07 July 2006

Biofuels and the Environmental Commons

Biofuels are much in the news lately. Generally, they are presented as a clever way of getting round oil-dependence, with the added bonus of being environmentally sound: after all, what could be greener than plants?

But step back to look at the bigger picture, and you see that biofuels are no solution; worse, they would actually be disastrous to the environmental commons:

The United States annually consumes more fossil and nuclear energy than all the energy produced in a year by the country's plant life, including forests and that used for food and fiber, according to figures from the U.S. Department of Energy and David Pimentel, a Cornell University researcher.

...

Corn and soybean production as practiced in the Midwest is ecologically unsustainable. Its effects include massive topsoil erosion, pollution of surface and groundwater with pesticides, and fertilizer runoff that travels down the Mississippi River to deplete oxygen and life from a New Jersey-size portion of the Gulf of Mexico.
at

3 comments:

  1. Anonymous8:54 am

    GAIA says that bio fuels woud take too much area of the world and would have an effect on natural cycle of carbon.

    ReplyDelete
  2. Anonymous12:35 pm

    I agree. Part of the problem is that many rural communities in the Western U.S. see ethanol and soy-based biodiesel as an economic development bonanza. In Minnesota, where many western communities are suffering from declining populations, ethanol refineries are seen as something that could "stem the tide" of people leaving communities while giving existing farmers an alternative market for output. All of this and it comes with the added "ethical benefit" of being "green."

    I am concerned about the issue of water. Ethanol operations only add to the strain on existing water supplies. While it's perhaps not such a big issue in Minnesota (yet), places that rely on the Ogalala aquifer such as Nebraska or Kansas are endangering a common water supply that was already in danger of overuse due to simple large-scale farming. Of course, there are soil salination issues as well. Another "tragedy of the commons" in the offing I fear....

    ReplyDelete
  3. Glyn Moody1:29 pm

    Thanks for your comment which adds some valuable local detail to the general argument. And yes, you're right, water is another problem with this apparent "solution".

    And I thought we'd got beyond that old tragedy of the commons....

    ReplyDelete