Andrew Calhoun, Jr. / 2-8-08 / 4:05PM / Current Event #4 / Pollution
The New York Times recently released an article that gives evidence on how the production on biofuels can have a significantly large impact on the world's issues with Greenhouse gases. The two studies that were used take into account multiple factors that has been previously excluded from other tests to determine whether the increased research and development of biofuels was a noble cause to pursue. Some of those factors include the emissions effect resulting from extracting these biofuels and the "huge amount of natural land that is being converted to cropland globally to support biofuels development."
One of the researchers named Joseph Fargione revealed that if individuals were to go ahead and actually try to produce more biofuels by clearing out grasslands to make room for croplands to develop these biofuels, clearing those grasslands would release up to 93 times the amount of greenhouse gas that would have been saved by the fuel made annually on that land. Efforts have been made to alert the proper governmental authorities about this issue and institutions like the European Union have considered placing certain restrictions on where they get their biofuels from. However the research has shown if the US and Europe still proceed to purchase these biofuels, it will lead indirectly to the destruction of other natural habitats in other worldwide locations-which poses a greater international issue.
I think this article almost makes efforts and solutions to reduce greenhouse gas emission and global warming seem pointless. It seems like no matter what direction or steps are taken, preventing the problems and issues appears impossible. Another thing I don't like about this article (or study) is how it offers little solution to combating this issue. The only thing the researchers offer to give as a solution is the use of sugar as another biofuel source because of the low energy needed to convert the sugar into a fuel.
http://www.nytimes.com/2008/02/08/science/earth/08wbiofuels.html?pagewanted=2&_r=1&sq=environmental%20pollution&st=nyt&scp=2
1 comment:
I'm torn by this article. It's like experts who claim that more damage is done in the recycling process than good. I mean I can see how theoretically biofuels could contribute to greenhouse gases rather than actually help, but I really don't want to believe it and am prone to see this as more propaganda by the fossil fuel industry and its supporters.
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