People who see the depletion of oil and fossil fuels point out the need to conserve and live within our means. Environmentalists note that fossil fuels damage the ability of our environment to sustain us. Farmers hope they can grow energy crops to produce ethanol and biodiesel. Oilmen tell us that there is still plenty of oil to be discovered (while they look for alternative fuels to sell us). Nuclear power depends on uranium and hasn’t solved its waste problem. Sewage and manure wastes increase air and water problems. Each of these is valuable information, but none of them tell the whole story.

Disastrous floods destroyed ancient river valley civilizations that failed to maintain their flora, fauna and watersheds. The story of Noah’s Arc is one of many attempts to teach ancient people to maintain complex ecosystems. We have better science today and global economies, but we haven’t learned to maintain the global ecosystem. For example, lessons learned from the famous American "dust bowl" of the 1930s did not prevent today’s even larger versions in Russia, Africa and China. Current energy and ecosystem challenges illustrate deficiencies in 20th century economic systems that promote waste to maximize profits. They add toxins to our air and greenhouse gases that contribute to global warming; they deplete resources, degrade watersheds contaminate our water supply and make topsoils unavailable for growing food. They have given us melting glaciers, more acidic oceans, mercury-contaminated fish, eroded topsoils, and land lost to waste dumps, manure lagoons and urban sprawl. We need new fuels, less waste and a sensible economic model for the 21^st century!

Can we create systems that will survive and thrive? Can we admit that our inherited systems and beliefs are not perfect? Can we separate the strengths from weaknesses in what we, and others, believe? Can we create collaborative belief systems and solutions that adjust when we see new evidence?

What is true in one context is not always true in another. For example, manure fertilizes some crops, but too much will poison them. The small family farm is efficient within its limits but cannot feed large populations without huge transportation overhead. Agribusiness and wastewater treatment plants support larger animal and human populations by saving energy in food production, manure management and sometimes in transportation. But they fail to fully and optimally reuse manure, food and other waste. They digest it, capture and use the methane, sanitize the residue and reduce its volume, but they don’t fully reuse it. There is an opportunity here!

In nature, neither matter nor energy can be destroyed; they can only be transformed. An ecosystem (like a family) remains healthy only when a dynamic balance is maintained among its parts -- each developing its abilities and each nurturing the others. When we export waste we pay for transportation, use fossil fuels, and pollute the air. We pay again to import energy and resources! Once we understand how waste from one process can become raw material for another, we can invent processes that recover, recycle and reuse waste locally. In fact, old technologies that do this are improving. For example, thermal conversion can capture energy and resources in biosolids more cleanly and efficiently than methane digestion. In fact, it can reclaim any waste containing hydrocarbons while generating more heat, steam and electricity than needed for the recycling of metals, glass, and paper. Instead of releasing gases, they gases are sterilized, cleaned and reprocessed in biorefineries to produce fuels, fertilizers, and industrial gases. Gasification and biorefineries require larger volumes than typical biodigesters but, when done properly, they have no waste, are self-powered, help reclaim other wastes and they can be highly profitable. They can even complement biodigesters and waste water treatment processes. When we add them to energy conservation, wind, wave, water and geothermal power, we can significantly conserve fossil fuels and reduce the pollution caused by fossil fuels and waste management systems.

Manure power cannot replace fossil fuels, but it can clean up waste and provide cleaner power and cleaner fuels. No one source of energy should be allowed to create an unsustainable imbalance again! Let’s create a healthy mix of tools, fuels and knowledge. Let’s collaborate to efficiently integrate complementary processes to improve our personal health, the health of our economies and the health of our global ecosystem.

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For more information, the following sources provide valuable background and data:

1. Richard Bain, Manager of biomass research at the National Renewable Energy Laboratory (NREL) offers an excellent "Biomass Gasification Overview" with diagrams on the potential conversions of biomass, including manure, into energy and various raw materials. In this presentation he observed that "While the growing need for sustainable electric power can be met by other renewables… Biomass is the only renewable that can meet our demand for carbon-based liquid fuels and chemicals."
2. NREL joined with the EPA to support Integrated Environmental Strategies (IES) worldwide to improve the global environment and economy. This program properly integrates the issues of global greenhouse gas emissions with local needs to improve public health, energy management and economic health.
3. The Biomass Program of the USDOE’s Energy Efficiency and Renewable Energy Office offers information for beginners, engineers and others who seek a "clean, abundant, reliable and affordable" energy future.
4. Swine manure has an especially bad reputation for degrading the evironment. Among the programs that specifically deal with this feedstock, N. Carolina State University has developed a system to efficiently convert pig manure to ethanol through gasification and steam reformation. This process eliminates the need for land application of manure and it seriously reduces odors and ammonia emissions. The University of Illinois has a similar project to produce "bio-oil" from pig manure. Their process, called TCC (ThermoChemical Conversion) is being commercialized by WorldWide Bioenergy, which is applying it not only to swine manure but to the recovery of urban wastewater sludge. They expect to have a running facility in June 2006.
5. The California Biomass Collaborative consists of members from Industry, the California Energy Commission, California’s Integrated Waste Management Board, NGO’s and Academic specialists. They are improving the legislative and business climate for biomass power development through mutual education and collaborative efforts. The goal of the Collaborative is to ensure sustainable, renewable energy supplies along with cleaner air and water supplies.
6. The Energy Blog, observes that "The Energy Revolution has begun and will change your lifestyle." It offers a comparison of various gasification installations and a wealth of references to other sites while offering in-depth discussions on various energy topics.

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James T. Caldwell, Ph.D., is a systems engineer who taught courses on the Politics of Energy and the Environment, Comparative Politics and World History at Iona College, New Rochelle, NY. He also taught Political Science and Organizational Behavior at The University of Texas and The State University of New York. He was Fellow at the U.C. Berkeley Institute of East Asian Studies and Assistant Director of the Center for East Asian Studies at Stanford University. After teaching and doing business in China, he was Staff Associate at Clark Consulting Group, training business leaders on effective cross-cultural business practices. He was the first editor of the Unicode Standard for multilingual electronic communications. Currently Dr. Caldwell is President of E3 Regenesis Solutions where he and his team work to create sustainable solutions for waste reclamation and clean energy production. He is a member of the California Biomass Collaborative, of Sustainable San Mateo County, the San Francisco Bay Area Relocalization Assessment Project, the Asian American Multitechnology Association (AAMA), and others. He is a Director of the 1990 Institute, an action-oriented think tank dedicated to the study of major economic and social issues relating to China. There, his focus is environmental and economic sustainability.