The Art Center College of Design in Pasadena should get bonus points for including an Energy 101 presenation at its recent 2009 Summit: Expanding the Vision of Sustainable Mobility. Most energy-environment conferences skip science and go straight for emotion leaving their audiences ready to be opposed to something, but without a firm grounding in the fundamentals of energy science.
Case in point? The popular misbelief that oil comes from dinosaurs. The 'fossil' in 'fossil fuels' refers to a geological period, not the ancient remains of mammals. UC Davis Geology Professor Kenneth Verosub reminds us that oil (a 'hydrocarbon') is the result of bioenergy. Ancient diatoms (shelled algae) used light to bind carbon and hydrogen then died and fell to the ocean floor - where, with help of geological processes became a viable 'fuel' for humanity. [Video]
Category: Energy
Year: General
Tags: energy, oil, hydrocarbon, coal, carbon, hydrogen, bioenergy