From the “methane is scarier when it comes from Jack-o-lanterns” department.
Guest essay by Eric Worrall
The US Department of Energy has issued a (serious) press release which suggests that Halloween pumpkins contribute significantly to global warming.
To commemorate National Energy Action Month, we’re featuring some scarily effective ways to save energy at home. As cooler weather lurks around the corner, tune in to Energy.gov all week long for ways to save energy and money—and avoid cold weather terrors like energy vampires. We also put together some energy-themed pumpkin patterns to help “energize” your neighborhood for Halloween. Send us photos of your energy-themed jack-o-lanterns via Twitter,Instagram, Facebook or email at newmedia@hq.doe.gov and we’ll share our favorites.
With the passing of Halloween, millions of pounds of pumpkins have turned from seasonal decorations to trash destined for landfills, adding to more than 254 million tons of municipal solid waste (MSW) produced in the United States every year. This Halloween, think of turning this seasonal waste into energy as a very important “trick” that can have a positive environmental and energy impact.
At landfills, MSW decomposes and eventually turns into methane—a harmful greenhouse gas that plays a part in climate change, with more than 20 times the warming effect of carbon dioxide (CO2). However, when MSW is used to harness bioenergy—rather than simply being thrown away—the end result benefits the environment and helps our nation become less dependent on carbon-based fuel. Harnessing the potential of bioenergy allows the United States to generate its own supply of clean energy that reduces greenhouse gas emissions. It also limits stress on landfills by reducing waste and could ultimately create jobs for manufacturing, installing, and maintaining energy systems.
The Energy Department’s Bioenergy Technologies Office is working together with industry to develop and test integrated biorefineries—facilities capable of efficiently converting plant and waste material into affordable biofuels, biopower and other products. These projects are located around the country and use a variety of materials as feedstocks.
One of them, Fulcrum Bioenergy’s biorefinery in McCarran, Nevada, will use MSW as a feedstock and use gasification and Fischer-Tröpsch conversion technology to produce “drop-in” biofuel for the military.
Fulcrum Bioenergy was one of three companies selected to receive federal investments for commercial-scale biorefinery projects to produce military-grade biofuel that can be directly substituted for petroleum-derived jet and diesel fuel. Another one of these projects, from Emerald Biofuels, will use a different type of waste—fats, oils, and greases—as a feedstock that will be hydro-treated and upgraded at its refinery on the Gulf Coast.
Once in full operation, these two biorefineries will have a combined capacity to produce 92 million gallons of advanced biofuel per year for the military. Fulcrum has since received a $30 million investment from United Airlines and has entered into a long-term jet fuel supply agreement with Hong Kong-based airline Cathay Pacific.
The Energy Department is working to expand waste-to-energy opportunities in the United States, and its partnership with these companies is helping to remove barriers to the commercialization of fuel and power production from waste, including yard and food wastes. It might not be long until the 1.3 billion pounds of pumpkins we produce annually are nearly as important to our energy security as they are to Halloween!
Source: http://energy.gov/articles/turn-your-halloween-pumpkins-power
Isn’t it reassuring, that money you would have frittered away on healthcare, education for your kids, saving for your retirement, or just having a good time, has been taken away from you as taxes, so it can be invested wisely on your behalf into defeating the pumpkin climate menace.
http://makingmusicfun.net/htm/f_printit_free_printable_sheet_music/peter-peter-piano.htm
Peter, Peter, Pumpkin Eater to the rescue!
There are NO words to describe such a press release.
So watermelons go to war with pumpkins. Hollywood need to get a blockbuster from this!
The two refineries will have a 92 million gallon capacity. That’s actually impressive, almost 5 days worth of gasoline for the entire U.S. But then of course you need to factor in that the fuel will not be as efficient as gasoline and that there will inevitably be more maintenance costs associated with this fuel because it does damage engines.
Top that off with the fact that this fuel is destined to be used by the military, by our Commander in Chief’s mandate. It should make military contractors sleep sound at night knowing that all of these million dollar machines will be rolling around burning engine-damaging ethanol. Nothing like throwing some E85 into a B-2.
I knew it all the time.
Pumpkins are evil, don’t even give me the story that they have been adjusted.
What next? Is the Department Of Ebenezer going to cancel Christmas due to the increase in energy use from Christmas decorations?
Bah Humbug!
What about the CO2 that was abstracted from the atmosphere to grow the pumpkins? that should be part of the overall equation, ain’t it?
But in Climate “science”, matter is only created not destroyed
The great pumpkin cometh.
More terror to come, increased CO2 leads to larger, more mobile, intelligent pumpkins .
The great orange blob coming to your neighbourhood real soon.
I guess the annual pumpkin toss is our last great hope.
Based on this kind of dreck, we have one sustainable product, Human stupidity, an infinite renewable resource.
Long-term (multi-millenial) sequestration of the carbon in the pumpkins is achieveable if they are somehow delivered to the frozen interior of Antarctica where summer temps stay at -20C or less. Other than that, their carbon will be back in global carbon cycle within a few decades.
I was lucky if I could get my pumpkins to last until Halloween before the squirrels ate them all up. Literally.
Weren’t they attacking Christmas lights not so long ago? Looks to me like this is another let’s-shut-down-everything-we-celebrate-because-we-have-to-save-the-planet ploy. I see them as prepping the population to accept a world with no joy in it whatsoever.
What a beige new world that has such people in it
Good point. Their world right now must be so drab. How awful their lives must be so see only misery and horror and wish nothing but the same on everyone else.
Great expression by the way (“What a beige new world that has such people in it”).
🙂
Well that’s good to know that we produce 1.3 billion pounds of pumpkins annually. Just out of curiosity what are we producing the other 364 days of the year. And actually what are the other millions of species producing annually? And isn’t the millions of pumpkins we plant vast fields of acting as a carbon sink? Or has the CO2 crisis now past and we can focus on a methane crisis. Maybe we could pass a law that charges a methane tax for anyone who passes gas. Balance the budget on that one law alone.
Well it doesn’t matter we’ll throw it all into the bio refineries and create yet another even more expensive form of energy. Ever notice how recycled products cost more than those made new. The economics behind recycling is another good intent gone off the rails into La-La land. But I digress…
There was a movie made in the 1970’s (?) about people who had outlasted their usefulness (according to those in charge) being used for fuel. When I read the word “biofuel” that was the first thing that came to my mind!
I’ll remain ‘soilent’ on that movie title.
Justifying your share of the cheese. How many bloated bureaucrats did it take to crank out this mush.
Polling appears to show a steady decline of the publics faith in government. They have very good reason for that.
A quick check with the Dep’t of Ag. website reveals that the story is based on a lie. A substantial majority of pumpkin, by weight, is used in human food processing. And this does not include the fresh pumpkin food uses, such as soup and stews. It also does not include animal feed from surplus pumpkin.
Pumpkin waste to power rockets is the go…
https://youtu.be/CjoY_cSmQ70
Good thing I never had toys like that.
Pumpkin plants sequester carbon from the atmosphere in the first place.
So they get rid of a dangerous pollutant according to the US EPA namely CO2.
In the meanwhile, while dangerous CO2 is rising, really dangerous Methane is not.
So no harm done.
The kiddies can enjoy pumpkin soup and lanterns, knowing that pumpkins will lead to a recovery of the planet.
A sure indicator of blatant propaganda is when you see impressive looking numbers like “1.3 billion lbs.” , “92 million gallons”, “252 million tons”; all using different units of measurement, and no point of reference to place the numbers in the proper perspective. Thank you RWTurner for pointing out that 92 million gallons is less than 5 days gasoline usage in the US, and thank you Pat Ch for pointing out that only a small percentage of the 1.3 million lbs. of pumpkins are used for jack-o-lanterns. The activists behind this drivel know that most people will not take the time or make the mental effort to put these numbers into perspective.
TK
Perhaps one of the most popular tools in this appeal to ignorance crusade are subsets of cherries.
http://www.logicallyfallacious.com/index.php/logical-fallacies/66-cherry-picking
People are generally too busy to note that they are for instance being half truthed. They need help. Perhaps it’s helpful to have a set of icons to tag articles with in comment sections.
Start a viral competition to find the most fallecious articles.
Maybe a webpage that posts top 3 weekly most tagged “science” articles.
“Isn’t it reassuring, that money you would have frittered away on healthcare, education for your kids, saving for your retirement, or just having a good time, has been taken away from you as taxes, so it can be invested wisely on your behalf into defeating the pumpkin climate menace.”
Money quote! (Nailed it!)
ROTFL.
If this had any traction at all, the “Feetprints of Halloweens Past”
would be readily visible.
As it isn’t, this should be consigned to the trash along with the
Jack O’ Lanterns.
“At landfills, MSW decomposes and eventually turns into methane”
So municipal solid waste (MSW) decomposes into methane. I thought it had to go through a cows stomach to produce methane. If not, then cows aren’t really part of the equation, are they. All the grasses, hay, and other vegetation that cows don’t eat will eventually decompose anyway. A cow’s stomach simply speeds up the process. If we got rid of cows to prevent global warming, we would also have to get rid of the vegetation they are no longer eating to prevent it from burning or decomposing. How would we do that, spray roundup on the fields the cows used to graze on? I’m sure environmentalists would love that.
Put them in a landfill. High carbon source for methane production. I’ve made my living converting landfill gas methane to electricity for 14 years. If you could concentrate the punkins you could get a boost in methane and electrical output.
The trouble is that the punkins will be widely distributed, but every little bit helps the LFG to electricity cause.
I learned many years ago in New Zealand that roasted pumpkin is a wonderful vegetable. It is like squash. Cut the pumpkin into triangles, score the flesh side with criss-cross cuts, put on a baking sheet or roasting pan, put a few blobs of butter on it and, if you like, some brown sugar. Bake until the flesh is soft to a fork. It is the nicest of the ‘squashes’. Really!! Pumpkin pie ain’t bad either, of course.
It is the french’s favourite soup. Add a little haricots vert to ‘jazz’ it up et voilà. La bonne soupe
Millions of pounds turns into millions of tonnes ?
Thank you for visually featuring my jack-o-lantern.