the cost of biofuels

[Guest guest]

Biofuels Costing the Earth?

 

SUFFOLK, U.K. — Increasing amounts of biofuels (substitutes for petrol or

diesel made from crops such as sugar cane, beet, maize, wheat, oilseed rape and

oil palm) are being produced to reduce the carbon dioxide impact of transport.

But the World Land Trust (WLT) argues this requires vast areas of land and is

not the best way of using land to mitigate climate change. The WLT would like us

all to consider the knock on effects of the increase in demand for Biofuels

which they feel are not currently being acknowledged. As we produce more and

more rape seed here in the UK to cope with demand, we leave the third world to

produce our fruit and cereals which in turn forces them to clear more endangered

habitat, significantly clocking up the UK's food miles. And let's not forget how

the elephants of India or orangutans of Borneo who suffer in our race to find a

so called 'green fuel'.

 

 

 

Renton Righelato of the World Land Trust and Dominick Spracklen of the

University of Leeds show that much more carbon dioxide emissions can be avoided

by protecting the remaining forest we have and restoring forest on arable land

that is not needed for food production (Science, 17th August 2007). They argue

that policy-makers would be better advised to focus on increasing the efficiency

of fossil fuel use and developing carbon-free transport fuels to replace fossil

hydrocarbons. Existing forests and savannahs should be conserved and natural

forest and grassland habitats restored. In addition to reducing net carbon

dioxide flux to the atmosphere, conversion of large areas of land back to

secondary forest provides other environmental services (such as prevention of

desertification, provision of forest products, maintenance of biological

diversity and regional climate regulation), whereas conversion of large areas of

land to make biofuels will place additional strains on the environment.

 

 

 

Sir David Attenborough strongly supports the work of the Trust and released a

statement saying " I welcome WLT's Carbon-balancing programme as a way of helping

put back what we are taking away. I would urge everyone to think deeply about

what is important in life and to consider the consequences of daily activities.

Balancing your carbon emissions with the WLT means that we are able to put even

more back in to our key objectives - acquiring land for conservation. "

 

 

 

The World Land Trust is a UK charity that protects and restores threatened

habitats around the world, working with local communities and through local NGO

partners. Its projects in Central and South America, India and the Philippines

protect forest habitats and endangered species, and at the same time conserve

existing carbon stocks and sequester carbon dioxide by restoring natural forest

on degraded land ().

 

 

 

Renton Righelato is the chair of the World Land Trust and Visiting Research

Fellow at the Environmental Systems science Centre of the University of Reading.

 

 

 

 

 

 

Dominick Spracklen is a Senior Research Fellow at the School of Earth and

Environment, University of Leeds and works with the World Land Trust on forest

carbon stocks.

 

 

 

Renton Righelaton or John Burton from the WLT is available for interview on this

subject and would be open to debating the points made in this press release.

 

 

 

Contact Info:

 

 

 

Emma Stuart

PA Media

Tel : 01279 844 099

 

 

 

What gets us into trouble is not what we don't know, it's what we know for sure

that just ain't so.

- Mark Twain