Alcohol Can Be a Gas!: Fueling an Ethanol Revolution for the 21st Century - Hardcover

Blume, David

Hardcover

ISBN 10: 0979043786 ISBN 13: 9780979043789

Publisher: Intl Inst for Ecological Agric, 2007

Synopsis

Alcohol Can Be a Gas! is the only comprehensive book ever written on alcohol fuel production and use for home and farm. Until now, it has been very difficult for farmers, contractors, alternative energy aficionados, those concerned about Peak Oil, and small-scale entrepreneurs to obtain good, accurate information on producing alcohol, or on converting vehicles to run on alcohol fuel. And with all the conflicting news stories about ethanol, the public finds it difficult to sort fact from fiction. This text, which has been reviewed by scientists around the world, is the definitive reference work on alcohol fuel.

Alcohol Can Be A Gas! contains 640 8-1/2 by 11 pages, with 514 charts, photos, and illustrations to reinforce the information-dense text. The book is geared for the nonscientific reader, but its 473 endnotes provide the technical foundation behind the accessible prose. A 700-word glossary and a 6300-entry index extend the book's usefulness.

This book is the distilled essence of the most pertinent information ever assembled in one place on alcohol fuel, the technology that can help us finally become producers of almost limitless energy, instead of extractors of finite resources. How we produce our energy from here on out will determine how we govern ourselves and how we relate to nature and the environment; it will also create a sea change in where wealth concentrates. It will determine if the future is ruled by a small number of armed dictatorships backed by military and industrial interests (a cabal author David Blume likes to refer to as MegaOilron or the Oilygarchy), or if energy, and therefore power, is held by a diffusion of democratic entities, based on their ingenuity and ability to gather a portion of their daily solar income.

As Blume writes in the Introduction to Alcohol Can Be a Gas!: "Various prospective publishers argued that putting all of this material into one large volume might scare off readers who just want a recipe book of how to make alcohol. They said, 'All this history and politics is fascinating, but aren't you afraid that including it in your how-to book would scare away some buyers?' 'Put it in a separate publication,' their marketing experts said. But in the final analysis, I decided that this book should be a complete tool kit to revolutionize our transportation energy system, combining a broad, sweeping vision with intricate detail.

"I spent four years working on this book with a small team of researchers. I traveled all over the United States in search of the most up-to-date information. In frozen South Dakota, I talked to Orrie Swayze and his farmer and VFW buddies who are taking on the oil companies, and to alcohol combustion engineer and alcohol aviation expert, Jim Behnken. I went to Decatur, Illinois, to see the largest alcohol plant in the U.S., Archer Daniels Midland's 200-million-gallon-per-year plant. My travels also took me to Brazil to document the world's largest alcohol fuel program.

"It took over 25 years to finally get this book to you. It represents the confidence of almost 30 people who collectively loaned more than $250,000 to see this project through. It's the most comprehensive book ever written about alcohol fuel. Its production has been a massive effort that has depended on the cooperation of hundreds of people who contributed both their knowledge and, more importantly, their experiences."

About this title

From the Inside Flap

Dear Reader, Thanks so much for purchasing this special limited first edition printing of Alcohol Can Be A Gas! For many of you, I want to especially thank you for your patience. I have been working full-time on this project for four years, and that’s two years longer than I thought it would take. For those of you who have hung in there with me, and kept cheering me on when the going was tough, I have to say I couldn’t have done it without your support. When I first started on this project 25 years ago—filmed my series for KQED and wrote the original book—I thought it had the potential to make a substantial difference to the economics and environmental quality of the United States.But today I have set a much higher bar for the goals for this book. I believe that the human race’s ability to survive—in the face of the interconnected problems of Peak Oil, climate change that’s heading for the tipping point, and unchecked population growth—is in question. Without a radical change in how we power our societies and conduct our agriculture, the civilization we currently take for granted will dissolve due to wars for resources, while a large part of humanity will be forced to migrate to higher ground. It is my expectation that this new book will be a tool for the revolutionary change needed to address the challenges facing the entire planet, not just the U.S. So someday, when there are alcohol biorefineries producing fuel, food, and all sorts of products in every bioregion, when greenhouse gases are on the decline and ice packs are deepening on the poles, when air pollution is a thing of the past, all of our sewage is processed in cattail marshes, kelp farms send spent mash through derelict oil pipelines to Midwest farms, agriculture becomes otherwise regionalized and organic, you will be able to pat yourself on the back and know you helped make it happen.Share. Organize. Win.Dave Blume 6/11/07

About the Author

David Blume started his ecological training young. He and his father Jerry grew almost all the food their family ate, organically on a city lot in San Francisco in the mid-'60s!

Dave taught his first ecology class in 1970. After majoring in Ecological Biology and Biosystematics at San Francisco State University, he worked on experimental projects, first for NASA, and then as a member of the Mother Earth News Eco Village alternative building and alternative energy teams.

When the energy crisis of 1978-79 struck, Dave started the American Homegrown Fuel Co., an educational organization that taught upwards of 7000 people how to produce and use low-cost alcohol fuel at home or on the farm.

KQED, San Francisco s Public Broadcasting System station, asked Dave to put his alcohol workshop on television, and together they spent two years making the ten-part series, Alcohol as Fuel. To accompany the series, Dave wrote the comprehensive manual on the subject, the original Alcohol Can Be A Gas! Shortly after the first show aired, in 1983, oil companies threatened to pull out their funding of KQED if the series was continued. KQED halted the distribution of the series and book (see this current book's Introduction for the whole story).

In 1984, Dave founded Planetary Movers, an award-winning social experiment and commercial venture, well known for productive activism (e.g., on behalf of Nicaragua's Sandinistas), as well as for pioneering practices of progressive employment, green marketing, and the sharing of a percentage of profits for peace and the environment.

In 1994, he started Our Farm. This community-supported agriculture (CSA) farm was also a teaching farm, based on sustainable practices, that hosted over 200 interns and apprentices from all over the world, and held regular tours for thousands of people. Our Farm grew as much as 100,000 pounds of food per acre, without a tractor, using only hand tools, on a terraced, 35-degree slope.

The International Institute for Ecological Agriculture (IIEA), founded by Dave in 1993, is dedicated to healing the planet while providing for the human community with research, education, and the implementation of socially just, ecologically sound, resource-conserving forms of agriculture the basis of all sustainable societies.

Dave has consulted for a wide array of clients, including governments, farmers, and companies interested in turning waste into valuable and profitable products. Recent work includes a feasibility study for a macadamia growers' cooperative in Mexico, and a water harvesting/reforestation project in Antigua, West Indies. He is working with a farming college connected to the government of Ghana to develop alternative fuels, to train agricultural extension agents in organic farming, and to design an ecological strategy to stop the Sahara Desert from advancing. He also recently inspired the city of Urbana, Illinois, to hold a conference between builders, lenders, developers, municipalities, building inspectors, architects, and engineers, to coordinate the mainstreaming of natural building technologies.

"Farmer Dave" is often called upon to testify before agencies on issues related to the land and democracy. He is a frequent speaker at ecological, sustainability, Peak Oil, and agricultural conferences in the Americas, and has appeared in interviews over 1000 times in print, radio, and television. Dave firmly believes in Emma Goldman's view of, "If I can't dance, I don't want to be in your revolution," and he can frequently be found on the dance floor when he isn't flagrantly inciting democracy.

Edition details

• Publisher: Intl Inst for Ecological Agric
• Publication date: 2007
• ISBN 10: 0979043786
• ISBN 13: 9780979043789
• Binding: Hardcover
• Language: English
• Edition number: 1
• Number of pages: 595
• Editor: Winks Michael