|
>Gasoline doesn't accomplish this, yet we're still using it.
Yes, it does. It takes less energy to extract, transport, refine, and ignite gasoline than is recovered it produces. If it didn't we wouldn't use it. In fact,w e couldn't use it.
The laws of thermodynamics (specifically the second law) tells us that it did require more energy to make the crude oil in the first place, but that energy was provided by the sun millions of years ago, it doesn't cost us anything to utilize it.
Think of it this way, if you can extract X joules of energy from salt water and it takes 2X joules of energy to extract, where will you get the 2X joules from in the first place?
|