Studies show clearing land for biofuels will speed up global warming

[conflictgirl]

Source: Washington Post

Clearing land to produce biofuels such as ethanol will do more to exacerbate global warming than using gasoline or other fossil fuels, two scientific studies show.

One study -- written by a group of researchers from Princeton University, Woods Hole Research Center and Iowa State University along with an agriculture consultant -- concluded that over 30 years, use of traditional corn-based ethanol would produce twice as much greenhouse gas emissions as regular gasoline. Another analysis, written by a Nature Conservancy scientist along with University of Minnesota researchers, found that converting rainforests, peatlands, savannas or grasslands in Southeast Asia and Latin America to produce biofuels will increase global warming pollution for decades, if not centuries.

"The land we're likely to plow up is the land that we've had taking up carbon for decades," said Searchinger, the lead author. Estimating that it would take 167 years before biofuel would stop contributing to climate change, he added, "We can't get to a result, no matter how heroically we make assumptions on behalf of corn ethanol, where it will actually generate greenhouse-gas benefits."

Researchers said the findings applied to other forms of ethanol-based fuel as well, at emissions rates that varied depending on the nature of the land being converted and the crop being grown on it, with sugar cane ranking as the most efficient. The results of the studies are significant because industrialized countries are pushing so aggressively to boost biofuel production as an alternative to gasoline. The recently passed energy bill mandated the production of 36 billion gallons of biofuels annually by 2022, compared with about 7.5 billion gallons today. Just last month, the European Union's Transport Ministry proposed a directive calling on member countries to power 10 percent of their transportation with biofuels.

Read more: http://www.washingtonpost.com/wp-dyn/content/article/2008/02/07/AR2008020704230.html?hpid=moreheadlines

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What, you mean biofuel isn't the solution that will save us all? Next you're going to tell me something crazy like maybe we need to implement higher fuel economy standards and create more public transit options and revitalize cities so that people don't have to live in exurbs 50 miles outside the city to afford housing...

[madeline_con]

1. Bio-Hope, Bio-Hype

http://www.sierraclub.org/sierra/200709/bio.asp

....................

Biofuels, Food, or Wildlife?
The Massive Land Costs of U.S. Ethanol
By Dennis Avery

There are significant trade-offs, however, involved in the massive expansion of the production of corn and
other crops for fuel. Chief among these would be a shift of major amounts of the world’s food supply to fuel
use when significant elements of the human population remains ill-fed.

http://www.cei.org/pdf/5532.pdf

..........................................
Biofuels food supply fears

Zhai Huqu, president of the Chinese Academy of Agricultural Sciences, has said that China cannot afford to use grain for producing energy.

http://www.atimes.com/atimes/China_Business/HL14Cb01.html

[Djinn]

2. Large proportions of the world

already find it hard or impossible to feed themselves - when food is used as fuel, the price will be jacked up to a level completely beyond their means.

Only middle class people in rich nations think bio-fuel is an answer.

[madeline_con]

3. DUH-bya went to Brazil a while back to get their prez

to grow biofuel for U.S. consumptuion. To hell with feeding the populace, I guess.

[Skinner]

4. I've always been skeptical of the whole idea of ethanol.

We use fossil fuels as fertilizer so we can grow a fossil fuel substitute. Admittedly, I'm no expert. But it always seemed like it would be more efficient to cut out the middleman and just put the fossil fuels directly into our cars, rather than sending them on a detour though corn.

[DCKit]

7. You got that right.

Without subsidies on every single step of production, ethanol from corn would be totally impracticable. Sugar cane and sugar beets (which I know grow as far north as MI) need to be researched, but corn has a powerful lobby and, therefore, a lock on the money.

The solution isn't going to be any single technology, but a host of different technologies. It'll be a pisser getting adjusted, but we will, eventually.

[KakistocracyHater]

5. They already know biodiesel is the way

they are just Tobacco Sciencing it. Monied interests are pushing ethnanol, purposely frittering away our last good dollars. What are we going to do to reinvigorate the dollar? Probably rich-man Enron accounting tricks instead of beginning new manufacturing. Arnie could knock Detroit off the automaking map, begin manufacture of the Tesla electric cars, he got the Hummer made for civilians in the early 1990s.

[kristopher]

6. This has been obvious for a long time

In a grad school course on energy several years ago we did a rough analysis that told us the same thing. The key element in the story is that the study seems to be looking at current technology and is focused on corn/sugar cane - the entire industry based on that is a political sham.

However, the use of woody plants is preferable from the point of view of land use and energy input vs energy output. However, the time isn't really ripe for it yet as there are look to be dramatic improvements in efficiency through biotechnology (genetically engineering better bacteria to break down the plants into sugars) on the immediate horizon.

We didn't consider the effects outside the US.

The best bet now is massive development of windpower and transitioning the private transportation sector to the electric automobile with rapid recharging Lithium Ion batteries. They are very, very close to being able to recharge for 300 or so miles in under 10 minutes.

As the economy of scale starts kicking (no idea if or when that will happen) in the overall price of an electric car should actually decline from a gasoline car is now.

Edited to add link:
http://www.dpi.nsw.gov.au/aboutus/news/agriculture-today/october-2007/biofuels-from-woody-plants

[dysfunctional press]

8. use the desert to grow algae in large pools...

no arable farmland needs to be diverted to biofuel production.

[khaos]

9. so the weather will be miserable when we're all riding bikes everywhere.. meh

the idiots have taken over

[MadHound]

10. No, what this is telling you is that the biofuel problem is being addressed in the wrong way

Rather than using land based crops for bio fuels, use a water based crop, like algae. Michael Briggs, University of New Hampshire has figured out that it would take 15,000 square miles of water surface area to grow enough algae, as biodiesel feedstock, to satisfy all of our transportation fuel needs. <http://www.unh.edu/p2/biodiesel/article_alge.html>

Bonus, algae is already being used by many wastewater treatment plants as their first stage in water treatment. Another bonus, this would be another boon crop for small farmers, since most have some sort of pond of some size. And growing and harvesting algae is not energy intensive. A skimming system and manure of some kind does the trick.

We can't keep relying on a non-renewable resource, hoping that we can conserve our way out of this, it's not going to happen. Besides, biodiesel is cheap, clean to refine(waste is water and glycerin, which can interestingly enough be used in both soap and dynamite), much cleaner burning than gas(about ninety percent less emissions) and is non-toxic if spilled, etc(hell, I've drunk the stuff). We are running out of oil, and we need to make a switch over to something renewable, and biodiesel actually fits well into our current infrastructure.

[NickB79]

12. One problem is that oil-producing strains of algae are outcompeted

By strains that don't give high yields of biodiesel (or so I've read). They're still looking for a high-oil strain that can compete with native, wild-strain algae.

Best luck to them, though, because we need something FAST before the oil runs out.

[kineneb]

11. time to get out the ol' bicycle and start pedaling

I think it is time to go back to human power...we certainly have enough humans...