What is the sense in deforesting to clear land to grow biofuel crops?

Question

I'm just not getting the logic... please can the supporters of the CO2 agenda explain to me the logic of this action? Thank you.

Some people don't seem to get the point of my Q - but I'm not going to explain it - the fact you don't get the point explains why our planet & agendas are so fu*ked up. It's totally not about fossil fuels!

Answer 1

I don't see it either... surely by supporting this the supporters of the CO2 agenda are contradicting themselves. Besides isn't the preservation of species more important than the satisfaction of politicians? It's all soooo f*cked up!

Answer 2

You are correct that deforestation for the purpose of growing biofuel crops is counterproductive. We'd be better off if the forests were left in place and places like Brazil simply used fossil fuels instead, in terms of greenhouse gas emissions. Deforestation accounts for the most anthropogenic greenhouse gas emissions worldwide at over 18%, nearly twice as much as cars or powering homes, which account for the second-most at 9.9% of our greenhouse gas emissions each.

http://cait.wri.org/figures.php?page=World-FlowChart&view=100

Biofuels should not account for a large percentage of our fuels for this and other reasons. Another is that more biofuels means less agricultural land to grow food crops. It also means that food prices will increase, which adversely effects the poor in particular.

Biofuels are not a good solution on a large scale.

Answer 3

Absolutely right. Cuba and Venezuela have been the first two countries to point out the potential dangers of this, and since then, many other countries have joined in their opposition. There is no doubt the oil is running out, and something has to be done, but biofuels are not the answer. Smaller, lighter, more energy efficient vehicles, combined with heavily subsidised public transport may help in the short term. Here in Europe, more people are cycling to work too, or taking canoes in the case of northern England at the moment!

Answer 4

This is not a Co2 agenda. Oil will run out and given our political position with Russia we may lose it faster than you think. If you want cars to run and to fly on holiday and all the other great things we do now without the consideration of the planet, we need a liquid fuel to do it with. There's your logic. I'm not a believer in this global warming phenomena but without a sustainable fuel we won't be able to feed the world. since it takes a lot of energy to create ammonium salts which is very important to the fertillizer industry.

Answer 5

They need to be encouraged to keep as many trees as possible. The deforestation of the rain forest is a lie. The poor work hard for a plot of 40 acres and it is last 5 years. By then they will loose most of the top soil and when man leaves it may take 2 years before the jungle takes it back. They get so much rain that all plants are in control.

Answer 6

The difference is that the bio fuel uses CO2 from the natural CO2 cycle*. Oil uses CO2 that has been removed from long-term storages and re-introduce them. This is what offsets the natural balance. It's never nice to see deforestation though. And I agree that proper use of the various aspects of carbon reduction, especially subsidized carbon reduction.

*More properly, affecting the global carbon cycle by removing CO2 from long-term sinks and introducing them in to the atmosphere. These long-term storages are a part of the CO2 cycle but the CO2 in them are kept out of active circulation for millions of years.
The bio fuel does not alter this natural cycle as they have an ongoing exchange with the atmosphere.

Answer 7

Deforestation
The exact rate at which rainforests are presently being destroyed is not known, as there have been no global assessments since 1990. At that time, an area of about 150.000 sq. Km of tropical rainforest, equivalent to the size of Great and Wales, was being destroyed every year. A similar area of forest was also being damaged or degraded. On average, the rate of destruction has increased during the last few years because of very extensive deliberate destruction of forests in Brazil and Indonesia.

The earth's forests are under pressure. Tropical forests are fast disappearing due mainly to logging, mining, hydropower and the hunger for land. Temperate and northern old-growth forests are being destroyed by the timber and paper industries. Not only is the livelihood of native peoples of the forest being undermined, every year thousands of plant and animal species disappear forever.

The Atlantic Forest in Brazil is a unique rainforest that once covered more than a million square kilometers, extending from Recife southward through Rio de Janeiro to Florianópolis and westward into Paraguay. Today, the forest is reduced to less than 5 percent of its original size, and is located mostly in steep mountainous regions.

Deforestation of the Atlantic Forest comes from coastal development, as well as uncontrolled logging and agriculture and charcoal production.

Some areas of rainforest are rich in precious metals such as gold and silver. Large deposits of aluminum, iron ore, copper and zinc are also found. Infrastructure development and the influx of miners into any area of pristine rainforest inevitably results in deforestation. Mercury (used in gold mining) contamination is common.

Governments and corporations tend to blame rainforest destruction on the actions of subsistence farmers and settlers. However, in countries such as Brazil , government schemes have deliberately encouraged the colonization of rainforests, and throughout the tropics small-scale farmers have been forced off their own lands and into poorer forest areas by large agricultural companies.

Many things that we buy contribute to rainforest loss. Tropical hard woods such as mahogany, sapele or meranti are obvious examples. Tropical fruit plantations are often located in areas that were once tropical rainforests. Some companies are still involved in large industrial projects which help destroy rainforest.

Answer 8

exactly
there is no sense to it
and to grow food to make fuel is even sillier

only transient Aliens could have aproved these plans.

http://answers.yahoo.com/question/index;_ylt=AiDMdl6CcmqrbbkH8yfdUpXsy6IX?qid=20070618163201AAyuI69

the whole world has gone mad
but what is really strange is that these people are just evil .they are not stupid
so why ???
do they want to make Global warming worse
what is the dark motive behind these actions

Is it to bombard us with global disasters to railroad the world into accepting the New World Order???
its anybodies guess

Answer 9

I don't get the logic either. Why don't they get the oil we have out of the ground and leave the trees alone? Aren't they always telling how important the trees are?

Answer 10

Excellent question. Brazil is now concerned about this. They use sugar cane for producing ethanol, and have converted most of their cars to ethanol. But, ethanol consumption has grown so much that they're cutting down trees to plant more sugar cane.