Quote:
Originally Posted by Mark_bc
Biodiesel critics (see link to biofuelswatch.uk below) argue that the carbon-nuetral arguement ingnores the fact that land was cleared of original native carbon sucking plants to produce agrobusiness carbon sucking plants producing a zero net benefit. In some places, massive clearcutting is taking place to clear land for biofuel plants. The result is actually a negetive benefit when we include smoke produced by forest fires used to clear the land.
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This assumes that the land which is now cleared was cleared forthe sole purpose of producing bio-fuel and it would not have been clearcut for other reasons. I don't like it when land is clearcut, but if a person owns the land and intends to use it for a profitable enterprise they will use the land. My only hope is that they would use the land in as environmentally frendly nature as is possible. You also have to take into account the fact that some bio-fuel is made from reclaimed waste oil, and that is a net gain due to the fact that if it was not used for fuel it would probably be disposed of in a non-friendly way.
I am all for bio-fuels, but we must find more environmentally friendly ways to produce them. I think the oil producing algae is the way to go. Convert wasted desert to algae farms and get a win-win, CO2 absorption and energy production without fertile land loss.