Friday, December 05, 2008



Bad Bio-Fuels!

In today’s green world it is easy to get wrapped up in the idea in renewable fuels. However, using renewable resources are grown at the expense of other things that grow in that place. We all know the argument that displacing food crops by biofuls can increase food prices. However, there is another problem, the plants growing originally are actually better for the environment than removing them for Bio-fuels.

Researchers point to the use of palm oil as a Bio-fuels. This is done at the destruction of tropical rainforests. By destroying a large carbon sink and planting oil palm it take 600 years to offset the destruction. The main reason for this is for wealthier nations to claim a lower carbon footprint not to actually help the envirment. However, by planting them on grassland instead of rainforest it takes only 10 rears to break even.

Carbon reduction is not the only damage palm oil plantations face. Another problem is the decrease diversity. As we replace many different plants with one species we deplete the number of habitats and decrease the diversity in one of the most species rich regions of the worlds. Clearly we need to fix something but we need to do it in an ecologically sound way.

http://www.sciencedaily.com/releases/2008/12/081201105657.htm

-Matthew Sousa(11)

6 Comments:

At 10:42 AM, Anonymous Anonymous said...

It seems like every time I read about habitat destruction it's for another reason motivated solely by greed. What countries are engaging in this bio-fuel growing practice? What are some species that are being displaced by habitat destruction? Are there any suggestions to fix this problems?

Amy Kawazoe

 
At 8:38 PM, Anonymous Anonymous said...

It's sad to think that what you think your country is doing to help the environment is actually hurting it. Some governments out there only really try to find the cheapest solutions or solutions that they might profit from to deal with what going on with the environment. Until officials and the bigger ups stop thinking about how they can profit from all of this it will take us a long time to fix the problem.

What are some of the solutions to this issue?

- Debbie Theodat

 
At 11:45 PM, Anonymous Anonymous said...

This is a realy large and hard to deal with problem because no one wants to spend and not gain. What aggrivates me the most is how long it takes for actions to be taken to fix the problem, and by then everything has decreased.
What kinds of renewable fuels are out there? You mentioned that the plants originally grown in the places that bio fuels are being grown now were helpful to the environment, how were they more helpful? Did they help diversify the wildlife, and if so what animals were/ are impacted by the change and how?

Ada Marie Flores

 
At 9:48 AM, Anonymous Anonymous said...

It makes me sad that some thing that might benefit us comes at the expense of others. I have read a few articles over the past several months indicating similar problems. I also recently read somewhere that rainforests help stabilize the worlds climate. Tampering with such a unique environment is extremely damaging to all of us, and I totally agree- if we are going to try and produce "greener" fuels we need to do it in a way that would not devastate other populations of plants and animals.

Michele Copeland

 
At 10:44 PM, Anonymous Anonymous said...

How is it related to animal behaviors? You should talk about how this damages to the environments effect animals, not just say this damages plant species and diversity. I feel like it is little irrelevant to our study subject.

-Yi, Jeongsang

 
At 12:22 AM, Anonymous Anonymous said...

well as an update the main areas affected are rain forests in southeast Asia. Also an example of places doing this well is Brazil with sugabeets. However anytime you grow something new you are displacing plants and animals. some newer approaches of 3rd generation biofules are algae growing in tanks which should affect animal life as much as slashing the rain forest.
-matt sousa

 

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