Science Article #10
Hydrogen Fuel Cells May Hurt Ozone

That's the ten I needed for my paper, which is due tomorrow. I have a feeling the paper is going to be on hydrogen power and what a hydrogen-based economy will do for the world.

My buddy D.J. sent me the above article. He's a strong proponent of ethanol, made from corn or wood. Basically, it's moonshine. Despite what D.J. told me on his porch Monday night, the truth is that currently manufactured cars cannot run on pure ethanol. Cars can run, however, on a blend of ethanol and gasoline. Some cars, called FFVs, even run on E85, in which the ethanol is 85% of the blend. And of course, if Ford tomorrow says here's a car that will run on 100% pure ethanol, I would applaud them. I will also look forward to seeing alcoholics going to gas stations and drinking straight from the tank until they go blind. That'll be funny.

The problem with ethanol is the increased farming needs. Yes, farmers need more crops, and the additional corn production would theoretically eat up all of the carbon dioxide released by ethanol combustion. However, with urban sprawl increasing exponentially, farm land may decrease. Where will we grow all of this additional corn? The middle east? They might have the soil to do it in the more fertile parts of Iraq (it was the Fertile Crescent back in the day) -- I don't think we invaded that country to turn it into corn fields. The only way to make ethanol a viable solution is somehow to reduce the rate at which population is increasing. With the entirely political, not-in-the-least medical partial-birth abortion ban, I doubt the US is planning to limit the number of children Americans can have (not that I'm advocating that, either).

Since hydrogen is easily produced in smaller areas than corn is, since a hydrogen-powered car can actually produce some of its own hydrogen to reuse, and since it's a new techology that will require new jobs, new training, and new science, I'm still wagering that the change to a hydrogen-based economy will be the most significant change in sociopolitical culture since the Industrial Revolution.