the moral equivalent of war

As I stated in my May 17th post titled "recipe for a president," I was only 96.3% sure of my support and convergence to the Libertarian party. Well, mark your calenders people because I have decided to take the plunge into the world of Libertarianism!

I had done quite a bit of research into the Libertarian party before hand, but what was keeping me from fully supporting this political party was my hangups regarding environmental issues. I hadn't been able to find a Libertarian argument dealing with the environment that I could agree with until today. Michael S. Rozeff sites this article in his argument that has proven to me that people have taken initiative to safeguard the environment without being told to do so by the government. Along with his breakdown of the article and Libertarian point of view, I now feel comfortable with calling myself a Libertarian!

On a side note, the biggest "environmental" push that I have a problem with is that of ethanol. I have previously stated that just to grow the corn to make the ethanol is environmentally inefficient. On top of this, it actually reduces gas mileage and creates more pollution! Let me explain (for clarity, the term gas will be in reference to the physical state):


Both traditional gasoline and ethanol burn cleanly. Many are made to think that the burning of gasoline is what releases the CO2 pollutant. It is not the burned gas but the unburned fuel that raises your emissions! Cars run on gas vapors.

What causes fuel inefficiency and ALL emissions coming from your car is the liquid fuel that gets pushed through your engine. This liquid cannot be burned, ruins your engine and exits your car through the tailpipe (i.e. lowering MPG & raising CO2 levels coming from your car).

The surface tension of the fuel is one of the main contributors of why some fuel is pushed through as gas and some as liquid. By lowering the surface tension, you increase your MPG and lower your CO2 emissions. Here's a little physical chemistry lesson for you: Have you ever seen a droplet of water on a nonporous surface? If you have, you must have noticed how it bulges up and 'sticks' to itself. Water is a polar molecule, so is alcohol, whether it be methanol, ethanol or any other -ol out there. The stronger the polarity of a substance, the higher the surface tension the substance will possess! And since I've just covered how surface tension effects fuel's ability to vaporize into a gas, you should be able to deduct that alcohol (i.e ethanol) is NOT as efficient a fuel as they have been trying to convince you!

Not only does this polarity increase surface tension, but in the chemistry world, like attracts like, therefore alcohol attracts water. Water aids in the breakdown of your engine further worsening your fuel efficiency. And since alcohol attracts water, this increases the percentage of water that gets pumped through your engine in comparison to traditional gasoline.

Earlier I mentioned that surface tension was one of the main contributors of why some fuel is pushed through as gas and some as liquid. Temperature is another. Higher temps aid in vapor production while lower temps hinder it. There really isn't much we can do about how temperature affects fuel efficiency, but there are other concerns when dealing with temperature. Water is a special molecule in that its volume increases when in a solid state rather than decreases like almost all other molecules. Place water in a closed bottle in the freezer and the bottle will wither expand or break. The same happens to your engine when too much water is present. And because a good portion of the US finds itself dealing with below freezing temps for at least part of the year, anything that attracts water is your car's enemy!


Ethanol, once the end-all-be-all of fuel sources, is no longer looking so environmentally friendly, now is it? I would also like to make it clear that I do not fully support this "rising CO2 levels is causing global warming" phenomenon.--not enough evidence has proven this to be true, there have only been mere correlations--I have only allowed emissions to be mentioned in this post so that those who believe it can use this information when they make their choice at the pump or car dealership.

On another side note, you might want to check this out if you're interested in increasing your MPG. I have yet to try it myself, but chemically, it sounds pretty believable. I'm just not a fan of his suggestions to push government requirements.

~ steph