| March 22, 2007 |
| Nearly 40,000 hectares of forest vanish every day, driven by the world's growing hunger for timber, pulp and paper, and ironically, new biofuels and carbon credits designed to protect the environment. The irony here is that the growing eagerness to slow climate change by using biofuels and planting millions of trees for carbon credits has resulted in new major causes of deforestation, say activists. And that is making climate change worse because deforestation puts far more greenhouse gases into the atmosphere than the entire world's fleet of cars, trucks, planes, trains and ships combined. |
The FAO's State of the World's Forests 2007 released last week reports that globally, net forest loss is 20,000 hectares per day -- equivalent to an area twice the size of Paris. However, that number includes plantation forests, which masks the actual extent of tropical deforestation, about 40,000 hectares (ha) per day, says Matti Palo, a forest economics expert who is affiliated with the Tropical Agricultural Research and Higher Education Center (CATIE) in Costa Rica.
Ethanol is other major biofuel, which is made from maize, sugar cane or other crops. As prices for biofuels climb, more land is cleared to grow the crops. U.S. farmers are switching from soy to maize to meet the ethanol demand. That is having a knock on effect of pushing up soy prices, which is driving the conversion of the Amazon rainforest into soy, she says.
Oil from African palm trees is considered to be one of the best and cheapest sources of biodiesel and energy companies are investing billions into acquiring or developing oil-palm plantations in developing countries. Vast tracts of forest in Indonesia, Malaysia, Thailand and many other countries have been cleared to grow oil palms.
Oil palm has become the world's number one fruit crop, well ahead of bananas.
Biodiesel offers many environmental benefits over diesel from petroleum, including reductions in air pollutants, but the enormous global thirst means millions more hectares could be converted into monocultures of oil palm.
Oil palm has become the world's number one fruit crop, well ahead of bananas.
Biodiesel offers many environmental benefits over diesel from petroleum, including reductions in air pollutants, but the enormous global thirst means millions more hectares could be converted into monocultures of oil palm.
MASSIVE DIVERSION OF U.S. GRAIN TO FUEL CARS IS RAISING WORLD FOOD PRICES
Lester R. Brown
If you think you are spending more each week at the supermarket, you may be right. The escalating share of the U.S. grain harvest going to ethanol distilleries is driving up food prices worldwide.
Corn prices have doubled over the last year, wheat futures are trading at their highest level in 10 years, and rice prices are rising too. In addition, soybean futures have risen by half. A Bloomberg analysis notes that the soaring use of corn as the feedstock for fuel ethanol "is creating unintended consequences throughout the global food chain."
Source: http://www.earth-
Running out of juice
If we attempt to put much weight behind ethanol, we'll find ourselves using
limited farmland for producing liquid fuels for the transportation sector
rather than for the agricultural sector ["Exchange of ideas aim of trade
mission to Brazil," Business & Technology, May 18].
As a human being, not a machine, I believe that it's wiser to side with the
agricultural sector here. People need to understand that we cannot grow
anything without viable soil. Brazil is promoted as the ethanol model. A
recent (2004) report from the Food and Agriculture Organization of the United
Nations has this to say about the health of Brazil's soil:
"In general terms, the fertilizer nutrient balance in Brazilian agriculture
is unsatisfactory. The removal of nutrients by the 16 main crops (of which
sugar cane is one) is higher than the quantities applied in the form of
mineral fertilizers. The deficit is much greater in the case of nitrogen than
in those of phosphorus and potassium. Thus the soil is being seriously
depleted of nutrients and this represents a serious threat to long-term
agricultural sustainability.
Note: Nitrogen production is heavily dependent on natural gas. Brazil has
increased its ethanol production at the expense of its soils. This should
raise a big warning flag for all consumers of food.
— Mark Nagel, Everett
Source: http://seattletimes
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