A team of researchers led by Nobel-prize winning chemist Paul Crutzen has found that growing and using biofuels emits up to 70 percent more greenhouse gases than fossil fuels. They are warning that the cure could end up being worse than the disease.
Biofuels, once championed as the great hope for fighting climate change, could end up being more damaging to the environment than oil or gasoline. A new study has found that the growth and use of crops to make biofuels produces more damaging greenhouse gases than previously thought.
German Nobel-prize winning chemist Paul Crutzen and his team of researchers have calculated the emissions released by the growth and burning of crops such as maize, rapeseed and cane sugar to produce biofuels. The team of American, British and German scientists has found that the process releases twice as much nitrous oxide (N2O) as previously thought. They estimate that 3 to 5 percent of nitrogen in fertilizer is converted and emitted, as opposed to the 2 percent used by the Intergovernmental Panel on Climate Change (IPCC) in its calculations.
Crutzen is widely respected in the field of climate research, having received the Nobel Prize in 1995 for his research into the ozone layer. The study, published in the scientific journal Atmospheric Chemistry and Physics, finds that the growth and use of biofuels produced from rapeseed and maize can produce 70 percent and 50 percent more greenhouse gases respectively than fossil fuels.
"One wants rational decisions rather than simply jumping on the bandwagon because superficially something appears to reduce emissions," Keith Smith, a professor at the University of Edinburgh and co-author of the study, told the London
Times.
The findings come in the wake of an OECD report earlier this month, which warned against rushing to grow reneweable energy crops because they cause food shortages (more...) and damage biodiversity while producing limited benefits.
The growth of corn for ethanol in the United States has already overtaken its cultivation for food, while in Europe the main biofuel crop is rapeseed.
smd
What is interesting was there was a program out in CA of cars that were "plugged in" nightly at the owners residence and these vehicles worked wonderful did not breakdown and were found to be pollutant free. The vehicles got very good mileage and the people who leased them for the year loved them. When their lease was up, these people wanted to renew the leases but GM wouldn't let them and took back every single enviromentally friendly car back from these people locked the vehicles up and once they had them all, they destroyed them and buried them in a landfill except for one which is in a museum.
Why did they destroy them??? The vehicles were too efficient, Gm couldn't make money off of them for repair and matienance work. These vehicles could have been used in any part of the country and would have eventually been much cheaper then what is being introduced now as fuel efficent cars. Just makes you wonder how long we are going to let auto makers get away with not coming up with a good eviromemtally efficeint car??
Ps the cars in CA were electric cars.
meme2008-02-10 16:05:09Hmmm. I don't know if that's the reason they were taken off the market. But you can't really blame a company for not manufacturing a product that will make them obsolete. I wouldn't do that.The EV1 was not "emission-free" - it just shifted emissions from its tailpipe to the electric power plant down the road.
People who had the Evie were in LOVE with it.
And Linncn - if you apply Pharma to your post - well you can see why nobody is looking for a 'cure' and are only looking for 'therapies'.
;-)
Pip
But their are cures and vaccines for lots of things. Is their more money in treating a person with rheumatic fever until he dies around age 30, or giving him penicillan when once when he's a little kid? TB is practically wiped out in this country and I bet that could be a gold mine. Do you really think theirs researches out their, in that field because they love science and research but they're holding back on finding the cure? They don't want the fame or recognition or $$ that would come from something like that? I just have a hard time believing it's all a conspiracy to keep us sick to satisfy their greed. I promise you those lunches weren't free. Someone paid for them. Probably the saloon keeper charged his patrons an extra half penny for their whiskey.TB is nowhere almost wiped out in this country. In LA, all kids must have TB tests on entering school. Yet in MI, when I wanted a TB test, my doc said, 'we don't have TB here'. That's the great U for you.
Yes, I really do. It's not so much as holding back but as looking for the 'therapies' instead of looking for 'cures'. I think that's why researchers are so into 'body attacking self' model despite clear and mounting evidence to the contrary. If the problem is the body - then by all means, lets remove the symptom. But as soon as you look for a 'cause' and it points to something potentially 'cureable' then - there goes the gravy train.
Look at the meds you are on. What are the costs? For God's Sake woman, look at the signatures. We get one disease...then we get more, then we need meds to manage the side effects, and meds to sleep, and meds to help with the stomach irritation and the GERD, and meds for the fatigue and meds for, and meds for and meds for...the list is endless.
Look at a 'cure'. One shot, or stem cell transplant or whatever and you're done. No more meds and more importantly, no more meds on top of meds to manage meds.
There's no profit in curing us or diabetes or whatever. Look how many ancilliary jobs would go away. From therapists who deal with the depression to physical therapists for movement. Let's not forget the 'aids' manufacturers - from wheelchairs to canes to can openers. Hell, a 7 billion a year PROFIT from Pfizer alone...combined with the other Pharma giants...and the entire US ecomony would colapse.
Wanna place a bet? That diabetes capsaisin link? You think a cure will come of that? Hell, no. Instead we'll get some shot you have to take every 3 months so you can continue eating like a pig with processed foods loaded with garbage and manufactured 'chemicals' like high fructose corn syrup. Its not natural...but Big Argi can extend taste etc and maximize profit to the detriment of your health.
All because our politician's need money to run campaigns so they take money from special interests (so named 'special interests' because they are protecting their own interests).
Since I became ill, I've poured over hundreds of studies. Every last one is looking for a 'therapy'. Only ONE mentioned a cure.
This is the one that makes me just SICK to my stomach.
Here, they practically prove what APer's are saying...but they're talking therapies - nothing about getting the buggers out of there. So...no cure. Again.
We do have a couple of prayers anyhow.
1) some hot shot wants the Nobel Prize and invents something to help us. Think Dr. Marshall and H. Pylori.
or
2) we get off our butts and band together and demand changes from Pharma, the government and Big Agri.
Oh - wait - that's one will NEVER happen because we're sick people who can't focus enough to actually figure out who our elected officials are.
Therefore - we have one shot.
Pip
I didn't think you were being snippy, sorry if I sounded like I was. It must have been my typing, cuz their was no snippy in my head.I sure wish global warming would come to Michigan. last I heard it was 25 below with the windchill.
edited to add this important note~ That should not be taken as a request for your stinky socks.
Linncn2008-02-10 21:38:27Pip, you couldn't get a tb test in Mi?? I just had one less that a year ago. i would have to get another if I had not gotten the results of my last one from my doc. I don't know why you couldn't find a doctor to give you one. Although tb is not the point, it is practically wiped out in the US. Their are some populations that it still occurs, I think among hiv patients it's still up their, but in the general populataion it isn't really a threat anymore.
So your saying that no one is reasearching a cure for RA. So then, why not all diseases? I'll bet most diseases they do try to find (and have found) cures for would be much more profitable to just treat the symptoms. Why do you think they have targeted victims of RA (and other AI diseases) to shake down?
We have TB in my area, in part due to a large immigrant population. In fact the last time my husband was in the hospital, we got a letter from the hospital a couple weeks later. Turns out one of his nurses had TB. He had to go get tested a couple of times to make sure he didn't catch it.
Regarding treat vs. cure: my brother-in-law has spent his entire career searching for ways to CURE heart disease rather than just treat the symptoms. There is a HUGE amount of research in this area. Just think about it - therapies that could possibly REVERSE the damage that my husband's heart sustained from the heart attack! REVERSE the plaque build-up! He wouldn't need to take medications anymore!
Of course, some of this depends upon the patient. If my husband were to take up drinking and smoking, quit going to the gym and eat nothing but crap, it wouldn't matter if his current problems were "cured" or not. It would just come back.
Of course, he could just go get it fixed again... at that point, does it become a therapy (because it becomes a periodic ongoing treatment), rather than a cure (treatment with a finite endpoint)?
I'm starting to consider that you do have your own mind. Do any of you believe that George W. and any other george from texas doesn't really absolutely care and love your american mom and dad? What is wrong with you people? Does George American want harm to you and yours? Say yes and you are a mistaken.
Angry LEV
levlarry2008-02-11 01:24:08Shouldn't this be labeled "OT" ?
Yes - my doc refused for both me and hubby and we insisted on testing. This was prior to AI diseases for both of us. There was a huge 'spike' in TB cases in Cali and they started automatically testing restaurant workers to avoid the Typhoid Mary scenario. Here's a link to some recent trends showing rates coming down after going up.
The problem isn't so much OLD TB but the new and improved super TB that's coming in from other places in the world. We are not prepared for it...and it's resistant to most antibiotics. TB is a cell wall deficient bacteria (I think - to be honest, all I know is that when they explain AP to newbies they say the science is the same in that the white blood cells are co-opted like TB or leprosy. Since I had neither I didn't study that and will fail that portion of the test. ;-)
Where did I hear the story about the guy with extra resistant TB getting on a plane and they had to test everybody on it? And that selfish SOB had an uncle that worked for the CDC?
Jasmine - with the advent of 'life sciences' and hospitals and Universities sharing in the profits on the development of 'therapies', I seriously doubt any cure that reverses plaque is forthcoming. And I'd love to see any research you've got that doesn't use the word 'therapy'. We are not looking at what the wording means. We think it means 'cure'. It doesn't - it means pipeline.
You know I respect you and your research. Take a month and research mycoplasma and plaque and minocycline and heart disease. Tell me your conclusions after expending that effort. There's a reason that researcher at Vanderbilt put himself on abx after testing positive and with showing no signs of heart disease.
The problem is AP is only a 'holding pattern'. Until somebody finds a way to permanently remove those microbes from the white blood cells - nobody is getting a cure. Anything else is a 'therapy'.
Even the idiots who proved how they got in the cells (let alone it was only a hypothesis to that point) want to turn it into a 'therapy' and get money to bring it to market.
Pip
Snow - don't go anywhere - I think Katie was referring to Lev - she knows threads mutate.
In answer to your earlier post - I'm discouraged because I just don't see how we're going to overcome 'greed'.
Lately, all I can think is of Bonnie Tyler's lyrics.
Where have all the good men gone
And where are all the gods?
Where's the street-wise Hercules
To fight the rising odds?
Isn't there a white knight upon a fiery steed?
Late at night I toss and turn and dream
of what I need
[Chorus]
I need a hero
I'm holding out for a hero 'til the end of the night
He's gotta be strong
And he's gotta be fast
And he's gotta be fresh from the fight
I need a hero
I'm holding out for a hero 'til the morning light
He's gotta be sure
And it's gotta be soon
And he's gotta be larger than life
We need a hero.
Pip
There is definitely corruption, waste and greed in the pharmaceutical world... after all, it's run by humans. But having worked in big pharma for most of my career, and being married to a former Marine who is now senior management at a big pharma, and having various friends and relatives in big pharma... I honestly don't see any widespread conspiracies to keep you, me, or the rest of the world sick and hooked.
My friends in Pharma don't see it either. They just do their part to keep things honest and going. My one friends husbands job was to evaluate efficacy studies...and the company he worked for was in deep doodoo and when they looked...they saw a LOT of things that should have been killed but weren't with studies that were faulty and documents that had been altered and missing info.
Now, the people conducting the original studies were long gone...but they KNEW they were slanting/altering them.
All I can say is I hope there's a ring in hell for people like this.
Pip
Pip,
Hey, you cannot keep making such slanderous statememnts without proof. Seriously. Our government, our doctors, our fda and other governmental agencies are not corrupt. If you have solid evidence then bring it forward so people can go to jail.
LEV
*cough*
Sure she can. Just like you do about everyone else who disagrees with you.
[QUOTE=SnowOwl][QUOTE=arriscolwell]Shouldn't this be labeled "OT" ? [/QUOTE]
A little thief is just a big thief waiting to grow up. A little liar is just a big liar waiting to grow up. I hate liars, I hate hieves.
LEV
Ya hate hieves? If I knew what that was, I might hate it too.....
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