Environment and Energy

Yucky Alternative Energy Ideas.

55 Comments

From “The Local” in Sweden:

carbon rabbitThe bodies of thousands of rabbits culled every year from the parks in Stockholm’s Kungsholmen neighbourhood are being used to fuel a heating plant in central Sweden.
…

But rather than simply disposing of the dead rabbits, the city instead froze them for eventual transport to a special heating plant in Karlskoga in central Sweden, where the bunny bodies are then burned as a form of bioenergy.

According to Johannesson, Sweden’s animal control authorities aren’t interested in pursuing other options besides killing the rabbits.

You read that right. Eeeuuuwww!

Update: I added the crying bunny from the

55 thoughts on “Yucky Alternative Energy Ideas.”

  1. …the city instead froze them for eventual transport to a special heating plant in Karlskoga…

    And the life-cycle carbon footprint analysis is…?

  7. Hej, once you go green, you go green. Until someone does the mathto the contrary, for all we know it might be more environmentally and ethically friendly to produce ethanol or bio diesel from rabbits than from corn….

  9. Bunny body bioenergy. Probably not the most efficient energy source; I wonder if it will be mentioned in Copenhagen…

  10. bunnies making electricity to make batteries for the energizer bunny. Now that’s soylent green.

    I wonder why the Aussies haven’t thought of this given their rabbit problems.

  11. Are they killing the bunnies for fuel?

    Or are they killing the bunnies just to reduce their numbers?

    In any case, it’s wrong.

    🙁

    Andrew

  12. In Sweden, freezing the bodies might not cost anything during part of the year. But energy is used to transport them the 120 miles. It’s somewhat more if the bunnies are from Stockholm, Wisconsin.

    They don’t have a steam-powered car so they can power the vehicle too?

  14. Andrew_KY [21544]
    I agree with you. There is only one place for the [all too numerous] bunnies: on a plate, beside the mashed potatoes…
    🙂

  16. I have to say that I don’t find the idea yucky at all. If they’re going to kill Elie’s cousins anyway then why is there a problem with using the remains? I would think pigeons would be another fine source of green fuel. And if they’re freezing first, why not do a simple freeze-dry before shipping to reduce the weight and increase the yield?
    Continuing with the same logic, why not take all of the animal cadavers that are locally generated and handle them the same way? I suspect that most are being burned in any case.

    bob

  20. tetris,

    I’ve never had rabbit. I did have pigeon once, when I was at Bellagio’s buffet in Vegas. It was a bit too “gamey”, for my taste buds. 😉

    I just don’t think bunnies should be used for fuel if other fuel is available. And if people have local bunny problems, and people hunt them and eat them or skin them, that’s one thing. But for some Governmental Authority to declare there are “too many” bunnies, so let’s start killing them, is another. I would like to see how the “too many” is established.

    Andrew

  21. Tetris–

    carbon rabbitYour comment wins the crying bunny award.

    I have eaten Thumper too. It’s very lean. So, I think stews are better than roasts. Yes. I’ve also eaten Bambi. I still think this is an alternative energy program that screams “YUUUUUUCCCCCKKKK!”

  23. Andrew_FL,

    Where do I go to see all those starving bunnies?

    Yes, I read Watership Down when I was younger and I’ve seen the movie. One of my favorites of all time. In fact, one of my cats names is Hazel. 😉

    Andrew

  24. Lucia [21555]
    Thx. Just think Pate de Lapin on a piece of fresh bread with some black cherry and a glass of Beaujolais….
    What a waste of the Swedes to cook them so very overdone. 🙂

  25. It would be better for the environment if they just used coal instead.

    Rabbits are clearly a renewable energy source (they breed like Rabbits of course) but it probably takes more energy to trap them, kill them, freeze them, transport them, put them in a biomass burner, capture the CO2 emitted and dispose of the ashes (in some kind of Rabbit grave with a fence around around it and disturbing the natural vegetation that normally grows there which will also result in Methane emissions at some future time).

    It would be far more efficient to cull the Rabbit herd by bringing in a Wolf pack or letting some Dogs have a recreational outing. There is also a Rabbit stew option.

  27. Andrew_KY,

    The article says they culled 6,000 rabbits from city parks. That’s a lot of rabbits, by any measure. Rabbits destroy the vegetation planted in the city parks. The rabbits were pets that were released by soft-headed pet owners who decided they didn’t want to deal with their pets any more. Don’t blame the officials, who are already spending time and money to get rid of the problem, and trying to make the best of the situation. Blame the irresponsible pet owners, who probably also read/saw Watership Down. I raised rabbits for years. My family used them for food. You know what I took from Watership Down? “Bunnies” can be just as vicious as any slimy sewer rat.

  28. Tamara,

    Wow. I didn’t know people had such problems with rabbits. I didn’t know they were so destructive when left alive. We should slaughter them wholesale obviously. Thanks for making me see the light on this issue.

    Andrew

  29. OK, so we have two “facts”:

    1) polar bears are being killed by changing weather

    2) rabbits slaugtered on Government Authority by the thousands

    Guess which one is real? Guess which one we are supposed to be worried about? 😉

    Andrew

  30. Tamara (Comment#21566)-We have that same problem, but with Iguanas.

    http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Green_Iguana#As_an_invasive_species

    Bill Illis (Comment#21561)-One word-ethanol.

    The point being that facts like those don’t matter.

    Andrew_KY (Comment#21568)-Honestly, I’m not terribly worried about the bunny Holocaust or the Polar Bears dying. Now that I know they are non-native, I feel that even total annihilation would not be problematic. (which reminds me, on Bill’s point, the problem with Wolves is that they get full).

  31. Andrew_FL,

    “I feel that even total annihilation would not be problematic.”

    Easy to say when you are not the Annihilee.

    Andrew

  32. “But rather than simply disposing of the dead rabbits, the city instead froze them for eventual transport to a special heating plant”

    I wonder how much energy is used in these steps and is it actually more than the energy produced by the bunnies?

    On the west coast there have been numerous programs to collect wood waste for burning and some are doing quite well thanks to european subsidies for biofuels. However, such programs actually use more energy than they produce because of the fuel spent trucking the wood to the ports where they can be shipped on a bunker oil burning ship through the panama canal.

  35. Bunnies who give themselves up this way for the sake of the planet go to heaven and receive 72,000 virgins.

  36. To be fair this whole mess is entirely due to idiotic EU regulations. Previously the dead rabbits would either have been eaten by people, or buried or simply left somewhere in the forest, to be almost instantly eaten by foxes, ravens etc.

    However nowadays all three alternatives are illegal, and since there is no other way the ex-rabbits must needs be cremated. Incidentally I strongly suspect that vaporizing all the water in the rabbit takes more energy than you get from burning the dried cadaver. So including the energy it takes to keep those fridges running and then transporting the rabbits 150 miles to the plant, I imagine this latest euroinsanity has a fairly large carbon footprint.

  37. Andrew_KY (Comment#21567)

    I don’t have a problem with bunnies, I just base my perception of them on the reality of close association not an anthorpomorphic fictional depiction. (Out of curiousity, how could you see General Woundwort as anything other than vicious?)

    At any rate, I doubt that energy generation or savings was the main consideration. As tty commented, what else do you do with 6000 rabbit corpses?

  38. Tamara,

    I see rabbits (even Woundwort types) as God’s creatures (just like I do every other type of animal, including Polar Bears). And even though they are “just animals”, their individual lives are to be respected.

    So in that light, when I hear a story about rabbits killed en masse, I feel that questions about it need to be asked. And if the answers say the situation should/could have been avoided, then there is a problem.

    Death by Government Authority may OK in your book, but it is not necessarily OK in mine.

    Andrew

  40. In Yes/No Format- 😉

    Kill a rabbit for food and clothing = Yes (God gave us rabbits for this use)

    Kill a rabbit because it has become a deadly combatant = Yes (Self defense)

    Kill lots of rabbits because some Government Entity decided there are “too many” and burn their bodies as fuel. = No

    Andrew

  41. Tamara,

    If a mosquito intends to bite you, you can defend yourself. Otherwise, you can leave them be, too. 😉

    Andrew

  42. So, humans can defend their bodies against attack by other animals, but not their plantings, livestock or other holdings? Just so I know where the line is drawn.

  43. Yes, humans can protect themselves, their plantings, their livestock, or whatever, without necessarily killing thousands of rabbits.

    Andrew

  44. Tamara,

    I think killing for convenience is wrong, wether it be rabbits or mosquitoes or people.

    Do you?

    Andrew

  45. Andrew,
    I once found a scorpion in my bath tub. There are probably infinite alternatives, but, out of convenience, I killed it. I am willing to live with that murder and other similar ones. Not sure your point fits when it comes to mosquitoes. After all, even if they bite you, it is only an inconvenience. You can live with the itchy bumps. What do you suggest as the less convenient alternative to culling the rabbits from the city parks? Trapping and relocation, maybe? I’m sure several thousand rabbits would easily find a niche without displacing other native species.

    Interestingly, it sounds like the practice of using carcasses for fuel isn’t new. http://www.spiegel.de/international/zeitgeist/0,1518,654916,00.html
    “The contractor doesn’t just pick up rabbits, he also picks up cats, deer, horses and cows,”

    Glad that’s not my job!

  46. Tamara,

    I don’t know if being able to live with “small” murders is anything to brag about.

    I’m not sure how the destruction of the scorpion in your bathtub justifies killing thousands of rabbits, either.

    “Trapping and relocation, maybe?”

    Why not?

    “I’m sure several thousand rabbits would easily find a niche without displacing other native species.”

    They might. Do you have info that says otherwise?

    Andrew

  48. “I’m not sure how the destruction of the scorpion in your bathtub justifies killing thousands of rabbits, either.”

    I’m not sure there is a direct correlation, either. My point is that actions are taken based on many factors, that don’t necessarily fit with the simplicity of your morality. I don’t think that the authorities of Stockholm go to the trouble of hiring hunters to cull the rabbits just because they can. Maybe there is some Swedish rabbit-killing psychosis that I am unaware of. I think that there are many factors at play. Do you think that the people who pay taxes for the parks in Stockholm have the right to healthy trees and shrubs in their parks? If the plants were being ravaged by insects, would it be alright to use pesticides?

  49. “Do you think that the people who pay taxes for the parks in Stockholm have the right to healthy trees and shrubs in their parks?”

    They have a reasonable expectation that the park will be maintained. They do not have a “right” to healthy trees and schrubs.

    Do 6000 rabbits need to be killed?

    Does the fact that it was the Government Authority of Stockholm who decided to have 6000 rabbits killed, make it the right decision?

    Andrew

  50. “The rabbits became strange in many ways, different from other rabbits. They knew well enough what was happening. But even to themselves they pretended that all was well, for the food was good, they were protected, they had nothing to fear but the one fear; and that struck here and there, never enough at a time to drive them away. They forgot the ways of wild rabbits. They forgot El-ahrairah, for what use had they for tricks and cunning, living in the enemy’s warren and paying his price?”

    Andrew

  51. It might not be interesting to some but it does seem that there are much larger numbers of Rabbits living in urban settings now.

    There must be more than a dozen in my close neighborhood. It would have been very rare to see one not too long ago but now there is one living in the parking lot where I work as well. Its there nearly every day so I don’t know what it is eating etc.

    I guess this is something like the Canada Geese which live year-round in cities now.

  52. Maybe this is silly day but this discussion seems to have lost all sense of proportion. The use of the words murder, slaughter and annihilation seem to me to be totally over the top.
    .
    Anyone here from Boston? How do people here who so love the bunnies feel about rats in your cities? These rather cuddly animals are fine too in moderation but hundreds of thousands are quite another thing.
    .
    I live in Germany and have personally seen a small park (less than one acre) where I counted more than 60 wild rabbits. The ground was covered in bunny dung and at the time I wondered about the potential for disease (we have quite a lot of rabies in foxes here).
    .
    Now Google tells me that two (2!) hunters are performing the cull in the early morning hours using silenced guns. I think this should give us some indication of the number of bunnies involved.
    “The rabbits are shot by two specially hired people who usually go out at dawn and use guns with silencers. The bodies are then frozen and incinerated. The rabbits are not stripped of their fur.”
    .
    On a related note: “Stockholm, which has an overstock of stray, wild rabbits that are destroying local parks, authorized a culling operation, and the killed bunnies are being shipped for processing. The Stockholm facility is also incinerating dead cats, cows, deer and horses, according to the report.”
    . and this:
    “Local authorities estimate there are some 10,000 wild rabbits roaming the streets of Helsinki which have been charged with causing thousands of euros (dollars) of damage to the city’s gardens.”

  53. schoerkelman,
    I think the idea of using dead animals for energy is “ewww…”. But, on the other hand, I’m hoping that the new cat Grizelda turns out to be as much of a hunger as “The General” was. (If you see my avatar elsewhere, you’ll notice the cat has a chipmunk in his mouth. On of his nicknames was “the e-rabbitator” because he kept those in check too.)

  54. “Local authorities estimate there are some 10,000 wild rabbits roaming the streets of Helsinki which have been charged with causing thousands of euros (dollars) of damage to the city’s gardens”

    Yes, the The Great Rabbit Horde of Destruction have finally come to destroy Helsinki. It’s kill or be killed! Well, sort of. Someone’s garden might get damaged.

    Andrew

  55. The greens can’t complain, biofuel is biofuel. Have they already discounted the idea of grinding them up and passing them off as Swedish meatballs?

    I wish they’d do something like this in New England about all our arrogant non-migratory ‘Canadian’ geese who are protected by … the migratory bird act.

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