New studies say biofuels make greenhouse gases worse

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Two new studies are giving biofuels a big fat thumbs down when it comes to their impact on greenhouse gases. This article gives a nutshell description of what the studies have to say:

These studies, published in the prestigious journal Science, 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, globally, the production of almost all biofuels resulted — directly or indirectly, intentionally or not — in new lands being cleared 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 gases substantially," said Timothy Searchinger, lead author of one of the studies and a researcher in environment and economics at Princeton University.

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Comments

[PM]

Everybody should learn about electric cars as a solution. It’s amazing how far the technology has come. One of the main electric car companies, Zap, has delivered over 100,000 EV’s. (source: zapworld.com). EV’s cost 1 to 3 cents per mile to run, compare that to regular cars!

[PM]

Everybody should learn about electric cars as a solution. It’s amazing how far the technology has come. One of the main electric car companies, Zap, has delivered over 100,000 EV’s. (source: zapworld.com). EV’s cost 1 to 3 cents per mile to run, compare that to regular cars!

[Tommy]

The oil companies wrote that article. They say this video about how Algae is the next fuel and are getting nervous....Here is the link:

http://www.greenenergytv.com/Watch.aspx#1472348255

Tommy

[biofuel]

I don't buy it. I love to debate the premise and promises of biofuel. Like most things there are pros and cons but overall I'm for biofuel. Check out my forum if you want to discuss further!

[making biodiesel]

However, consider the very small niche in the biofuel economy which plans to use non- food raw materials to generate energy, even though that by itself can never solve our energy needs. False A lot of these videos are full of green goodness but let this criterion guide your voting and rate below. gr, remcowoudstra

[Barry Bernsten]

We can all learn something from what Al Gore had to say the past few weeks. Unless we become self reliant for our energy requirements, we will never again be an independent democratic nation.

We can start with a fundamental change in our driving habits that is now required.

The Automobile Industry is going to be in the same position as the Airline Industry in the next few months. Unless we get away from gas combustion vehicles, including Hybrids, the automobile industry (as we know it) will die.We need to make drastic moves. America needs to move to ELECTRIC. The vehicles are not as fast, not always as fun to drive, but the move will save Americans money (Billions) and help bring change to our automotive companies. Let's "Be Green"!!!!!!!!!!!! BG Automotive Group Ltd. has a car that will travel 80-100 miles per charge for $15,995. Finally a car that most Americans can afford. Did you know that 80% of all drivers, drive less than 50 miles per day? This new car will cost an equivalent of $0.20-0.25 cents/gallon (depending on electricity rates in your area). Why send $700 Billion per year to OPEC (now buying up U.S. companies) when we can use this money for our schools, health care, social security for all Americans, etc, etc, etc. We can make the difference if WE change.

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[Mike]

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[Rick L.]

It is pretty scary to learn that biofuels make greenhouse gases worse. We better watch out. Thanks a bunch, Rick L.

[Texas Electricity]

That is quite shocking. We really need to re-think bio-fuel and it's impact.

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[oilfield equipment]

i have never heard of this before. wow it makes the gases worse. this is hard for me to believe.

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this is definitely the future.

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[Single Father]

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[Richard]

Well, I also think that extracting biofuel from different sources of the environment may cause an instability in their respective ecosystems. I still think that solar, wind and hydro power are the ways to go green. Totally!