Michael Spencer:
>> A couple of interesting points: Brazil already has 3.6 million pure
>> ethanol driven vehicles on the road...
>
>And they're turning the Amazon Basin into a wasteland at an alarming
>rate.
It may indeed be thus. Forests have been used commercially and regrown
before. They change enormously in the process. The current Black Forest in
Germany is the sixth generation or so of the original forest. Beginning in
about the 15th Century, the previous five were turned into coke for the
metal industry. The wildlife? The heads hang on the walls of local inns
and the bodies were turned into pate.
Hopefully, the authors of the article I cited did not have this in mind.
They mentioned the use of declining agricultural areas, which is the
direction in which the manufacture of ethanol has to head if it is to make
any sense at all.
I should add that I'm not sure that it is ethanol manufacturers that are
attacking the Amazon forests. Perhaps they are as well. However, much that
I've read suggests that cattle ranching and small scale agriculture is
principally to blame.
Ed Weick
