Green Tech Girl

Biofuels are a “crime against humanity,” according to one United Nations adviser who was quoted in a BBC article on biofuels and poverty. It seems that biofuels are raising food prices so much that upwards of 30 million people have been “dragged into poverty.” While I’m not a huge fan of biofuels, I do feel that some of the non-food based ones are going to be important to our future.

A total world economic collapse due to a lack of fuel is certainly not going to help ease poverty in the long run. So I hope that people can try to take a more measured view of things, rather than making blanket statements likening biofuels to a holocaust. Food prices will also go up if food can’t be transported cheaply. And that’s a direction correlation to our dimishing fuel supplies.  We cannot just stop making biofuels and rely on oil - that’s a recipe for total disaster. We’re going to experience pain either way, but I think the pain will be worse if we have no fuel whatsoever.

Poor biofuel. It’s just not getting any good press lately. Biofuel is now up to $6/gallon and it’s getting blamed for rising food prices.

Who woulda thought: Grease is now such a hot commodity as biofuel that it is being stolen…

Grease bandits strike as biofuel demand rises

I was never a huge believer in biofuels - why burn corn for fuel when we have people dying of hunger on this planet? There are plenty of other ways to power cars without resorting to burning crops. Now the UN is weighing in. Not only could biofuels create food shortages, but they may also contribute to global warming. An excerpt from the AP report:

But in recent months, scientists, private agencies and even the British government have said biofuels could do more harm than good. Rather than protecting the environment, they say energy crops destroy natural forests that actually store carbon and thus are a key tool in the fight to reduce global warming.