A switch to biofuels will not save the planet

The problem is that many Americans, and Europeans for that matter, seem to think it is just a matter of flicking a switch: one moment fossil fuel, the next moment, sugar cane-plus-corn. Lifestyle – unaltered.

Sadly, that’s not enough. Ethanol may sound like the kind of “friendly” energy the world has been waiting for. But for ethanol production to rise to the levels Mr Bush is hoping for, huge amounts of the world’s remaining forests will have to be cut down and turned over to corn or sugar cane.

The existing hectarage devoted to agriculture will not be remotely large enough to produce the quantity of fuel needed. In other words, paradoxically, a growing reliance of renewable energy may accelerate the destruction of the rainforests we so desperately need to moderate the planet’s temperature. Besides, according to the World Conservation Union, growing corn uses far more energy than the finished fuel produces.

There is another downside to the ethanol boom. As demand rises, the price of the cereals from which it is partly made soars as well. Tortilla prices in Mexico are already surging as a result of ethanol demand in America. This threatens the precarious livelihoods of many of the world’s poorest people.

The Independent