Biofuels Are Anything But Green

Oops! Oh well, it sounded like a good idea.

Two studies released yesterday have concluded that biofuels are not as effective at reducing greenhouse gases as was thought. In fact, not effective at all.

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, taken globally, the production of almost all biofuels resulted, directly or indirectly, intentionally or not, in new lands being cleared, either 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 gasses substantially,” said Timothy Searchinger, lead author of one of the studies and a researcher in environment and economics at Princeton University. “Previously there’s been an accounting error: land use change has been left out of prior analysis.”

What is really pathetic is that we had to wait on two studies to confirm this when it was quite obvious by thinking this through that biofuels are not the answer to our problem. And how in the hell could someone not foresee massive land use changes from attempts to grow enough fuel?

The clearance of grassland releases 93 times the amount of greenhouse gas that would be saved by the fuel made annually on that land, said Joseph Fargione, lead author of the second paper, and a scientist at the Nature Conservancy. “So for the next 93 years you’re making climate change worse, just at the time when we need to be bringing down carbon emissions.”

Needless to say, not everyone is in agreement. The Renewable Fuels Association and other industry groups are getting a tad pissy, calling the data "simplistic" and not putting the issue "into context." Of course they would.

Keep up the good work. At the very least we'll make no impact on greenhouse gases and destroy what's left of the Amazon rain forests. Admirable.

What is simplistic is our overall outdated approach to solving this problem on a global level and making the assumption that baby steps are going to buy us time.

Personally, I think the planet is already fucked and at the base of most of these attempts at solving the problem lies more greed, corruption, distortion of facts and profiteering, all cleverly cloaked in a package intended to mislead the public into believing our current wasteful standard of living will never require extremely uncomfortable adjustments.

What's Up With Selfish American Farming Interests?

This story touched me deeply this morning, and angered me. It was hard for me to leave for work without posting about it but I had an appointment and a job to do. And by the way, this has to get the Photo of the Week award.

The Bush administration, with odd-bedfellows support from liberal Democrats, has called for allowing the purchase of some food in poor countries to quicken responses to emergencies.

[...]

Families participating in an American-financed irrigation project from 2002 to 2006 were promised payment in corn for clearing the land and digging canals. The Kenyan government objected to the importation of American corn because the country was awash in a bumper harvest that had caused corn prices to plunge.

The result: American officials, prohibited by law from buying the corn locally, could not deliver it. As the impoverished families waited in vain for sustenance from the American heartland, malnutrition among the youngest children worsened and five people died of hunger-related causes.

Most farmers I've known were, or claimed to be, Christians. However, the opposition behind this are hardly Christlike.

Across Africa, the United States is more likely to give people a fish — caught in America — that feeds them for a day than to teach them to fish for themselves. Since last year, for example, the United States has donated $136 million worth of American food to feed the hungry in Kenya, but spent $36 million on agricultural projects to help Kenyan farmers grow and earn more.

And even that small budget for long-term projects in Kenya is expected to dwindle.

Pay close attention to all of the dollar figures quoted in this article, which I am emphasizing in bold and/or red.

The Senate Agriculture Committee chairman, Tom Harkin, Democrat of Iowa, where growers and landowners got $1.58 billion in corn subsidies in 2005, is advocating a $25 million pilot program to test buying food in poor countries for both emergency and long-term aid.

Even that modest proposal is meeting stiff resistance from farm state legislators. The House Agriculture Committee’s version of the farm bill includes no such pilot. The committee chairman, Collin C. Peterson, Democrat of Minnesota, said of his members,` “They’re still of the mode that this should be American products we’re using our tax dollars to provide them.”

Mr. Peterson’s district got $367 million in corn subsidies in 2005, according to government data analyzed by the Environmental Working Group, a nonprofit research organization.

It's really obnoxious to me that a wealthy nation such as America (apparently filled with selfish spoiled brats who put their own financial gain ahead of small compromises to aid those in dire need) can display such brazen disregard for the have-nots of the world.

It's sickening. How in the hell do we explain our broken promises, and do we even care?


Crossposted at B3

Petrol Price Check

QotD: How much is premium where you are? I don't give a damn about regular since I can't use it. Just a few weeks ago it was about $2.35 here in Austin. Then I noticed it going up several cents a day and suddenly it was $2.59. I tend to notice such things while sitting on the bus staring out the window. I think I may have filled up both cars around that time. Then it kept going... $2.65, $2.75... and now premium is up to about $2.93.

Summer is quite a ways off. Apparently we're going to be seeing $3.00+ long before Memorial Day and frankly, I don't give a shit. My apologies to those of you who must drive places, but I'm glad I'll continue to take the bus to work except on days when I can't for whatever reason. High gas prices will do wonders for the alternative energy brainstorming. Not to mention the fact that I absolutely love to call someone an asshole who is speeding down the road in a Hummer, only to slam on the breaks at the red light which they could clearly have seen for half a mile before they decided to break. Have fun filling that fucker up.

Some people are stupid. Do I need to create a new label for this post? It already overlaps several. Of course if I did add a new label, I'd have to go back and apply it to the post I did this morning. But I'm not lazy. OK, "fuel" it is.

Corn Prices Putting Tortillas Out of Reach for Many Poor Mexicans. Why?

This story isn't at all surprising and there will be far greater repercussions to come.

Facing public outrage over the soaring price of tortillas, President Felipe Calderón abandoned his free-trade principles on Thursday and forced producers to sign an agreement fixing prices for corn products.

Skyrocketing prices for corn on the world market have pushed up the price of the humble tortilla, the mainstay of the Mexican diet, by nearly a third in the past three weeks, to 35 cents a pound in Mexico City and even higher in other parts of the country.

Half of the country’s 107 million people live on $4 a day or less, and many of them survive largely on tortillas and beans. The price increases have riled the public to such an extent that it has created a political storm that threatens to swamp Mr. Calderón’s fresh presidency.

I would certainly shed no tears over a brief Calderón presidency but this issue is about a far greater threat.

There is a continuing debate here about what caused the price of tortillas to shoot up so quickly. Some economists blame the increased demand for corn from ethanol plants in the United States, and it is true corn prices in the States last week reached their highest point in a decade, the United States Agriculture Department said. At the same time, the cost of white corn has risen about 13 percent here over the past year, Mexican government figures show.

But Mexican lawmakers and other officials have suggested that giant tortilla companies and corn flour distributors — among them Grupo Maseca S.A. and Maíz Industrializado S.A., often known as Minsa — have taken advantage of the situation, hoarding supplies to drive prices up even more.

Both situations are probably true. Although more farmers are planting corn this year, the corn is destined for an ever-growing number ethanol plants under construction.

Inspired by soaring demand for corn to feed the growing ethanol industry, farmers across the United States are planting corn this year instead of soybeans, wheat and cotton.

Even the man who farms our land in Arkansas is planning to grow corn this year for the first time ever. He has traditionally only grown cotton, soybeans, and some rice.

Depending on the reduced levels of cotton, soybeans, and wheat farming, it will be quite interesting to see how this all plays out on the global stage as all eyes turn to corn and ethanol production to satisfy our desire and need for alternative fuels and to reduce our dependency on imported fuels.

I've never believed this particular solution was going to be economically viable, particularly when placed in the context of its impact elsewhere. We may soon realize the trade off is not pleasant.

Some farmers are contemplating planting continuous years of corn, but that can lead to pest problems and increased costs for fertilizer and seed, said Bruce Erickson, a Purdue University agricultural economist. And those fields tend to produce less each year. Most farmers rotate their crops to maintain nutrients in the soil and stop insects and weeds.

"Most scientific research shows a 10 percent drop in yield when you plant corn on corn," Erickson said. In Louisiana, the number of acres devoted to corn likely will double and could triple, said David Bollich, a grain marketing specialist with the Louisiana Farm Bureau.

"Everybody wants to get into corn this year, some who have never planted it before," he said.

[...]

Corn prices are so high, though, that it will cost chicken and pork producers more to feed their animals, and that could end up increasing prices at grocery stores.

Construction of ethanol plants is by no means limited to the United States. Fifteen are slated for construction in the Philippines in sugar-producing regions.

Pandora's Box has been opened and the beast is emerging. You have been warned. It will take years for the companies who are investing heavily in ethanol plants to recoup their investment, farmers are desperate for crops which fetch top dollar, and someone is going to pay in the end.

However, if one unintended side effect of all this is a sharp reduction in the livestock industry due to increased costs of feed or grazing land converted to farming more corn, that just might be beneficial if society can adjust to a less meat-based diet.

Last month, the United Nations published a report on livestock and the environment with a stunning conclusion: "The livestock sector emerges as one of the top two or three most significant contributors to the most serious environmental problems, at every scale from local to global." It turns out that raising animals for food is a primary cause of land degradation, air pollution, water shortage, water pollution, loss of biodiversity, and not least of all, global warming.

Hat tip to Litbrit for emailing me that link and this appropriate comment: "Food for thought; fuel for debate, though there really isn't much left to debate when it comes to what humans have done to the planet."

Another hard lesson looms right on the horizon.


Crossposted at B3