America’s Biofuel Gladiators
Turning food into biofuel pits the car owners of the world against the two billion poor who struggle to get enough to eat says Lester Brown of the World Policy Institute.
Who do you think is going to win?
“This will be seen as one of the great tragedies in history,” says Brown.
See previously published articles on biofuels/energy:
Ethanol: The Great Big Green Fraud – Government subsidies amount to $15 billion in 2007
Greenest Ethanol Still Unproven - Cellulosic ethanol is long way off and may not be a solution
Biofuels and Carbon Credits Behind Global Deforestation
ENERGY REVOLUTION NEEDED NOW – Efficiency improvement is fastest, cheapest and easiest
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[...] on January 15, 2008. America’s Biofuel Gladiators Turning food into biofuel pits the car owners of the world against the two billion poor who [...]
Ethanol: The Great Big Green Fraud « Blowing Our Tax Dollars on Wind Farms
15/01/2008 at 6:03 pm
IMO, biofuel as an energy source is a dead end. In the future, biofuels will be an important feedstock to the chemical industry, but it makes little sense to burn them for energy.
Mass production of biofuels for energy generation is going have a serious effect on the earth’s food supply. And, at best, the energy gained is only carbon neutral.
Will be worse than neutral, actually. For maximum yields, crops for biofuels will be produced with massive amounts of chemical fertilizers and pesticides. If the crops are not intended for human consumption producers and regulators will have no reason to use any restraints at all. (I can forsee a disaster where a trainload of corn intended for the oil refinery accidentally ends up in the human food chain. Yikes.)
Anonymous
17/01/2008 at 2:13 pm