Dear Editor:
If Henry Ford were to rise from the dead, I wonder if he would be surprised to see that we are, except for some extra bells and whistles, still using the same combustion engine as he put into the old Model T and that we are still burning fossil fuels?
Why don't we collect grass clippings, leaf litter and green waste and make fuel from it? Think of all the residential, commercial, parks and golf course waste you could draw from. Add in what farmers plow over in the fall, all the pumpkins that don't get sold and berry crops that don't ripen in time and, wow, you could create jobs and save the environment at the same time. No there won't be enough to power our personal cars, but how about city vehicles, buses and taxis?
How about human and animal waste? Every time you flush the john, it should be sent to a recycling plant where it could be fermented and made into a type of ethanol. We could combine this waste with what can be collected from farm animals, doggy parks and horse tracks. The source is renewable, too.
Why aren't more people paying restaurants to pick up their used cooking oil? It can be filtered and used as fuel.
Let's do what they do in some California cities. Make electric golf carts street legal with all the correct lights. You drive them wherever you can a moped and where the traffic is heavy let them use the bike lanes. Ninety per cent of our driving is nonhighway and rarely do we haul anything more than one passenger. These little carts go for five hours or more on the golf course hauling two people, two sets of clubs over uneven terrain and up and down hills and in all types of weather. Makes a trip from Deep Cove to Park Royal to go shopping seem a little tame by comparison doesn't it?
Maybe none of these ideas are a usable solution, but there are viable and renewable fuels out there. It's time to turn the world's economy on its ear, ditch the oil imports and start using our noggins.
Tom Cattermole, North Vancouver
