It's not easy being green

[jhetley]

According to THE ECONOMIST, if you fill up your SUV with corn ethanol in order to save the planet, you've just used enough maize to feed a person for a year.

This is beside the question of whether corn ethanol from US Agribusiness Inc. provides a net energy gain.

Comments

[starcat-jewel.livejournal.com]

Another valid question: Where would that grain have gone if it hadn't been turned into ethanol? Would it have actually been used for human food at all, either directly or by being fed to animals that people eat? (Deer corn doesn't count IMO.)

If it's a choice between ethanol and HFCS, I'll take the ethanol, TYVM.

[sclerotic-rings.livejournal.com]

It doesn't. Not only does it not make sense to use food to produce fuel, unless you're feeding a horse, but the energy payout on ethanol versus gasoline ends any actual energy savings. Oh, there's the noise about ehtanol by cellulose fermentation, but it's like thermonuclear fusion reactors: nobody's been able to develop a cost-effective process that produces more energy than it takes in. Truth be told, you're better off riding a bike, unless you have a source for methane production that doesn't involve regular trips to Taco Bell.

[sclerotic-rings.livejournal.com]

And there you run right into the reason why everyone's pushing corn-based ethanol. Archer Daniels Midland can collect subsidies to grow maize for corn syrup and for ethanol, and who really gives a damn whether we have the infrastructure in place to ship and transport that ethanol, anyway?

[jhetley.livejournal.com]

According to the same ECONOMIST "leader" (December 8th 2007), "The 30m tonnes of extra maize going to ethanol this year amounts to half the fall in the world's overall grain stocks."

Farmers are switching to maize/corn from other crops.

Of course, the energy situation also provides other entertainment, such as folks in Maine burning feed corn directly for heat.

[jhetley.livejournal.com]

I've seen answers of "yes" and "no" and "maybe", depending on who is jiggering the equations to what end.

[otterdance.livejournal.com]

Not to mention the amount of water to grow the grain.

[pernishus.livejournal.com]

It does seem odd that the idea of reducing the population never seems to enter the picture... we've been caught up in a massive pyramid scheme for quite awhile, now, and I expect most of those reading this know how pyramid schemes end...

[jhetley.livejournal.com]

But people never seem to agree on what part of the population to reduce...

[pernishus.livejournal.com]

"I have a little list... they never will be missed..."

[jhetley.livejournal.com]

I'd think it would need to be a rather _long_ list in order to have much value to the purpose...

[(Anonymous)]

Birth control is one of the best answers for reducing environmental impact.

[david-chunn.livejournal.com]

Ethanol will never be the answer.

[jhetley.livejournal.com]

Works fairly well for Brazil, using sugar cane as a feedstock. Of course, we don't yet know the long-term economics of that.