A major new study, as reported in the NY Times today has concluded
that when all factors are included, almost all biofuel production in
the world, produces significantly more greenhouse gases than they
"save" in terms of lower emissions when you burn them. This finding,
along with the many social effects of increasing biofuel production,
will hopefully lead the world's leaders to rethink this relatively
primative form of energy production: it is not "sustainable" and is
making the problem it was intended to solve, worse!!
http://www.nytimes.
Studies Deem Biofuels a Greenhouse Threat
By ELISABETH ROSENTHAL
Published: February 8, 2008
Almost all biofuels used today cause more greenhouse gas emissions
than conventional fuels if the full emissions costs of producing these
"green" fuels are taken into account, two studies being published
Thursday have concluded.
Skip to next paragraph
World View: Greg Winter and Libby Rosenthal discuss the downsides of
biofuels. (mp3)
The benefits of biofuels have come under increasing attack in recent
months, as scientists took a closer look at the global environmental
cost of their production. These latest studies, published in the
prestigious journal Science, are likely to add to the controversy.
These studies for the first time take a detailed, comprehensive look
at the emissions effects of the huge amount of natural land that is
being converted to cropland globally to support biofuels development.
The destruction of natural ecosystems — whether rain forest in the
tropics or grasslands in South America — not only releases greenhouse
gases into the atmosphere when they are burned and plowed, but also
deprives the planet of natural sponges to absorb carbon emissions.
Cropland also absorbs far less carbon than the rain forests or even
scrubland that it replaces.
Together the two studies offer sweeping conclusions: It does not
matter if it is rain forest or scrubland that is cleared, the
greenhouse gas contribution is significant. More important, they
discovered that, taken globally, the production of almost all biofuels
resulted, directly or indirectly, intentionally or not, in new lands
being cleared, either for food or fuel.
"When you take this into account, most of the biofuel that people are
using or planning to use would probably increase greenhouse gasses
substantially,
studies and a researcher in environment and economics at Princeton
University. "Previously there's been an accounting error: land use
change has been left out of prior analysis."
These plant-based fuels were originally billed as better than fossil
fuels because the carbon released when they were burned was balanced
by the carbon absorbed when the plants grew. But even that equation
proved overly simplistic because the process of turning plants into
fuels causes its own emissions — for refining and transport, for example.
The clearance of grassland releases 93 times the amount of greenhouse
gas that would be saved by the fuel made annually on that land, said
Joseph Fargione, lead author of the second paper, and a scientist at
the Nature Conservancy. "So for the next 93 years you're making
climate change worse, just at the time when we need to be bringing
down carbon emissions."
The Intergovernment Panel on Climate Change has said that the world
has to reverse the increase of greenhouse gas emissions by 2020 to
avert disastrous environment consequences.
In the wake of the new studies, a group of 10 of the United States's
most eminent ecologists and environmental biologists today sent a
letter to President Bush and the speaker of the House, Nancy Pelosi,
urging a reform of biofuels policies. "We write to call your attention
to recent research indicating that many anticipated biofuels will
actually exacerbate global warming," the letter said.
The European Union and a number of European countries have recently
tried to address the land use issue with proposals stipulating that
imported biofuels cannot come from land that was previously rain forest.
But even with such restrictions in place, Dr. Searchinger'
shows, the purchase of biofuels in Europe and the United States leads
indirectly to the destruction of natural habitats far afield.
For instance, if vegetable oil prices go up globally, as they have
because of increased demand for biofuel crops, more new land is
inevitably cleared as farmers in developing countries try to get in on
the profits. So crops from old plantations go to Europe for biofuels,
while new fields are cleared to feed people at home.
Likewise, Dr. Fargione said that the dedication of so much cropland in
the United States to growing corn for bioethanol had caused indirect
land use changes far away. Previously, Midwestern farmers had
alternated corn with soy in their fields, one year to the next. Now
many grow only corn, meaning that soy has to be grown elsewhere.
Increasingly, that elsewhere, Dr. Fargione said, is Brazil, on land
that was previously forest or savanna. "Brazilian farmers are planting
more of the world's soybeans — and they're deforesting the Amazon to
do it," he said.
* 1
* 2
-Ross Mayhew.
This is the Global e-Forum on Climate Change and Global Warming.
-----------------------------------------------------------------------
This email group was founded and is managed by Conserve Africa Foundation, London, UK http://www.conserveafrica.org.uk/
PLEASE MAKE A DONATION:
https://secure.efundraising.org.uk/tailored/donation.asp?charity=93139
----------------------------------------------------------------------
Post message: ClimateConcern@yahoogroups.com
Subscribe: ClimateConcern-subscribe@yahoogroups.com
Unsubscribe: ClimateConcern-unsubscribe@yahoogroups.com
---------------------------------------------------------------------
Group Moderators and Managers:
----------------------------------------------------------------------
.Ross Mayhew: rmayhew@ns.sympatico.ca, Canada
.Ernest Rukangira, ernest@conserveafrica.org.uk, London, UK
-=-=-=-=-=-=-=-=-=-=-=-=-=-=-=-=-=-=-=-=-=-=-=-=-=-=-=-=-=-=-=-=-=-=-=-=-
Please post only messages related to climate change and global warming and related business. Please d0 not send your unsubscription request to the whole group. If you use this list for spamming or sending mails about other subjects we will ban and remove you from the list.
-----------------------------------------------------------------------
Change settings via the Web (Yahoo! ID required)
Change settings via email: Switch delivery to Daily Digest | Switch format to Traditional
Visit Your Group | Yahoo! Groups Terms of Use | Unsubscribe
__,_._,___
Tidak ada komentar:
Posting Komentar