Biodiesel Palm Oil - How good intentions had disasterous consequences

In an attempt to reduce carbon dioxide emissions, governments around the world subsidised biofuels. Unfortunately, this had unintended tragic consequences for the world's rainforests. Companies in Brazil and Indonesia cut down large swaths of rainforest to make room for oil palm plantations, to fuel the growing world demand for biofuel.

http://www.nytimes.com/2007/01/31/business/worldbusiness/31biofuel.html?pagewanted=all
http://www.flickr.com/photos/greenpeace_esperanza/2946759304/in/photostream/

Hopefully the environmentalists can learn a lesson from this. Be careful what type of policies you support. What might seem to be good for the environment could actually be very bad. We saw the same thing with the corn ethanol production in the USA. Growing corn to make fuel just was not worth it, it took almost as much conventional fuel to grow and process the corn as the ethanol that resulted. In particular, I think environmentalists should more carefully consider the full consequences of replacing normal light bulbs with CFL's.

 

Wow! Here is a "dog bites man" article. Humans made a mistake. I am sure it will not be the last mistake made my humans. How about being honest and listing all policies the environmentalists have supported instead of just failed polices. (BTW, that is called "cherry-picking"). I will bet if you consider all the environmentalists' policies, they did more good than harm.

 

Yes AH, politics and the over-zealousness of administrators can turn reasonable science into a political nightmare. That is what happened with the corn-ethanol thing.

Another that many do not know about was the EPA's ban of DDT on thin and in many cases manufactured science and it was done by a single man at the EPA (who read Silent Spring - work of fiction)with no oversight whatsoever. It has since been shown that many MILLIONS died from malaria in undeveloped nations needlessly. Third would nations are now returning to DDT as they are desperate to save their suffering people.

Read about how it all happened....the concocted studies, the exclusion of contrary evidence, it is all so much like the AGW push of today.

 

Here is some similar idiocy: http://www.foxnews.com/politics/2012/06/21/regulation-requires-oil-refiners-use-millions-gallons-fuel-that-is-nonexistent/

 

On the other hand, malaria has been a natural counterbalance against out of control population growth in Africa for tens of thousands of years. You would think this is exactly the type of policy the UN would support, with its "Agenda 21" and such.

 

cold, but logical.....

 

No, it hasn't. Nutty ideological cranks try to push that big lie, but no reasonable person believes them. This is just another of the endless list of BS conservative urban legends that you parrot.

Here's the first hint. DDT was never banned for malaria control. If it was never banned, how could a DDT ban have killed millions?

Instead of wingnut liars, read some actual history. DDT was abandoned for large-scale mosquito control because it no longer worked. Mosquitos had become resistant to it, so further mass spraying was pointless. The worldwide mass usage of DDT in the 1960s was nearly a complete failure. It only eradicated malaria in Jamaica and Taiwan, two isolated islands.

Back in the real world, public health systems are what eradicates malaria. You know, that thing conservatives despise. In the USA, malaria was eradicated before DDT was invented, all done by "socialist" government programs. And if conservatives have their way, malaria will come back to the USA. After all, who's going to pay to isolate malaria cases (so the infected humans can't infect the mosquitoes who would infect new humans), with force if necessary?

 

Anyone that did the math knew that corn for ethanol production was not a good move.

However sugar cane and sorghum could help.

But in reality we need to come up with something better. there just isn't enough land to produce the amount of energy the world needs.

Geothermal to generate electricity and natural gas would be a step in the right direction.

And instead of "slash and burn" we need to come up with a different method of agriculture.

 

DDT is a poison that creeps into the food chain and is concentrated in preditors.

Humans are preditors.

 

Would the Brazilians like to sell us some nice rosewood logs?

 

Biodiesel made from microalgae...

Chilean Scientists Produce Biodiesel From Microalgae
June 30, 2017 — Biodiesel made from microalgae could power buses and trucks and reduce greenhouse gas emissions by as much as 80 percent, Chilean scientists said, possibly curbing pollution in contaminated cities like Santiago.

See also:

Scientists: Clean Fuel From 'Bionic Leaf' Could Ease Pressure on Farmland
June 02, 2016 — A new clean technology to turn sunlight into liquid fuel could drastically shrink the need for large plantations to grow crops for biofuels, while combating climate change, Harvard University researchers said on Thursday.