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.

[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...

[david-chunn.livejournal.com]

Ethanol will never be the answer.