Have you shared your thoughts withe Guardian? Or, on Mr. Monbiot's website?
Apparently, showing him the error of his ways doesn't stop him but emboldens him:
" The last time I drew attention to the hazards of making diesel fuel from vegetable oils, I received as much abuse as I have ever been sent for my stance on the Iraq war. The biodiesel missionaries, I discovered, are as vociferous in their denial as the executives of Exxon. I am now prepared to admit that my previous column was wrong. But they're not going to like it. I was wrong because I underestimated the fuel's destructive impact."
Do we have another Pimental on our hands, bad data and bad assumptions with absolutely NO solutions offered?
1450 kg per hectare seems low for rapeseed.
Jeffrey Dukes' article regarding replacing the energy content of oil per year can be found here: (PDF)
http://globalecology.stanford.edu/DGE/Dukes/Dukes_ClimChange1.pdf
I think Monbiot takes his quote out of context and rambles from there with scare mongering.
On 2/27/06, Michael Redler <
[EMAIL PROTECTED]> wrote:
What's up with George Monbiot?!He calls himself an environmentalist? Put lightly, this guy's a little annoying.In December, 2004 George Monbiot wrote an article titled "Feeding Cars, Not People".In December, 2006 George Monbiot commented: "By promoting biodiesel as a substitute, we have missed the fact that it is worse than the fossil-fuel burning it replaces"It's alarming how many short sighted articles there are in such well known newspapers, magazines and web sites. I can't think of any kind of article which is more damaging to progressive energy strategies than those where the authors refers to themselves as environmentalists then, sound the alarm about clean and sustainable alternatives.
In his 2004 article he said:"Those who worry about the scale and intensity of today's agriculture should consider what farming will look like when it is run by the oil industry."After mentioning the "scale and intensity of today's agriculture" and including a reference to a Monsanto promotion in his list of sources, he still feels that the oil industry is the one threatening to monopolize the World's biofuel production. Can ANYONE with any knowledge of what's going on, be so myopic as to write an article which warns of the positioning of huge agricultural companies like Monsanto and explicitly argue an entirely different threat to the World's crops from the oil industry?Mr. Monbiot's analysis concludes that there will be a "catastrophic" impact on the global food supply and supports his position by calculating the farm land necessary to replace a quantity of petroleum with an equal quantity of biofuel. This analysis is seriously flawed and here are a few reasons why (although I think I'm preaching to the choir here):"If, as some environmentalists demand, it is to happen worldwide, then most of the arable surface of the planet will be deployed to produce food for cars, not people."Mr. Monbiot's example of "arable surface" is the available 5.7m hectares in the United Kingdom. I have no reason to believe that he considered the seven tenths of the Earth's surface which until recently, has been a source of food but not fuel. It demonstrates potential as one of the best and most concentrated sources for biofuel plant cultivation in the form of algae.But let's go back to the original premise that you need to replace every quantity of petroleum fuel with the same quantity of biofuel when discussing road transportation. Despite the initial success of gasoline-electric hybrids and the expected success of other hybrid configurations ( i.e. diesel and flex-fuel) being pretty unambiguous, it's not mentioned at all as something which can seriously effect fuel consumption.
Fuel for transportation has one attribute which gives it a special set of variables – it moves. So, what we are really talking about is the storage of potential energy from which a vehicle can be able to accelerate freely and untethered. Again, the only form of potential energy for transportation, according to the article, is liquid fuel. There was no mention of the advancements of electrical energy storage from which any form of electrical generation can be used – that includes solar and wind generation.Any claim that the inclusion of solar and wind (for example) in a discussion on liquid fuel is off topic, is missing yet another benefit of the expansion of a hybrid philosophy in any energy strategy. Not only would wind and solar compliment biofuels as it's land based counterpart, advancements in photovoltaic technology makes it a viable possibility as a direct source for assisting electric vehicles. Also important is the whole argument about the energy necessary to produce biofuels requires a complete re-evaluation when one decides not to produce liquid fuel with liquid fuel. Most importantly, an energy strategy that encompasses all potential sources is one which will prevent anyone from easily obtaining a monopoly.The underlying theme is that many environmentalists and clean-energy advocates are restrained by a kind of pseudomutuality which causes some in society to believe that we have to choose a single solution for the replacement of a single, diminishing energy source, to which most of the world has become dependant. This is among the most destructive philosophies to a progressive energy strategy and guarantees a continuation of past dependencies.Mike
_______________________________________________
Biofuel mailing list
Biofuel@sustainablelists.org
http://sustainablelists.org/mailman/listinfo/biofuel_sustainablelists.org
Biofuel at Journey to Forever:
http://journeytoforever.org/biofuel.html
Search the combined Biofuel and Biofuels-biz list archives (50,000 messages):
http://www.mail-archive.com/biofuel@sustainablelists.org/
--
Thanks,
PC
He's the kind of a guy who lights up a room just by flicking a switch
We should avoid modifying the constitution in response to cyclical changes in American public opinion. - Jimmy Carter
_______________________________________________ Biofuel mailing list Biofuel@sustainablelists.org http://sustainablelists.org/mailman/listinfo/biofuel_sustainablelists.org
Biofuel at Journey to Forever: http://journeytoforever.org/biofuel.html Search the combined Biofuel and Biofuels-biz list archives (50,000 messages): http://www.mail-archive.com/biofuel@sustainablelists.org/
