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Bali convention rejects Biofuels
Clipped to the Drawing Board by Sean  
The UN climate convention meeting in Bali has little faith in biofuels as a low-carbon technology answer to our dependence on oil.  18 technologies where suggested by IUCN, but the current generation of biofuels came bottom of the list, with only 21% believing in its engineering potential to "lower overall carbon levels in the atmosphere without unacceptable side effects" over the next 25 years.
....click the link to read more
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Sue () Newbie | 2007-12-13 03:20:36
all i can say is that there has been an awful lot of energy spent on developing biofuels, so if they don't take off - some very unhappy investors
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Denny () Newbie | 2007-12-13 03:22:13
if the experts at Bali have dismissed it - then the chances are that it will be a roaring success - i dont have a lot of faith in experts
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Denny () Newbie | 2007-12-13 03:24:49
some big questions about the third world countries using valuable crop growing land for this sort of project and risking food issues - is also getting the experts excited
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Arnie () Newbie | 2007-12-13 03:34:21
I haven't read any technical stuff about biofuels - I just assumed that they where good because all the news sources keep telling me that they are good - but the word coming from Bali is that for vehicles, there is only a marginal saving in carbon output when compared with existing fuels ??
and the scientific evidence is saying that instead of clearing huge amounts of land so as to grow for biofuels, the natural vegetation would process more carbon from the atmosphere ?? so lets see some more data
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Spud () Newbie | 2007-12-13 03:39:12
it looks like there is confusion all around - good to see that not much has changed
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Penny () Newbie | 2007-12-13 03:54:33
http://www.veggiebus.com/emissions.html
I'm no expert, but looking at the table on the attached link - it seems fairly clear that biofuels do have the capacity to give significant advantage - depending on what percentage is used
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Ramone () Newbie | 2007-12-13 04:05:20
you are all missing the point Brazil is (and has been) the clear leader in this area for many years, but whilst there is a huge agricultural industry devoted to producing sugar cane for bio, there is enormous problems caused by deforestation and they are eating away at the Amazon jungle as they clear more and more land, - also throw in workers rights and exploitation of the natives and the whole thing is a real mess - so yeah, theyve reduced dependency on oil - BUT theyve created major social and environment issues
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Che () Newbie | 2007-12-13 04:09:16
yeah and the same thing is being pushed for Africa - it will be a major disaster if it ever gets going on the same scale
http://www.stuffedandstarved.org/drupal/node/136
probably a bit of bias in this - but then isn't there bias in everything we read
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Baz () Newbie | 2007-12-13 04:15:40
it's all about balance and having said that - we will never get it - it it will be all one way or the other - all of these countries want to talk the talk - but actions speak louder than words - and there is a deafening silence from some quarters
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Toby () Newbie | 2007-12-18 03:50:08
Bali might have rejected biofuels but there is still a lot of interest in the US - however the issues are the same and still not resolved - have a look at this article
http://www.nytimes.com/2007/12/18/business/18food.html?ref=business
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Thursday 13 December, 2007 06:06 AM
 
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