Choose the right biofuel or the orang-utan gets it

http://www.greenpeace.org.uk/biofuels : While biofuels could make a small contribution in the battle against climate change, it could in fact do more harm than good. If rainforests are cut down to make way to grow 'green fuels', it will not only destroy homes for animals like the orang-utans, this will also be catastrophic for the climate releasing more greenhouse gases from destroying forests than will be saved by using biofuels.

Category:

Pets & Animals

Tags:

• biofuels
• forests
• orangutan
• climate
• change
• greenepace
• environment

[GreenpeaceUK]

not even waste biomass, like old cooking oil? but then there's not enough to support our insatiable appetite for fuel, which is why we say biofuels are a part of an energy solution, but only a small one. once they become industrially-produced, then they become a problem.

[cnove138]

What pisses me off about all of this is that algae is thousands of times more efficient then corn to make biofuel out of and 20-30 times more efficient then palm (not mention its not a food and can be grown anywhere). Yet the bush administration caved to pressure from farmer associations to make corn the crop of choice. Stupid stupid stupid...

[Theshield33]

if i just posted ten or twenty comments, i do apologize...they dont seem to be getting posted so I've tried repeatedly. apologies if this is the case.

[beastinblack]

hey cutting down a rainforest to grow bio fuel is prevents global warming...according to dumbass bureaucrats

[communitywork]

Jean Ziegler, United Nations Special Rapporteur on the Right to Food, who has called on governments to temporarily stop the drive for biofuel production. The sociology professor at the University of Geneva and the University of Sorbonne branded the production of biofuels a "crime against humanity" at a time when land, produce and investments are being diverted from food production despite widespread hunger in some parts of the world.

[communitywork]

The Organization for Economic Cooperation and Development (OECD) released a scathing report Sept. 11 calling for a dramatic drawdown in the subsidies and preferential trade laws granted to biofuel producers in OECD countries. In Europe, Friends of the Earth hailed the report, saying it has focused attention on the negative issues surrounding biofuels, while libertarian groups applauded its call for a reduction in subsidies.

[greyflcn]

==like old cooking oil but only a small one.==

Yeah, by small you mean "Much less than 1%"

For the US it would only meet about 0.7% of current demand.

gristmill. grist. org/ story/2007/8/9/161921/0550

Thats a rather faustian bargain to trade a less than 1% solution (Which is only a tiny percent of total emissions), for increasing deforestation, which is over 20% of the global problem.

More than all of China's emissions combined.

[nrnst]

the ecology system is struggling... human is doing the damage. i'm not so sure how far the 'heart of borneo declaration' meant to protect one of the last pieces of nature will succeed... will this suggest they can do anything outside the protected area? curious.

[utkonos313]

I think people are more important than orang-utans. The alternative to new palm oil plantations for bio-fuel is bio-fuel from food crops currently being eaten by humans. Enough of your heartless neo-colonialism!

[Ecoleena]

i agree...

Next time :)