuel powered one.” Our children will live in interesting times. Via ::the Soil Association
Pic is of a Christo and Jeanne-Claude sculpture using a mere 13,000 oil barrels.
Jeez, 1 tank=4 years of manual work!!
And I managed to burn that in 1 day a few times when I had a car....4 years in 1 day, outrageous.
That figure, if accurate, really highlights the inefficiencies involved with dragging a car around with you when you travel.
At 10km/litre, 40 litres takes you 400km. I could happily sustain 25km/hr average for 6 hours a day on a bike. Meaning it'd take me 16/6 = ~3 days to ride the same distance. Therefore, 3 days manual work at bicycle efficiency is equal to 4 years manual work at car efficiency. A bicycle is therefore 547 times more efficient than a car.
Wow. Definitely puts in perspective driving 1km to the supermarket to pick up some milk.
To be honest it sounds like a bit of a bullshit figure to me.
According to wikipedia, regular gasoline has an energy content of 34.8MJ/litre. If we assume a cogen heat plant and you're warming your house as well as fueling your car (just to give the optimum from the fuel) then that means there's 1.392GJ in the 40 litres stated.
The lance armstrongs of the world can put out about 500W continuous on a bike. The average cyclist can do maybe 200 (we'll be conservative). Therefore, to create 1.392GJ
At 200W for 8 hours would require only 241 days to create 1.392GJ.
So - keep riding your bike, but REALLY keep pushing for ultralightweight vehicles.
Interesting to think about!