Corn based ethanol is being promoted as a green solution to America’s dependence on foreign oil. However, it isn’t as green as you might think. Furthermore, it won’t provide so much fuel as we think.
Production of corn ethanol is very resource intensive and a net carbon emitter, creating more pollution than it prevents. Only sugarcane-based ethanol can reduce carbon emissions enough to offset their carbon production.
100% of U.S. grown corn and soybeans (mixed in with petroleum gas) will only meet 20%of our on-road fuel needs. So to meet global demand, corn and soy farmers in Brazil are expanding into pasturelands. Ranchers who are displaced from their pasturelands clear the Amazon rain forest or the Cerrado savanna for grazing.
One of the more common ways to clear forest is burning it, obviously releasing carbons. Because forests, marshes and grasslands help keep air clean by sequestering carbon emissions, destruction of these lands releases carbon even without burning.
750,000 acres of Brazilian rain forest were destroyed in the last 6 months of 2007. Not so green huh? For the full story, check out Michael Grunwald’s article in Time.
Kara, Warren, Virg, and Lori (absent from picture: Melissa)
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