Studies Say Biofuels Worse Than Gasoline | Wired Science from Wired.com
When all relevant factors are accounted for, biofuels produce more greenhouse gas emissions than fossil fuels.
So conclude two studies published yesterday in Science, adding to a growing body of research suggesting that crop-based fuels, once hailed as a clean answer to oil, are not a magic green bullet.
Enjoy that biodiesel...
The growth of crop-based fuels will raise food crop prices by up to 50 percent within a decade, reports the Organisation for Economic Development.
Continuing droughts, growing populations and declining subsidies will also play a part. But driving the price hike is the replacement of crops destined for dinner tables by crops headed for fuel refineries. And the urban poor -- i.e., the soon-to-be plurality of the world's population -- will be hit hardest.
Via Wired
Bad news for fans of biodiesel - that old beater Benz with the tank full of fry grease is going to be burning palm oil grown where there was once rain forest:
Almost all the remaining forest is at risk. Even the famous Tanjung Puting National Park in Kalimantan is being ripped apart by oil planters. The orang-utan is likely to become extinct in the wild. Sumatran rhinos, tigers, gibbons, tapirs, proboscis monkeys and thousands of other species could go the same way. Thousands of indigenous people have been evicted from their lands, and some 500 Indonesians have been tortured when they tried to resist(9). The forest fires which every so often smother the region in smog are mostly started by the palm growers. The entire region is being turned into a gigantic vegetable oil field.
