Posted on 02/22/2008 5:18:58 PM PST by Kaslin
Environment: In 2005, America used 15% of its corn crop to replace just 2% of its gasoline. Two new studies say use of biofuels will leave the world a warmer and hungrier place.
According to University of Minnesota ecologist and study co-author David Tilman, converting the grasslands of the U.S. to corn for ethanol releases excess CO2 emissions of 134 metric tons per hectare (equal to 2.47 acres).
The reason is that plants, from grasses to trees, store carbon dioxide in their roots, shoots and leaves.
"I know that when I look at a tree that half the dry weight is carbon," says Tilman. "That's going to end up as carbon dioxide in the atmosphere when you cut it down."
"Any biofuel that causes land clearing is likely to increase global warming," says Nature Conservancy ecologist Joseph Fargione, the lead author of a second study also published in Science.
Fargione notes that ethanol demand in the U.S. has caused farmers to plant more corn and less soy. This has driven up soy prices and caused farmers in Brazil to clear more acres of rain forest to plant the increasingly valuable soy.
Tim Searchinger, an agricultural expert at Princeton University and lead author of the first study, says, "There is a huge imbalance between the carbon (released) by plowing up a hectare of forest or grassland from the benefit you get from biofuels."
(Excerpt) Read more at ibdeditorials.com ...
Political Correctness allows the active participant to become immune from any bad consequences resulting from their actions.
This is very ear-itating.
How corny.
Farmers can’t win for losing: When corn was $1.75 a bushel people complained about some of us getting welfare in the form of government deficiency payments. Now that we are making some money, we’re ruining the environment.
HOwever — a word of wisdom from DH’s Grandpa. If farmers come across a good thing, be assured they will ruin it and break the price. Sad but true.
I still think algae based biodiesel makes a lot more sense than ethanol. Not only is it a lot simpler in principle, but we already have a lot of efficient diesel engines, so we don’t have to mess around with enormous gas tanks, or filling them twice as much, and engines we haven’t perfected yet.
And not only does it eat waste CO2 and NOx, but after you squeeze the vegetable oil out of it, you feed the algae to animals. Heck of a lot better than wasting food to make it.
And a diesel Mercedes will blow most gasoline cars off the road. Fast and powerful. Diesel can also run big ships and railroad engines.
You can grow it South of the Mason-Dixon about any time of year.
.....That’s going to end up as carbon dioxide in the atmosphere when you cut it down.......
That is true only if it is burned. Coal is biomass.
Corn is grass but has greater biomass than the prarie grass. Corn is therefore a carbon negative crop. It absorbs more carbon than it releases via ethanol made from the seeds.
LOL.
The ethanol scam is a joke. And I am guessing that it is more about helping American farmers than it is about reducing demand for oil.
And many people fell for it before investigating it further.
Reminds me of the assault weapons ban — they banned scary looking guns.
People can be pretty dumb.
Diesel is a lot more efficient than gasoline. Would be interesting to see how efficient a Diesel Hybrid would be.
I have to keep reading this quote. So when a tree gets cut down or keels over naturally it's BAD for the environment? We shouldn't plant trees?
It’s a supplemental liquid fuel source under development. We happen to need the “source” for reasons other than “replacement”.
.....That’s going to end up as carbon dioxide in the atmosphere when you cut it down.......
That is true only if it is burned. Coal is biomass.
Not so. when the tree decomposes, it releases as much CO2 as if it were burned. Fungi, Bacteria, or insects convert the cellulose to CO2 plus Water.
If there is a diesel pump anywhere near where you live, for most people it is better than gasoline. Engine maintenance is simpler and usually cheaper and you save a lot of money.
As far as odor goes, biodiesel doesn’t have the petroleum diesel stench. If anything, people note a slight odor of French fries, but not unpleasant. It has about 98% of the energy of petroleum diesel, unlike ethanol, which has only about 50% of the energy of gasoline.
Not what the proponents are saying.
It is being sold is that it is a direct substitute without any consequences.
There are a few of us here at FR who realize that the farmers have been the fall-guys in the 50+ years Cheap Food policy by the government.
You’re right when you say farmers can’t win for losing, first you get the grief for subsidies, when in fact those subsidies have been used as a cudgel to beat down virtually any chance of profits that match those of other small business with millions at risk and long hours.
The farm programs have been carefully crafted and annually refined to produce just enough excess food stuffs to keep the price down, but not so much as to drive too many farmers out of business in that crop cycle.
With the introduction of ethanol, farmers found an escape route from their predicament. No longer is there enough money and power in the farm program subsidies to keep them trapped.
Farmers are now free to do what their hearts have desired to do for decades, produce enormous crops……. And then get paid for those crops by willing buyers who will pay a price that ensures a fair profit.
Now that the complainers about the farm program subsidies have gotten their wish, they are complaining that food prices are too high.
Rush has stated that the most expensive commodity traded in the United State is ignorance.
The ignorance even here at Free Republic about where and how our food is produced, and how it comes to our tables is a good example of the accuracy of that statement.
I’m often tempted to just say “screw you” to some of the ignoramuses, but a few of us plug on.
Meanwhile…………go out a raise us some more food, forget the snipping from those who should know better.
There are millions of us who truly appreciate the fact that thanks to the American Farmer, we eat better than any society in the entire history of the world.
Hats off to the American Farmer!
A tip of my John Deere baseball cap to you.
Hear, hear!
At the moment corn is serving as a proxy for the high energy, easily reduced cellulose to come.
You can't just look at what's out there today. You have to examine the entire technology and that includes what's going on in recombinant DNA.
Isn't it amazing that Deere is the only one to make it through all the ups and downs of the agricultural equipment market place? They stand tall, and for the moment, alone as THE big guy in manufacturing.
And all that from a hand hammered steel plowshare.
A crop that easily grows at our latitude and that yields a lot of ethanol.
And huge tracks of land the size of Colorado to grow the crops, whatever they may be, to support the demand. And crop rotation, factories, etc.
We definitely need to improve power conversion efficiencies, too.
And Americans may have to give up living many miles from where they work. Maybe more telecommuting will be the solution.
We need to rethink nuclear power and rechargeable batteries to power our transportation.
We need a “free” source of energy like petroleum.
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