One of the STUPIDEST things humans do (or don't do): They fail to use their own muscle power in practical, truly useful, ways.

It is astonishing how lazy 'techno-supremacist' humans are.

Somebody who got it right!!!

Lawrence A. Welsch
lwelsch@gmail.com

disconnectedness from the body and the physical world is a huge problem...

personal vehicles, and smooth surfaces upon which to drive and park them, still seem to be on the list of things upon which the left and right agree...

duh

Techno-supremacist humans.
I like that.
I will use it from now on.
There is however an insidious partner in the anti-biofuels agenda, its the ranching factory farming industries. Agriculture stooge Robert Bryce has wailed about biofuels and keeps referring to the loss of crops for livestock industries.

How about we take the crops, and the water that is needed both for the crops and for the livestock, and use it to sustain human populations?
It would stop the destruction of rain forest to grow soya to feed to European livestock and the ranching sector of Brazil. In addition to the contribution it brings to global warming.

It would prevent the conflict between cattle interests and wild horses/buffalo/wolves.

And reduce a huge amount of unnecessary suffering in the rearing and slaughter of non human slaves also.
I am sure some chickens, pigs and cattle who have their eyes gouged out, broken limbs or scalded alive by irate slaughterhouse workers(who according to Eric Schlosser are the true victims of slaughterhouse(he needs to work on his comedy routine)) would appreciate it.

Fruits and vegetables are the colour of the rainbow, meat is the colour of something else interestingly enough.

I suppose the same can be said for the production of Organic crops and Livestock. The yields are a fraction of conventional crop production,there it puts more land into production that shouldn't be farmed.

The reality is: By-products from domestically produced ethanol is still very high in protein and an extremely valuable feedstock.

Here's a thought.

Stop driving yer bloody car to the shop on the corner or taking your children to school, get out and walk or use public transport.

Have a problem with that, live closer to facilities. It's not rocket science.

Biofuels is a larger category than just corn ethanol. If you want to substitute corn ethanol for all uses of biofuels in this article I would agree. The billionaire agricultural corporations and their legion of lobbyists jumped all over Congress in 2006 to first make it mandatory to replace MTBE as a gas additive to cut down on gas emissions with ethanol and get government subsidies to support their conversion of prime crop land the equivalent size of California into corn ethanol production. That instantly raised the price of gasoline as well as raising the price of crop foods due to devoting prime crop land to ethanol production. The bottom line is corn ethanol would not be cost competitive without subsidies and they burn more fossil fuel than it replaces.

And the current state of the art for biofuel production is algae, switchgrass and new strains of bacteria and enzymes to breakdown cellulose into simple sugars for ethanol fermentation. They have been able to invent a new hybrid corn that has the same enzyme found in the stomachs of cattle that allows them to essentially break down cellulos. When corn is harvested for ethanol, the dead plant itself started breaking down the cellolose. It is like a pre digestion process before being fermented into ethanol. Switchgrass does not require prime crop land. It is a native perennial prairie grass that is disease, insect and drought resistant. It does not require rows or continuous tractor crop land processing, fertilizing, and does not need insecticides. They are now researching a different native prairie grass that is even better for ethanol yield than switchgrass.

Algae produced biofuel is probably the most promising source of them all due to the fact that there are daily crop harvests instead of once or twice a year harvests. There is a pilot program in Arizona where they have an algae greenhouse set up next to a traditional coal fired power plant. The emissions from the plant go into the greenhouse where the algae uses the carbon dioxide and releases oxygen as a waste product. The emissions are thereby cleaned before released into the environment.

However, if anyone really wanted to invest in algae biofuel, why use greenhouses when there is massive freshwater algae bloom in the Mississippi River just before it empties into the Gulf of Mexico. The bloom is stimulated by the run off of crop fertilizers. It could be skimmed and used for biofuel before it reached salt water and creating a dead zone where no sea life survives. It is also a smell issues, as it stinks like rotten eggs. This dead zone has been estimated to be approximately the same size as the state of Masschusetts.

What Monbiot states in his article is absolutely correct. Biofuels are a huge problem. Yet once again we only look at the effect of the problem and not the cause. The cause of these problems is a matter of organization- we cannot/will not admit that it is the very fact that our energy production systems are centralized is what causes these problems in the first place. Centralization gives rise to entities such as Exxon etc., consolidates vast amounts of money and power into the hands of a few people, and allows corporations to have undue influence over our lives. Biofuels are potentially a great way to fix a host of our most pressing modern problems. But we need to de-centralize. Biofuels can be grown by a new generation of local organic farmers, creating millions of jobs in the process and helping to sequester CO2 at the same time. These crops can then be processed at local proccesing plants, the waste being converted to compost to complete the cycle and fertilize next years crops. Building and staffing local processing plants will also create processing, management and construction jobs. The fuel created by these processing plants could then be used to fuel local power generation plants etc. If we keep everything on local or bioregional level, we will eliminate all of the issues Monbiot brings up in his article. The main problem with this scenario is that the petroleum companies will do everything in their power to make sure this solution will never see the light of day. But, as Jim Morrison so eloquently sang "they have the guns, but we have the numbers".

Biofuels from Forests could decimate wild forests and biodiversity world wide.

Go to this link:
http://www.globalforestcoalition.org/img/userpics/File/publications/From%20Meals%20to%20Wheels%20The%20Social%20and%20Ecological%20Catastrophe%20o.pdf

Further Action: Allowing the Congress to allocate 466 million Dollars to the US Department of Agriculture for new Woody Biomass to Biofuels and Electricity Production is Not Economically nor Environmentally Viable

The use of harvest residues for energy production decreases soil
carbon stocks. These changes in soil carbon stocks are remarkable
compared to the other greenhouse gas emissions.

http://www.sciencedaily.com/releases/2008/05/080520211441.htm

Risk of Catastrophic Harm Done by Release of GMO Bacteria

A very serious issue is genetically engineered ethanol producing bacteria could devestate agriculture crops if released into the environment.
A remarkable example of such an incident nearly occurred out of Oregon State University in 1992. A genetically engineered bacterium Klebsiella planticola that produced ethanol from wood debris had already been approved as “safe” and “ready for deployment” by the Environmental Protection Agency.
However, OSU researchers later found the GE bacterium killed all the wheat plants in every microcosm it was tested on. Barely avoiding a biological catastrophe this was discovered before it was marketed around the world.
The lead researcher of the effects of the bacterium to other plants and soils, Professor Elaine Ingham, later stated if this GE enzyme was released into a non-controlled environment “That it would have been the end of all terrestrial plants.”

http://lists.ifas.ufl.edu/cgi-bin/wa.exe?A2=ind0507&L=sanet-mg&P=7668

US Forest Service to Decimate Forest for Biofuels

The Chief of the Forest Service Gail Kimball is stating that Corporations can extract about 320 Million tons of woody material per year across 67 million acres of National Forests to supply an estimated 21 billion gallons of ethanol.

We can not allow state and federal agencies proceed with such a reckless plan. Our forest ecosystems serve as lifeboats for thousands of species including our own on a sinking ship.

Wood Chip to Electricity Plants Most Inefficient Technology

On top of the Bio-fuels boondoggles, the agencies and Forest biomass industry all also advocating to spend billions of dollars to build wood chips to electricity power plants throughout the west.
The Wood Chip to Electricity Plants are between 20-35 % efficient in converting the wood fuel to electricity. In comparison a high efficiency wood stove or pellet stove can reach 80-90 percent efficiencies.

Weyerhaeuser and Chevron to Raze Millions of Acres into Fuel

To make this nightmare even worse in spring of 2007 Weyerhaeuser, the world’s largest corporate land owner, and Chevron, the largest producer of pesticides in the world, announced a joint venture to turn forests into bio-fuels.

http://www.finanznachrichten.de/nachrichten-aktien/chevron-corporation.asp

Ethanol Increase Smog and Carcinogens
Burning ethanol produces carcinogens, degrades the efficiency and performance of the internal combustion motor thus increases formaldehyde and ozone levels inside metropolitan areas.

See these links for details on GE Trees and from Forest Biomass Industry:

On GE organisms.
http://www.westonaprice.org/farming/gm-free-sustainable.html

On Forests to Fuels.
http://ethanolproducer.com/article.jsp?article_id=2866
http://ethanolproducer.com/article.jsp?article_id=3117

On American Forest Industries Lobby.
http://www.amforest.org/breakingNews/fighting-global-climate-change/

Hemp does not require nitrate fertilizers, is far richer in oils than corn, naturally produces a hydrocarbonate resin that palms nor other biomass do not, is the most efficient producer of biomass on land with little demand upon water supply, need not impact food supplies especially if homeowners may legally grow it, and can provide a host of other products besides.
In thermodynamic terms, the problem is one of producing an ecologically safe and sustainable stream of energy from sunlight, and therefore efficiency demands that the effort to produce streams of energy should be minimized. The net effect of this principle is, of course, the opposite of centralization – although it may be most efficient to promote standardization of the technology involved.
Finally, overall reduction of energy demand is essential and the biggest step that could immediately be taken is to promote and enhance public transportation. This will entail the return of the car to its place as the luxury item it was before WWI. For more on this read “Internal Combustion” by Edwin Black.

Arnold's secret mission is to terminate the golden state!

Genocide - what happens to the Guarani and other indigenous peoples in Brazil is due DIRECTLY to the massive monoculture held as THE major mainstay of Lula's Accelerated Growth Plan.

This is utter insanity. The drug of expansion and power has to have the remedy of millions of people saying NO MORE!

I will no longer own a car, do and eat as much local as possible. We need to glamorize a race to the bottom of the food chain, energy use, media consumption.

Come to think of it - its not so much speaking truth to power - its speaking truth to glamour.

This is where I get disgusted with Monbiot. Not all biofuels are shitty like corn and soy. If Monbiot actually did his homework on hemp and algae or even switchgrass, he wouldn't be writing such over-generalization of biofuels crap. Corn may be the worst biofuel but that doesn't make all biofuels bad. When will these people learn?

I used to have a diesel truck a few years ago before I donated it.... I ran it on biodeisel purchased from a local distributor, and sometimes from a friend who made his own fuel from used fryer oil...
They talked it up like it was the greatest thing, while downplaying many other factors like food scarcity, de- foreststion, greenhouse gasses, and the fact that they are still polluting with the manufacturing and use of brake pads, auto bodies and paint, oil changes, tranny fluid, engine blocks, apholstery, etc and still contributing to car culture, traffic, potential car accidents, and road construction and maintenance... Now that biofuels are a booming industry, there is enough evidence that it too has it's ecological and social justice issues...

Mr. Monbiot is a true enemy of the people, basically exploiting the people's concerns to advance his career while neglecting to spell out the truth about energy and responsible energy policy.

The relevant truth that he neglects is that the elite establishment, seeking economic growth at all cost, has integrated biofuels into its portfolio of exploitation/devastation for profit, with absolutely no restraint on the volume or methods. The elite establishment accomplished this stunning but predictable attack on the people and planet right under our noses precisely because pundits like George Monibot were busy shrieking about current fires instead of predicting the arsonist's next move.

Biofuels are crucially important for the people's independence from elite rule. The people will produce their own biofuels, via sustainable methods and at sustainable volumes. The people will produce all food, fuels and materials on 1/3 acre per person supplied. The maximum enterprise size will be ten man-powers. Notice that Mr. Monibot fails to do the math. All food, fuels and materials on 1/3 acre per person amounts to ONE TENTH of the resource exploitation/devastation perpetrated by the elite establishment.

Mr. Monibot doesn't want to talk about the people's preferred approaches because he wants to exploit the people's confusion and frustration to sell books. He's not alone. If you're still confused, study the economies that have not relied on the elite establishment. Some are better examples than others, but there are many that illustrate the point.

Kerala province in India is a well-publicized example. The tiny home gardens there roughly provide the people's food, fuel, and materials on 1/3 acre per person. But Kerala has no monopoly on sustainable production - the practice is widespread across space/time. We can assume the elite establishment is creating lies to hide the truth in all aspects of our lives, not only economic. Keep your eyes open. And switch your own exchange away from the elites and to the home gardeners. YOU SUSTAIN THE DEMAND.

I disagree with Monbiot on virtually every other issue he discusses, but he is right about the biofuels being used today taking food from man, not to mention increasing food prices. Studies have shown there is very little benefit, except to some farmers, most of whom tend large farms owned by corporations and wealthy folks like Bill Gates. Ten percent of the farms get about 60 percent of the subsidies for bio-fuels.

I'm confused. Ethanol and biodiesel are not the same thing and yet the term "biofuels" seems to lump them into the same category. Why are experts not distinguishing between the two when they talk about biofuels? Ethanol is moonshine for gas engines and biodiesel is chemically processed fat or plant oil for diesel engines.

I drive an old Mercedes on 99% biodiesel made from domestically grown soy and recycled oils. The company I use never imports the unsustainable and environmentally destructive palm oil and South American soy.
Soybeans are about 20% oil and 80% meal. Soy meal is used in livestock feed. The more soybeans are grown the more food is available in the form of soy meal.
In 2007 80% of biodiesel in the US came from soybean oil. We are the largest exporter of soybeans in the world. According to US Census data the US has the equivalent of more than 400 million gallons of soybean oil sitting in inventory.
Biodiesel demand is still growing though US acreage for crop production has not increased and is not expected to increase as a result of the increased use.

And about those emissions,
Biodiesel is the only alternative fuel that has completed all the testing requirements of the Clean Air Act. Biodiesel contains oxygen and it burns more completely than diesel fuel, resulting in reduced emissions. All major pollutants are reduced dramatically in biodiesel exhaust (most of them at least 50% for B100), except one—nitrogen oxides (NOx)—and that’s only for blends over B20. Nitrogen oxides are bad. This is a blemish on the biodiesel report card. But new diesel technology like the Mercedes BlueTec and the 2009 Jetta TDI eliminate this problem by reducing NOx emissions by 80-90%.
http://gas2.org/2008/04/10/biodiesel-mythbuster-20-twenty-two-biodiesel-myths-dispelled/
"According to the University of Minnesota in 2006 (1), the production and use of soybean biodiesel decreases life-cycle greenhouse gas (GHG) emissions by 41% over regular diesel (NREL says 78%, page 4), and also decreases other pollutants like Carbon monoxide, PM10, and SOx. In fact, pure biodiesel reduces air toxics by 90% when compared to diesel fuel."
http://www.nrel.gov/vehiclesandfuels/npbf/pdfs/40555.pdf

Best of all, every time I fill up I'm supporting American farmers. And every fill up is a boycott of the oil industry.

"Biofuels Do More Harm Than Good?" Nah, Not from over here.
Is George Monbiot dissing the American biodiesel industry?

shhh. Monbiot is greasing the wheel to hustle nuclear energy to us as the only viable zero-emissions energy...

anyway. palm oil and corn suck. but before the corn monocrop, millions of acres of natural midwest fields were filled with 10' tall switchgrass, which the bison fed on. Switchgrass. Imagine the wonderful birds of the midwest having their original habitat reinvested and boosted by an increase focus on biofuel technology investments in switchgrass! Look at the energy levels, everybody.

SWITCHGRASS!

"Yield of dreams....
In the hard, shallow soil of southern Alabama, Dave Bransby is turning cotton fields into swatches of grassland. Some Alabama farmers joke that there's no soil in Alabama to farm—two centuries of King Cotton and steady erosion haven't left much behind. Yet Bransby, a forage scientist at Auburn University, has found a crop that thrives there: Among the 19 research sites in the Eastern and Central United States raising switchgrass for the BFDP studies, Bransby's site holds the one-year record at 15 tons per acre. Those are dry tons weighed after all the moisture's been baked out. Convert that into ethanol, an alcohol that can fuel vehicles, and it equals about 1,500 gallons per acre. Bransby's 6-year average, 11.5 tons a year, translates into about 11,500 gallons of ethanol per acre. An added bonus is the electricity that can be produced from the leftover portions of the crop that won't convert to ethanol."

http://bioenergy.ornl.gov/papers/misc/switgrs.html

BTW: A car @30mpg driven 15k miles a year = ~500 gallons of fuel.
One acre yield / car consumption, equals 23 cars.
11500g/500mpg = 23 @30mpg.

The larger point here might be worth a few words. Our government can not and will not get things right as long as their actions are controlled by the few who seek to make money at every turn and out of every proposed legislation. We must change the system or we will always be regretting the results.

"Most people would sooner die than think, in fact they do so." Bertrand Russell

There is in fact such a thing as sustainable biofuel. But it has nothing to do with centralized corporate-owned government subsidized mass production of anything, most certainly not corn. Read David Blume's book, Alcohol Can Be a Gas. The history of fuel alcohol is there in Chapter 1. All the myths about fuel alcohol are conclusively dispelled in chapter 2. The solution is introduced in chapter 3: The Permaculture Solution to Fossil Fuel Dependency. The rest of the book is an incredible compendium of technical information about feedstocks, fermentation, types of distillation, designing a fuel plant, the use of alcohol as a fuel in different kinds of engines (including chapters on carburetion, fuel injection, ignition timing, compression & dual fuel use). David Blume has been working on this for 25 years and his proposals are both sound and visionary. Go to http://www.permaculture.com/book_menu/360.
To chuk-it-levi-strauss:
Sure switchgrass can produce a lot of biomass, and hence a lot of ethanol, per acre. But there are crops that far exceed this. The point is that crops should be optimized per locality, not dictated by the conventional corporate capitalist top-down monocrop stupidity. In a wastewater-fed one-acre test plot, cattails yielded 2500 gallons/acre (starch only). Estimates for cattails grown in sewage, including cellulose, exceed 10,000 gallons/acre.[pg.79]