Use Biofuel: Kill The Planet

This is one that will make you wonder if you should laugh or cry. Two scientists have calculated the effects of switching to biofuels on the capture of carbon and have reached a pretty different conclusion than is being touted by the true believers. They say it is better for the planet to keep burning fossil fuels and plant more forests than it is to use biofuels.

It sounds counterintuitive, but burning oil and planting forests to compensate is more environmentally friendly than burning biofuel. So say scientists who have calculated the difference in net emissions between using land to produce biofuel and the alternative: fuelling cars with gasoline and replanting forests on the land instead.

They recommend governments steer away from biofuel and focus on reforestation and maximising the efficiency of fossil fuels instead.

The reason is that producing biofuel is not a "green process". It requires tractors and fertilisers and land, all of which means burning fossil fuels to make "green" fuel. In the case of bioethanol produced from corn – an alternative to oil – "it's essentially a zero-sums game," says Ghislaine Kieffer, programme manager for Latin America at the International Energy Agency in Paris, France (see Complete carbon footprint of biofuel – or is it?).

What is more, environmentalists have expressed concerns that the growing political backing that biofuel is enjoying will mean forests will be chopped down to make room for biofuel crops such as maize and sugarcane. "When you do this, you immediately release between 100 and 200 tonnes of carbon [per hectare]," says Renton Righelato of the World Land Trust, UK, a conservation agency that seeks to preserve rainforests.

The researchers looked at the initial carbon production to produce biofuel, say by torching a rainforest, and figure it would take 50 to 100 years to recapture the resultant carbon. That and all the carbon needed to produce the fuel make biofuel a real losing proposition for the planet.

The biofuel craze is already causing rainforests to be burned to the ground so palm oil can be produced. It is also leading to the eradication of the orangutans. Not to mention the looming water shortages and global food shortages. A lot of things that are being pushed as solutions for global warming are, in fact, much worse for the planet than is being acknowledged by the true believers. Take a look at Sudbury, Ontario if you don't believe it. You can see that from space.

One of the links above has this quote from Sunita Narain, the head of the Centre for Science and Environment in India: biofuels (are) "good as an idea, bad in practice." It is about time we really reassessed the situation, before all the rainforests are gone and the last orangutan is slaughtered.