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The Best Science Writing Online 2012
Showcasing more than fifty of the most provocative, original, and significant online essays from 2011, The Best Science Writing Online 2012 will change the way...
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[Below is the original script. But a few changes may have been made during the recording of this audio podcast.]
The corn growing in fields across the Midwest will find a variety of uses after harvest this fall. Much will become food, either as classic corn on the cob, or the high fructose corn syrup in soft drinks, or as the animal feed that makes burgers.
But some will be fermented into the alcohol we know as ethanol and, by government mandate, blended into the nation's transportation fuel supply. The U.S. hopes to get 15 billion gallons of ethanol by 2015.
That may be good news for farmers but it doesn't help the world's eaters. Competition between food and fuel last year when oil reached $145 a barrel provoked riots from Mexico to Bangladesh.
And the potential for a crop price bonanza drives the cutting down of rainforests and heavy fertilizer application causing climate change and oceanic dead zones respectively.
Those problems might or might not be solved by more advanced biofuels, such as those made from the non-food or cellulosic parts of crop plants or even non-food crops such as switchgrass or algae. And a recent study found that burning such biomass to produce electricity delivered more environmental benefits than transforming it into liquid fuels.
So it seems that biofuels might not be the best solution for weaning the world off oil.
—David Biello
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6 Comments
Add CommentHow many times will we see this idiotic argument of using corn to make alcohol. Nobody in their right mind should do that. Brazil has clearly shown that sugarcane is the best crop to make alcohol from. Why do people go on and on about corn?
Reply | Report Abuse | Link to thisADM thinks corn to ethanol with a fat government subsidity makes good sense. Food shortages is just an unintended result.
Reply | Report Abuse | Link to thisNobody in their right mind should think a politican or a collage educated government official could correctly solve a new problem.
Gas from FOOD! Meh.
Reply | Report Abuse | Link to thisCars eat too much. Always have.
So where's your data on Brazil's use of sugarcane to alcohol? Is it environmentally viable? Does it produce cost-competitive fuel without government subsidy. Does it take productive crop land from food off the market and increase food costs? Lets hear it.
Reply | Report Abuse | Link to thisIt does not matter if you believe in climate change caused by humanity or not. What I believe everyone can agree on is; we need high paying jobs and we need to stop paying big bucks for energy. Now is the time to exploit space power and resources. Sunlight is available in high Earth orbit 24/7, 365 days a year. We have had the technology since the late 60’s to transmit via microwave all the energy we could ever use, to Earth, from orbit. The material for constructing the space end of the system is available on the near Earth asteroids and the Moon. We the people need the government to fund the project just as the government funded World War II. Our survival as a people with liberty was threatened by mad men with weapons during WWII. Today our survival is threatened by mad men with oil. If we as a people shrink from the task at hand we will lose our liberty.
Reply | Report Abuse | Link to thisSavaging an entire industry in a one-minute sound bite wrought with inaccuracies and half-truths taken directly from mainstream media is both irresponsible AND un-scientific. Is Scientific American so desperate for podcast listeners and readers that it no longer does it's own science?
Reply | Report Abuse | Link to thisRobert Smallwood
Executive Director
AgriFuels, Limited Australia
http://www.agrifuels.com.au