On Apr 9, 2007, at 8:01 AM, Chuck Grimes wrote:
> Let's take an easy example of greenwashing, let's take ethanol. Do we
> know using ethanol as a fuel helps to reduce carbon additions? We just
> assume it does. I am sure there are mountains of data on the
> combustion properties and products that show that ethanol burns
> cleaner than gasoline. But that isn't the whole ethanol story. Ethanol
> is produced from growing corn, probably GM corn at that, on vast
> agricultural-industrial tracks of land. How about all that part of the
> production system, what are all the component of that production
> adding and how to the carbon cycle?
There's an article forthcoming in Foreign Affairs showing that ethanol raises food prices and its wider application would lead to increased hunger among the poor. I tried to get the authors on the radio last Thursday, but they couldn't do it.
Doug