Climate of Our Future

Climate Crisis Coalition

The Environmental Toll and the Promise of Biofuels
By Joel K. Bourne, Jr., The National Geographic Magazine, October, 2007 issue
“Producing fuel from corn and other crops could be good for the planet — if only the process didn’t take a significant environmental toll. New breakthroughs could make a difference… Some studies of the energy balance of corn ethanol — the amount of fossil energy needed to make ethanol versus the energy it produces –suggest that ethanol is a loser’s game, requiring more carbon-emitting fossil fuel than it displaces. Others give it a slight advantage. But however the accounting is done, corn ethanol is no greenhouse panacea. ‘Biofuels are a total waste and misleading us from getting at what we really need to do: conservation,’ says Cornell University’s David Pimentel, who is one of ethanol’s harshest critics… While corn ethanol’s energy ratio hovers around breakeven, [Brazilian sugar cane refiners claim to] get eight units of ethanol for every one unit of fossil fuel… [However] the expansion of Brazil’s cane acreage — set to nearly double over the next decade — [raises serious concerns about undermining local agriculture, burning forests and exploiting cane workers]… There is no magic-bullet fuel crop that can solve our energy woes without harming the environment, says virtually every scientist studying the issue. But most say that algae–single-celled pond scum–comes closer than any other plant because it grows in wastewater, even seawater, requiring little more than sunlight and carbon dioxide to flourish…. GreenFuel Technologies, of Cambridge, Massachusetts, is at the head of the pack. Founded by MIT chemist Isaac Berzin, the company has developed a process that uses algae in plastic bags to siphon carbon dioxide from the smoke-stack emissions of power plants. Algae not only reduce a plant’s global warming gases, but also devour other pollutants.” Biofuels Compared. National Geographic. Short audio presentations on the promise and problems of corn and cane ethanol, biodiesel, cellulose, and algae.