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Action Alert: Biofuel from Corn Ethanol Is Not Renewable, Does Not Address Climate Change
Let California Air Resources Board know all industrially produced biofuel crops from live biomass, edible or not, still require land, soil, water, fertilizer and other finite inputs. It is clear that industrial biofuels are not "renewable energy" given that these inputs are all in limited supply, and indirect land uses lead to destruction of soil and forest carbon sinks elsewhere.
By
Climate Ark, a project of Ecological Internet
-
April 20, 2009
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1.) Inform Yourself
NOTE: This is a protest, not a petition, sending emails to many real decision makers on matters vital to the Earth.
Caption:
Massive toxic corn monocultures devastate ecosystems and provide little additional energy (link)
Regulators at the California Air Resources Board (CARB) are poised later this week to declare that biofuel from corn ethanol cannot help the state address climate change. In assessing the true environmental cost of corn ethanol, it was found this biofuel is worse than petroleum when total greenhouse gas emissions are considered. This is because as with all monocultures, corn ethanol for biofuels lead to numerous other indirect land use changes. Increased industrial agriculture results in rising land pressures and the loss of soil and forest carbon sinks elsewhere.
Such a declaration disallowing corn ethanol biofuel from counting as emissions reductions would be a considerable blow to the corn-ethanol industry in the United States and would likely set a national precedent. The regulation is part of California’s low-carbon fuel standard to reduce greenhouse emissions from transportation fuels by an average of 10 percent by 2020. Substantial research has shown converting corn to ethanol leads to more clearing of rainforests and other carbon rich natural habitats, meaning producing corn ethanol as a transportation fuel does little to slow global warming. This would be the first piece of regulation to account for such these "indirect land-use effects" of corn-based ethanol.
So called "next generation" advanced cellulosic ethanol fuels from non-food plants and plant parts, including forest biomass, will not resolve these problems. All industrially produced biofuel crops from biomass, edible or not, still require land, soil, water, fertilizer and other finite inputs. Biofuels based upon further expansion of unsustainable, industrial agriculture policies will intensify deforestation, toxic pollution and dependence upon fossil fuel based fertilizers worldwide. It is clear that industrial biofuels are not "renewable energy" given that soils, water, land and fertilizers are all in limited supply.
Ecological Internet and Rainforest Rescue are concerned with America's growing ethanol industry, and the precedent it sets for massive agricultural industrialization of the world's remaining rainforests and other natural wildlands. Please call upon the CARB to heed the overwhelming evidence that agrofuels worsen climate change through further deforestation and the destruction of other soils and ecosystems, drive food prices up, force more people worldwide into hunger and malnutrition, and decimate biodiversity and ecosystems.
Sample Email Sent
Biofuel from corn ethanol is not renewable, does not address climate change
Dear California Air Resources Board,
This global protest urges you to declare that biofuel from
corn ethanol cannot help California address climate change.
Increased land pressures from industrial agriculture
necessary to produce corn ethanol clearly lead to numerous
indirect land use changes elsewhere, causing the
destruction of soil and forest carbon sinks. This self
evident fact clearly disqualifies corn ethanol biofuel from
counting as emission reductions.
Securing world food security while maintaining operable
global ecosystems may be one of the biggest challenges
humanity faces in this century. Intensifying current
industrial agriculture practices for vast toxic biofuel
monocultures will lead to ecological disaster. Please heed
the overwhelming evidence that agrofuels worsen climate
change through further deforestation and the destruction of
other ecosystems, drive food prices up, force more and more
people worldwide into hunger and malnutrition, and decimate
biodiversity and ecosystems.
Corn ethanol receives billions in subsidies despite
conclusive science indicating its inefficient production
provides little or no additional energy other than what is
used for its production, and its ecological destructiveness
in terms of land, water and climate. Indeed, US agrofuel
policies are already a major cause of Amazon deforestation,
as US farmers switching from soya to corn is boosting soya
expansion in Brazil and other South American countries.
So called "next generation" advanced fuels from non-food
plants and plant parts, including forest biomass, will not
resolve these problems. All industrially produced biofuel
crops from fresh biomass, edible or not, still require
land, soil, water, fertilizer and other finite inputs. All
biofuels based upon further expansion of unsustainable,
industrial agriculture policies will intensify
deforestation, toxic pollution, land conflicts with local
peoples and dependence upon fossil fuel based fertilizers
worldwide. It is clear that industrial biofuels are not
"renewable energy" given that soils, water, land and
fertilizers are all in limited supply.
I am concerned with America and California's growing
ethanol industry, and the implications it has in setting a
precedent for massive agricultural industrialization of the
world's remaining rainforests and other natural wildlands.
We concur with the growing ecological consensus that
large-scale industrial production of transport fuels and
other energy from plants such as corn, sugar cane, oil
palm, soya, trees, grasses, or so-called agricultural and
woodland waste; threatens forests, biodiversity, food
sovereignty, community-based land rights and will worsen
climate change.
Earth simply cannot produce the vast quantities of biomass
necessary to prolong our unsustainable lifestyles.
Continuing to intensify industrial agriculture through
increased agrofuel and biomass energy will doom humans, who
are no longer integrated with ecosystems, to extinction by
exhausting stocks of minerals, soils and clean water. By
mining global ecosystems for biomass, the time scale of
human extinction is shrinking with every crop harvest.
Instead, we ask you to support investment in truly clean
energy technologies such as wind, solar and geothermal
energy that do not involve any form of combustion or
ecosystem loss. We must pursue truly clean, renewable and
"zero waste" technologies immediately. And you must
dramatically increase the attention given to energy
efficiency and conservation. Continued human habitat,
adequate to allow California and all global citizens to
continue living well within the Earth's ecosystems,
requires CARB to now disavow corn ethanol as a global
warming strategy.
Sincerely,
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