Biofuel destroying the amazon rainforests
 

http://www.newscientist.com/channel/...25265.400.html

THE drive for "green energy" in the developed world is having the perverse effect of encouraging the destruction of tropical rainforests. From the orang-utan reserves of Borneo to the Brazilian Amazon, virgin forest is being razed to grow palm oil and soybeans to fuel cars and power stations in Europe and North America. And surging prices are likely to accelerate the destruction

The rush to make energy from vegetable oils is being driven in part by European Union laws requiring conventional fuels to be blended with biofuels, and by subsidies equivalent to 20 pence a litre. Last week, the British government announced a target for biofuels to make up 5 per cent of transport fuels by 2010. The aim is to help meet Kyoto protocol targets for reducing greenhouse-gas emissions.

Rising demand for green energy has led to a surge in the international price of palm oil, with potentially damaging consequences. "The expansion of palm oil production is one of the leading causes of rainforest destruction in south-east Asia. It is one of the most environmentally damaging commodities on the planet," says Simon Counsell, director of the UK-based Rainforest Foundation. "Once again it appears we are trying to solve our environmental problems by dumping them in developing countries, where they have devastating effects on local people."

The main alternative to palm oil is soybean oil. But soya is the largest single cause of rainforest destruction in the Brazilian Amazon. Supporters of biofuels argue that they can be "carbon neutral" because the CO2 released from burning them is taken up again by the next crop. Interest is greatest for diesel engines, which can run unmodified on vegetable oil, and in Germany bio-diesel production has doubled since 2003. There are also plans for burning palm oil in power stations.

Until recently, Europe's small market in biofuels was dominated by home-grown rapeseed (canola) oil. But surging demand from the food market has raised the price of rapeseed oil too. This has led fuel manufacturers to opt for palm and soya oil instead. Palm oil prices jumped 10 per cent in September alone, and are predicted to rise 20 per cent next year, while global demand for biofuels is now rising at 25 per cent a year.

Roger Higman, of Friends of the Earth UK, which backs biofuels, says: "We need to ensure that the crops used to make the fuel have been grown in a sustainable way or we will have rainforests cleared for palm oil plantations to make bio-diesel."

Re: Biofuel destroying the amazon rainforests
 

I love the irony. But I'm not sure how much of that Brazilian production in soybeans is really driven by bio fuel consumption. They have really expanded soy exports to China and elsewhere in East Asia recently, so it might be tofu, not hippie gas, that is the culprit.

Re: Biofuel destroying the amazon rainforests
 

We will cut down all the forests. We will catch all the fish. We will deplete our fresh-water deposits. We will use up everthing we can get our hands on.

And they will keep on telling us that it's a good thing.

Re: Biofuel destroying the amazon rainforests
 

[ QUOTE ]
I love the irony. But I'm not sure how much of that Brazilian production in soybeans is really driven by bio fuel consumption. They have really expanded soy exports to China and elsewhere in East Asia recently, so it might be tofu, not hippie gas, that is the culprit.

[/ QUOTE ]

I'd say beef is a major culprit too. Someone was telling me (I haven;t checked this, so it may not be reliable) that it takes ten times more soy to feed a cow to get x amount of nutrition in the form of beef as it does to simply eat the soy as soy.

(Sorry, this is the least scientifically precise post ever, but hopefully you get the gist of what I'm saying).


Some links that support the idea that its soy as animal feed rather than soy as human food that's causing most of the problem - both link the boom to the BSE crisis and a search for alternative animal feeds:

"About 13 percent of the total worldwide soy harvest is either used directly as seed or processed by specific food industries which use the whole soybean (examples are tofu, soy sauce, and other meat and dairy substitutes). An estimated 87 percent is exported to the European Union in the form of soy cakes, used for cattle, poultry, or pig feed."
Soy

and

Rape of the rainforests

Re: Biofuel destroying the amazon rainforests
 

who cares

Re: Biofuel destroying the amazon rainforests
 

go away