Another voice has been raised to support the claim that biofuels are not the solution to global warming as claimed. The Times reports that leading British expert, Environmental Technology professor Roland Clift now says resort to biofuels may actually increase greenhouse gas emissions:
"Clift said: 'Biodiesel is a complete scam because in the tropics the growing demand is causing forests to be burnt to make way for palm oil and similar crops.'
“'We calculate that the land will need to grow biodiesel crops for 70-300 years to compensate for the CO2 emitted in forest destruction.'
Clift will also condemn plans to produce British biodiesel from rapeseed, pointing to research showing the crop generates copious amounts of nitrous oxide – an even more powerful global warming gas than CO2 The attack comes as the government increases its support for biofuels. Next year it will introduce a requirement for 3% of all fuel sold on UK forecourts to come from a renewable source.
There has also been a lot of controversy about another popular, biofuel source, corn, which is used to produce ethanol. Corn not only requires a lot of energy to grow and harvest, plus a great deal of fertilizer, but it is also a big draw on dwindling groundwater resources.
4 comments:
Yep...it's a scam alright. Good to call governments on promoting this insanity.
There is of course, the question of us losing our farmlands to "fuel" alternative energy resources. There are so many other solutions that we can look to.
World average food prices are going up as a result of this mess.
Breakfast cereal is set to rise due to corn crops being used for biofuels increasing the demand. Apparently they will sell you less for the same price.
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