Biofuels face increased scrutiny - 09 Jul 08

World leaders may have set their sights on cutting greenhouse gas emissions at the G8 but their long-term plans come as the viability of a popular alternative to fossil fuels is coming under increasing scrutiny.

From Tokyo, Al Jazeera's Paul Allen reports on the doubts surrounding the future of biofuels.

Category:

News & Politics

Tags:

• biofuels
• environment
• climate
• greenhouse
• paul
• allen
• aljazeera

[raulitech]

biofuel is actually solar powered, though most dont realise. the sun helps grow plants, the plants take the carbon dioxide from burning any fuel that emit it, and your back to biofuel again. but i agree the biofuel industry is putting pressure on food supplies, to a small degree at least.

[EsotericDesi]

At least one nation's working on developing such technology. Unlike USA's car industry that bought off entire US Government and silenced all opposition to its fuel guzzling cars. I hope GMC and Ford shut down because of their greed. I feel no mercy toward both companies since they are responsible for suffering of America today when it comes to reliance on foreign oil by making the least efficient and the biggest cars, SUVs and Hummers with highest possible level of disregard for the future.

[AlchemistofFlame]

maaannnn, we don't use around 70% of our lands that are ready to produce (I mean, the ones with no forest and all the stuff hypocritical countries like to say...), and we throw away almost 50% of food we produce, there is no way to say that biofuel is going to spoil food production, if today the world face high prices about food it's due to the high prices of petrol, wich makes more expensive the transportation of aliments, and because of north american and european agricultural subsidies

[Rogerioapsandrade]

so much hipocrisy ! Brazil can produce both (food and biofuel) without harming the environment. The environmental problems in Brazil are related basically to cattle rising and wood illegal chopping and trade. It´s irritating to see these people from the Northern Nations who doesn´t know about Brazil trying to pretend they know something.

[Rogerioapsandrade]

It´s an absurd statement. Sugarcane crops raised for biofuel production are thousands of kilometers away from the Amazon. No biofuel is produced there. Biofuel is produced in the Central and SouthEast regions, far from the Nothern (Amazonic) region. Brazil produces biofuel without harming food production and the environment (as opposed to other countries who don´t have similar technology)

[sheepwshotguns]

runs on hydrogen? hmm... what about flammability? i would hope its not going to take out half a block if the car were in a collision...

[Gorillan08]

BLAH BLAH BLAH same ol BS. Hey did you know that you can get 40 barrels of HEMP OIL from an Acre of HEMP aka Marijuana, Cannabis Sativa. How is that for sustainable.

[mynewschannel]

Drive or Dine. That's really going to hurt MacDonald's drive thru's :))

[DarkerOfTheMind]

Very true, very true... it is just getting rid of the fed that is the problem.

[jotunobsidianeyes]

That's why we need to invest in cellulose ethanol and algae based biodiesel and ethanol. We'd get the biofuel and not have to give up food.

[Renegen1]

In Brazil the Amazone is being destroyed to grow biofuel, it's hypocrisy to say it helps CO2 levels. It's purely commercial.

[WorldTravelTV]

You don't need a breakthrough, solar, hydrogen, geothermal, electric, etc...already power small cities around the world. Take a look at the BMW Hydrogen 7, Tesla Motors.

What you need is people to demand it, you need someone to take a good look at it. Did anyone say: Lets wait for an "oil" breakthrough? No, people invested in it, and then more improvements came.