I just finished up “Greasy Rider”, by Greg Melville. The premise captured me: two guys (dudes per the cover) driving across the country (from Burlington, Vermont to Berkeley, California) in a veggie-oil powered car. That, to me, sounds awesome. A nice book, more than just a travelog. Melville takes a pretty good (if not in-geeky-depth) look at the alternative fuels industry, it’s players and their motivations. He also side-trips, so to speak, into other areas of the green-movement (such as green building).
He has one observation that I agree with wholeheartedly: America, as a society, has lost (to a large degree) it’s ability to sacrifice. People do seem to want their solutions handed to them, in pretty packaging. Those of us who try to see things at a larger level, who try to live with some kind of higher calling tend to be regarded with ridicule and contempt. The greatest irony is the worst of the contempt-mongers delight in cloaking themselves in a shroud of morality. Sad, disturbing and exhausting.
All in all, a nice book. Worth the read. Much lighter reading than “The Omnivore’s Dilemma”.
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