Running America on Liposuctioned Fat  E-mail
Written by Hank Green   
Wednesday, 02 July 2008

I've read two separate stories today about the potential benefits of burning human fat for energy. And while EcoGeek has, in fact, posted stories about running boats with human fat, and creating motor oil with cow fat...the idea is full of holes, and I'm hoping that the rather long article I read is a joke...I can't really tell.

But I wanted this to be clear...burning human fat is not a solution to the energy crisis...for several reasons.

  1. There just isn't enough. All of America's excess fat combined (coming in at an average of 20 lbs per person) is enough to fuel America's car fleet for less than two days. (We burn 380 million gallons of gas a day.)
  2. It's extremely inefficient. We complain about the inefficiency of corn ethanol, but imagine having to take the extra step of getting converted into human fat, and THEN into biodiesel...it's much cheaper and more efficient just to make it straight from the plant.
  3. It's kinda mean. Yeah, it's a joke, but obesity isn't all that funny. It's like saying "we could burn cancer and heat homes!  HAHAHA!" It's only funny if you're drunk...or mean.

That's all, just wanted to make sure everyone was on the same page. It's a joke...and not a very nice one.


Comments (3)add
...
written by Clinch , July 02, 2008
It seems to me that rather than being a joke, the story (while still not true) is kind of a publicity stunt, in trying to get people to think about the 'oil crisis' and cheap alternative fuels (although, in strange shock-value manner).

And I expect there are some laws about disposal of medical waste that might prevent this, but it does raise a good point, we can recycle most things, so why shouldn't we be allowed to recycle the fat we don't want?


Burn Fat
written by Proud Human Supremacist , July 02, 2008
We might be able to burn our fat a lot more directly. It only takes about 45 Kcalories on my bicycle. I know it's not the same thing, but it seems to be a much more efficient way to burn our extra fat.

We might be able to find a better use for our fat. Soap or maybe lubrication.
...
written by boohoo , July 03, 2008
Didn't they do this in the Matrix?
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Hank Green
About the author:

Hank Green is the founder and chief geek at EcoGeek.org. Aside from being obsessed with saving the planet with technology, he loves to write and make videos. If you want to find out more about him, visit hankgreen.com
 
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