[geeks] electric cars

[Lionel Peterson]

>From: Lionel Peterson <lionel4287 at verizon.net>
>Date: 2006/10/23 Mon AM 09:34:50 CDT
>To: The Geeks List <geeks at sunhelp.org>
>Subject: Re: [geeks] electric cars

>>From: velociraptor <velociraptor at gmail.com>
>>Date: 2006/10/22 Sun PM 10:17:56 CDT
>>To: The Geeks List <geeks at sunhelp.org>
>>Subject: Re: [geeks] electric cars
>
>>On 10/21/06, James Fogg <James at jdfogg.com> wrote:
><snip>
>
>>> A careful calculation of the requirements for 100% soybean oil
>>> conversion from fossil fuel showed that a beanfield equivalent to a
>>> square 500 square miles on each side in size could replace all our
>>> fossil fuel needs.
>>
>>I am having trouble parsing that sentence, James.
>
>He's saying that with a 500 mile square patch of soybean plants, both he and his scientist friend could ween themselves off fossil fuel ;^)
>
>A 500 x 500 square mile patch of land is pretty darn big, that's what, 250,000 square miles? What would the cost of a quarter million square miles of USA land cost, let alone irrigation, planting, and harvesting...

Sorry for replying to my own posting, but here is what 250,000 square miles looks like:

Ohio - 40,000 square miles
Florida - 54,000 square miles
California - 155,000 square miles

That adds up to just about 250,000 square miles, and would have "interesting" impact to the american political system when the residents of those states migrate to new locations within the country...

If you prefer,

Texas is about 262,000 square miles

Alaska is over 570,000 square miles (but I think we might be challenged to grow soy beans in Alaska without herculean efforts)...