Unintended consequences - Biofuels and the environment
Well color me surprised. From
Yahoo News/AFP:
Biofuels may speed up, not slow global warming: study
The use of crop-based biofuels could speed up rather than slow down global warming by fueling the destruction of rainforests, scientists warned Saturday.
Once heralded as the answer to oil, biofuels have become increasingly controversial because of their impact on food prices and the amount of energy it takes to produce them.
They could also be responsible for pumping far more carbon dioxide into the atmosphere than they could possibly save as a replacement for fossil fuels, according to a study released Saturday.
"If we run our cars on biofuels produced in the tropics, chances will be good that we are effectively burning rainforests in our gas tanks," warned Holly Gibbs, of Stanford's Woods Institute for the Environment.
Well duuuhhh...
If I was king:
- Nuclear power for electricity.
- A $500M investment to these people: EMC2
- Nuclear powered conversion of coal into liquid fuels (Fischer-Tropsch)
That would take about ten years to fully implement, would kill our dependence on foreign oil, would provide clean electrical power for the next five hundred years or so (we have lots of Uranium and Thorium). If the Polywell Fusion pans out, Energy will no longer be an issue. The US Navy is funding them but not to the levels that they need to move forward.
Posted by DaveH at February 19, 2009 4:07 PM