By Darren Smith, Weekend Contributor
According The Telegraph the United Nations will officially warn that growing crops to make “green” biofuel harms the environment and drives up food prices, The Telegraph can disclose. A leaked draft of a UN report condemns the widespread use of biofuels made from crops as a replacement for petrol and diesel. It says that biofuels, rather than combating the effects of global warming, could make them worse.
The draft report represents a dramatic about-turn for the UN’s Intergovernmental Panel on Climate Change (IPCC).
Its previous assessment on climate change, in 2007, was widely condemned by environmentalists for giving the green light to large-scale biofuel production. The latest report instead puts pressure on world leaders to scrap policies promoting the use of biofuel for transport. The summary for policy makers states: “Increasing bioenergy crop cultivation poses risks to ecosystems and biodiversity.”
The report into the impact of man-made climate change is the most authoritative of its kind. For the first time, it considered the impact of biofuels on the environment. Biofuels were once billed as the green alternative to fossil fuels, but environmental campaigners have voiced concern about them for some time. They note that growing biofuel crops on a large scale requires either the conversion of agricultural land used for food crops or the destruction of forests to free up land, possibly offsetting any reduction in carbon emissions from the use of biofuels. Other concerns include increased stress on water supplies and rising corn prices as a result of increased demand for the crop, which is fermented to produce biofuel.
A European Union directive set a target for biofuels used in transport to double to 10 per cent by 2020, although it has limited the amount from food crops to 5 per cent.
Referring in part to deforestation, it says any benefit of biofuel production on carbon emissions “may be offset partly or entirely for decades or centuries by emissions from the resulting indirect land-use changes”. On biofuel production from corn, it adds: “Resulting increases in demand for corn contribute to higher corn prices and may indirectly increase incidence of malnutrition in vulnerable populations.”
An IPCC spokesman said she could not comment until the final report is published on March 31.
This certainly underscores the need for consideration of all matters and the notion of the law of unintended consequences. While the effort to produce biofuels for purposes of the environment, cost, and geopolitical issues care must be exercised when making public policy.
By Darren Smith
Sources:
The Telegraph
Photo Credit: Mariordo Mario Roberto Duran Ortiz (Fuel Pump)
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Dredd,
I see. You don’t think it would be viable to drill wells for geothermal? The link I provided before has this paragraph:
“The sun is a thermonuclear reactor overhead and Earth is a giant fission reactor under us. One foot underground in most places the temperature is 50 Fahrenheit degrees, but if you go down 11,340 feet the rocks are hot enough to boil water and make steam! If we “frack” that area and pour in “gray water,” which has been through our sinks, showers and toilets, we get steam for driving turbines to make all the electricity we need 24/7. Cheap, fail-safe natural nuclear power.”
That seems like a good idea to me. That way it can be designed for the area it is to operate in.
Steg
Dredd,
Were the ideas bad because of the source?
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No Steg, geothermal is ideal in those areas where it is appropriate (e.g. Iceland).
The main thing is to have a world-class smart grid that will accept input from all sources.
And be protected from solar flare generated high energy photons and/or particulates.
A world-wide power grid (a la Dyson Grid) would be the ultimate.
Allie samie and one size fits all is not feasible.
Dredd,
Were the ideas bad because of the source? I still like the geothermal. Here’s a good example: http://www.geysers.com/
Personanongrata
Dredd,
The only myth being perpetrated here is that CO2 is responsible for climate change.
Please show the process by-which CO2 traps heat in Earth’s atmosphere.
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I do not say that CO2 is directly responsible for global warming induced climate change, but I do say that Oil-Qaeda is responsible.
We can and should indict Oil-Qaeda, for deceiving you and others, but we can’t indict CO2 since it is an abiotic molecule and is incapable of being guilty of anything.
I refer you to the Fifth IPCC report which 97% of climate scientists agree with, and which “Nearly 500 people must sign off on the exact wording of the summary, including the 66 expert authors, 271 officials from 115 countries, and 57 observers” (What We Know).
Dredd,
The only myth being perpetrated here is that CO2 is responsible for climate change.
Please show the process by-which CO2 traps heat in Earth’s atmosphere.
Steg,
Personanongrate,
You both assert mythis generated from a very certain source studied in the Agnotology discipline.
Remember, water is not a pollutant but too much of it can kill you.
Like many, many things.
Using bio-mass to create bio-fuels is an energy intensive endeavor and may require more energy to grow, harvest, distill and transport the fuel than any energy that is extracted as an end product.
PS
CO2 a trace, inert atmospheric gas comprising less than .039% in volume of Earth’s atmosphere isn’t a pollutant, it is plant food and a natural by-product of life (respiration by all oxygen breathing species).
If CO2 is such a potent green house gas why (planet Mar’s atmosphere which is comprised of over 95% CO2 in volume) isn’t Mar’s climate experiencing run away warming?
https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Mars#Atmosphere
I like the idea of using gray water to drive steam turbines, the steam being formed from geothermal heat accessed by drilling.
http://adrianvance.blogspot.com/2014/02/earth-power.html
These buckets are a good way to save water for growing crops:
http://www.globalbuckets.org/
I’m trying 20 or so this year.
Existing methanol vehicles and more:
I think that the issue isn’t biofuels. Its the heavy reliance on Biofuels from corn and other unsustainable or food crops. We should look at the system holistically. The cheapest source of green energy is conservation (the Negawatt). We have plenty of farmland turned into environmentally unsustainable low density (transit inaccessible) suburbs. Much of that used to be farmland. Energy efficient and space efficient public transit inevitably will reduce GHG emissions, encourage denser development (more walkable neighborhoods, smaller houses) that are mass transit accessible can drive a virtuous cycle where designing / rebuilding for environmental sustainability generates more demand for similar change elsewhere. We have everything we need to change the human terrain to reduce GHG emissions via conservation and have for years. It won’t be a fast process, but we already seeing it as cities like Washington DC see population increases and rebuild their trolley networks. I don’t think that the US has the public imagination for what it would look like.
Likewise, wind and solar power are part of the solution. They need to be developed in the right areas in the right quantity.
I don’t think there is a magic bullet, just many good small steps that will pay off cumulatively.
nick spinelli
Folks mocked W when he spoke about switchgrass a decade ago. Now it’s cool.
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That is what his mom used to switch him with. Now its cool.
I live on a boat. I have two deep cycle house batteries which run the sump pumps, lighting and other items. I use some AC power for kitchen appliances. I have a Chicago Tools solar panel that charges the house batteries. It charges the starter batteries and two other batteries. With the new lithium light bulbs and other low volt devices we will be able to not need AC at all. I could live without AC right now if I gave up my TV. Solar is the way. Electric cars are “a way”. Bhudhism is “The Way”.
Folks mocked W when he spoke about switchgrass a decade ago. Now it’s cool.
annie
Dredd the Brazilians have the right idea with the flex fuel cars. Don’t we have enough bio material to burn besides eatables? How about switch grass, kudzu vines, hemp. I hate the idea of corn being grown for fuel so some suburban socker mom can drive her kids to practice, wile here are children starving elsewhere. My daughter in CA says she know people with solar panels who get a credit from the power company instead of a bill!
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You are on the proper track.
One size does not fit all in the case of biofuels.
That is why I mentioned methanol, which can be made out of thin air by taking the CO2 out of it.
There is already a sizable methanol industry.
It will run in diesel engines (think 18 wheelers, buses, trains, ships) with only minor modifications.
It will run in power plants.
And on and on.
While.
Dredd the Brazilians have the right idea with the flex fuel cars. Don’t we have enough bio material to burn besides eatables? How about switch grass, kudzu vines, hemp. I hate the idea of corn being grown for fuel so some suburban socker mom can drive her kids to practice, wile here are children starving elsewhere. My daughter in CA says she know people with solar panels who get a credit from the power company instead of a bill!
The better flex-fuel, in terms of universal use, is the fuel used by Indy cars (Indianapolis Speedway) for decade upon decade until the Oil-Qaeda oilmen in the Bush II administration and Koch types had methanol (flex fuel) replaced with fossil fuels.
scarecrow3710,
… when they started mandating ethanol in gasoline I knew we had complete morons running things.
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One area where ethanol is quite proper and anything but stupid is Brazil:
(Wikipedia, “Flexible-fuel vehicles in Brazil”).
scarecrow3710,
Bio fuels are the stupidest thing to come along in the energy industry…think about the energy used to produce and transport the crops, much less process them then transport the byproducts…when they started mandating ethanol in gasoline I knew we had complete morons running things.
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Ethanol is not ipso facto inefficient, reality requires understanding the proper context:
(Wikipedia).
Once upon a time all vehicles were flex fuel, starting with the Model T and/or Model A by Henry Ford, and could use different fuels.
Bio fuels are the stupidest thing to come along in the energy industry…think about the energy used to produce and transport the crops, much less process them then transport the byproducts…when they started mandating ethanol in gasoline I knew we had complete morons running things.
The “artificial leaf” is an amazing breakthrough that merits our attention and development.
http://www.focusforwardfilms.com/contest/100/the-artificial-leaf-jared-p-scott-kelly-nyks
The key is the storage of the Hydrogen, and the technology for that has been developed though the government won’t allow it to be sold. If you want to build a particle accelerator in your back yard then you can make the storage material yourself because it is not illegal to make, just sell.
…go figure…