| Replacing Native Ecosystems with Biofuels Exacerbates Climate Change |
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| Written by Erika Fredrickson | |
| Friday, 08 February 2008 | |
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A recent summary of a study published online (it will be published in Science later this month) from the University of Minnesota and the Nature Conservancy shows that the clearing of native ecosystems for biofuel crops is not helpful for mitigating climate change. In fact, when rainforests, peatlands, grasslands and savannas are replaced with ethanol or biodiesel crops, the massive amount of C02 released during the process completely outweighs the C02 reduction benefits that the fuel crops are supposed to provide. In this way, replacing natural ecosystems with fuel crops creates a kind of carbon debt that would take energy crops many years to pay off before they could start contributing to greenhouse gas reduction. Surprisingly, it was the clearing of peatlands -- not rainforests -- that caused the most carbon loss, according to the study -- specifically when the peatlands were converted into palm oil plantations, which is something being done in Indonesia. Clearing of peatlands would send so much C02 into the atmosphere that the “carbon debt” would take the replacement biofuel 423 years to repay. Soybean biodiesel production in the Amazon would take 319 years to pay off. Sounds like another case where we're leaving the problem to upcoming generations, right? Obviously the crux of the problem here is not the growing of biofuels themselves, but the loss of the ecosystems they replace. Already, over 5 billion hectares of the earth’s surface is used for agriculture and grazing – nearly 50% of all the productive land we have. Biofuels will only demand that we clear more. The good news (yes, there's a silver lining here) is that not all agricultural fuel crops are this ineffective for mitigation. Biofuels that can be grown on marginal land that isn't being used otherwise will, according to the study, be helpful in mitigation efforts. Farm land waste, woody biomass grown on degraded lands, and native prairie plants grown diversely seem to be the smartest biofuels for our carbon pocketbook.
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