Boom in biofuels could backfire

The mad rush throughout the Americas to replace the petrochemical patriarchy with a biofuel behemoth is sending food prices through the roof worldwide.

And a study headed by a controversial Nobel Prize winner suggests that’s not the only thing that may heat up.
The boost in emissions of nitrous oxide – a greenhouse gas – from increased use of nitrogen fertiliser on crops destined for biofuel production could negate the benefits of shifting energy sources, or even warm the Earth to a greater degree than current projections indicate, the study says.

According to the scientific paper, whose main author is Paul Crutzen, winner of the 1995 Nobel Prize for chemistry: “The replacement of fossil fuels by biofuels may not bring the intended climate cooling due to the accompanying emissions of N2O.”

The study, published on the website of the journal Atmospheric Chemistry and Physics, claims the use of several agricultural crops for energy production could “readily lead to N2O emissions large enough to cause climate warming instead of cooling”.

The study, which crucially has yet to be peer reviewed and appear in the actual journal, concludes that “the relatively large emission of N2O exacerbates the already huge challenge of getting global warming under control”.

New Zealand Herald