Basically the study concluded that because an increased demand for ethanol would cause land use changes - destroying forests and grasslands to grow corn or other ethanol croops - ethanol and other biofuels actually add to global warming.
The study said that after taking into account expected worldwide land-use changes, corn-based ethanol, instead of reducing greenhouse gases by 20 percent, will increases it by 93 percent compared to using gasoline over a 30-year period. Biofuels from switchgrass, if they replace croplands and other carbon-absorbing lands, would result in 50 percent more greenhouse gas emissions, the researchers concluded.
Not all ethanol would be affected by the land-use changes, the study said.
%26quot;We should be focusing on our use of biofuels from waste products%26quot; such as garbage, which would not result in changes in agricultural land use, Searchinger said.
What do you think?
Additional Details
6 months ago
jeff m - try reading the whole question next time. [1] http://tinyurl.com/2qnj4y[2] http://tinyurl.com/3y7jjq
Brazil Begins Requiring 2 Percent Biodiesel in All Diesel Fuel
http://www.soyatech.com/news_story.php?i...
December 28, 2007 -- RIO DE JANEIRO, Brazil -- Brazil said Friday that starting Jan. 1 it will require all diesel oil to contain 2 percent biodiesel in an effort to grow the market for the renewable, clean burning fuel. (/question670.htm if you%26#039;re having a problem and are interested.)
%26lt;%26lt;a gallon (about 4 liters) of gasoline contains about 31,000,000 calories. You could drive a car 22 miles (35 km) on the calories in 217 Big Macs.%26gt;%26gt;
WRONG, food%26#039;s in Kcals, so i%26#039;s 31,000 calories, or 54 big macs per gallon. However, consider, Big Macs are probably the most calorie rich food in common consumption. For the same calculation in corn, look down at the end.
3. the US is, compared to much of the world, still relatively sparsely populated. everyone else will have a much more difficult time producing both food and ethanol.
AND, we didn%26#039;t even begin to get into deforestation yet.
i think it%26#039;s high time we started looking for something more reasonable. the place to start is probably increasing fuel efficiency requirements. that at least provides us more time to think.
as for garbage, i think in 1 week, i produce enough to power my car about 2 to 5 miles. (that%26#039;s 5 - 10 big macs.) that%26#039;s not going to help. in addition, we already separate our garbage, and it gets composted (i think). presumably that contributes to plant growth / food production.
i think that there are relatively few of us who comprehend the actual amount of energy that we get / use from fossil fuels. (remember, 1 gallon = 54 big macs -- and my tank holds 18 gallons or nearly 1,000 Big Macs.) replacing all that energy is a Herculean task. bio-diesel and ethanol just are not going to make it.
OH, I KNOW, I KNOW, we need to measure gasoline in BIG MAC EQUIVALENTS. %26quot;Hey, i just got 800 Big Macs of gasoline.%26quot; go ahead, laugh. that would do more for energy education than a year of high school physics.
Edit: wouldn%26#039;t it be nice, if, when you got a thumbs down, you%26#039;d know who it was, and why they did it.
Oops, seems i made a bob boo. but i%26#039;ve fixed it now. however, while doing more work, look what i found.
interesting. cars and people are equally efficient.
http://www.rwjuhr.com/new/article_fitnes... (/article_fitness_center_1.html )
keep in mind, a car weighs 10-20 times as much as a man, so
%26quot;Diesel fuel and cooking oil have roughly the same amount of calories per gallon. While a Mercedes Benz diesel engine strains to get 35 miles per gallon from soybean oil, a 150-pound human should be able to walk about 350 miles, or 10 times as far, on a gallon of soybean oil.%26quot;
that%26#039;s good news. if we make cars light enough, it%26#039;ll be cheaper, energy wise, to drive, compared to walking.
orange you glad you asked? :-)
Edit again: alternatively, we could measure gasoline in ears of corn. %26quot; 1 medium ear (90g) Calories 80%26quot;
http://whatscookingamerica.net/corn.htm %26lt;== nice page.
that%26#039;d be 387 ears of corn per gallon, or 5800 ears for 15 gallons of gas.
(yeah, yeah, i know they use the rest of the plant when making gas.)
Not to be a downer but...always before the world seems to rid itself somehow when the human population is excessive so I among those who think we%26#039;re definitely due-our demand has exhausted the supply we use.
cutting down a forest is not cool IMO but then again something like 80% of our O2 come from the ocean... not from the trees%26#039;
we should look into other fuels yes... but Ethanol is not the answer
perhaps methane or hydrogen or propane.....
granted they dont make nearly as much power and im not sure the affect of running dry fuels in the engines themselfs (yes GAS does lubracate your engine)
perhaps the answer isn%26#039;t in the fuel but rather a differant engine...
But it is also raising food costs in direct and indirect ways.
And I could see how it would start to change land use... Another problem as deforestation is already a big problem now.
I would be amazing if they could produce something using regular old grass clippings, like lawn grass. Its everywhere. Im not sure what the sugar content is, which is needed for ethanol. maybe they could selectively breed a high sugar grass... haha. That would take years though.
keep in mind that methane is 21 times worse than co2 as a greenhouse gas so whatever methane is produced from fermentation will have to be captured %26amp; used as fuel or sequestered or it will have to be figured into the equation as a minus when compared to fossil fuels as far as your pet subject AGW is concerned.
corn alcohol is a scam pushed by short sighted politicians who cant see beyond the next donation from the producers %26amp; distillation companys that have sprung up to get the subsidys.
meanwhile Iran is using our oil money to buy new state of the art p2 centrifuges to make nuclear fuel faster %26amp; in larger quantitys. this can be used as weapons as well as power generation and they just tested a suborbital rocket that can reach anywhere on earth.
I think we%26#039;re just 1 international incident away from gas rationing in the U.S. so we better get serious about energy independence %26amp; quit playing politics as usual unless we want a big unexpected %26amp; unpleasant change in our lifestyle in the near future. the U.S. has 800 million acres of POTENTIAL farm land, it would take 2 billion acres of CORN to supply our current fuel use.