The news has finally reached the information highway's last, lonely outpost;
Western governments have made a wrong turn in energy policy by supporting the large-scale conversion of plants into fuel and should reconsider that strategy, according to a new report from a prominent environmental think tank.
Turning plant matter into liquid fuel or electricity is so inefficient that the approach is unlikely ever to supply a substantial fraction of global energy demand, the report found. It added that continuing to pursue this strategy -- which has already led to billions of dollars of investment -- is likely to use up vast tracts of fertile land that could be devoted to helping feed the world's growing population.
Gawd but these people are stupid. We've been saying that for years already. Didn't need another study, just common sense.
More unsettled science.
What a piece of useless drivel. After the opening paragraph, every second sentence has a reference to globull warming, or CO2, or runaway temperatures, etc. But then, what would one expect from a supposed "non-partisan" research group and the NY Slimes.
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Not only that Kate .... wind farm proponents and owners are just now realizing that the huge wind generators do not last forever
A recent study shows that after 10 years electricity production drops by one third because of worn components .... and within 12-15 years the whole unit must be replaced
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File this under...No Shit Sherlock
Burning food is immoral.
Policies that make food and energy more expensive are immoral.
Bird mills and subsidies farms are immoral.
DUH!!
Again we see the disastrous impact of
misdirected/politicized "sustainability". No doubt the mechanics which bring about these large scale public-private subsidized partnerships in "sustainable" energy were hashed out behind closed doors, by a select group then pitched at a Delphi-method meeting of the local Agenda 21 committee and local council to rubber stamp it.
"Sustainability" - that is your trigger word - wherever you see this applied to a project sponsored by governments, you are seeing Agenda 21 template put into action.
Going forward to the 2nd decade of the millennium, Agenda 21 planning will become the prominent factor in disastrous economic failures of sustainability projects by governments - this will be a disappointment to the true believers who were fooled into thinking Agenda-21 was some eco plan, but for the scions of this neo-feudal global redistribution of wealth, and control of land and resources, the plan to disadvantage the private sector holdings of the west with financial stress andregulation is going as planned.
Use this buzz word "sustainable development" or "smart growth" to do a google search of your own town.city.region - chances are good you will see there is an Agenda 21 planning committee in your jurisdiction directing land use and allocating public funding into disasterous "sustainability" projects.
As Peter rightly notes, there's nothing new in this, contrary to the claims of the Times; we've been saying this for years. And it still gets it wrong with the claim that solar PV is 50 times as effective as biofuel. Rather difficult when solar can only use 13 per cent of insolation whereas plants use all sunlight in photosynthesis.
Experts.
Experts are never wrong. If experts seem to be wrong, they are not.
The reality is wrong.
Experts are always right.
"...Didn't need another study, just common sense."
It used to be that our common sense was grounded in the real world because it was common for people to work with their hands, outside to get their living. The sense that is common now is based on artificial environments - offices, shops, factories - because in the first world the common experience is working indoors on and with ideas and information told to us in classrooms buy experts.
EXPERT.......some one who "thinks" a lot, and know nothing.
Kate, "last, lonely outpost", excellent characterization of the Liberal flagship mouthpiece.
All of the above. As Justthinkin and Occam discuss, this article only hints or suggests at a small rejigging of the new religion's war and arsenal against resource development. The main tenants of misinformation and propaganda of the Agenda 21 crowd continue on unchecked.
In my opinion, regardless of some setbacks in these people's pushing of the AGW scam part of the agenda, the war is being slowly won by them as more and more we see commercials using words like "sustainable", "green", words on packages with a green background.
As peterj says, most here have understood this immoral use of food producing acres for fuel production for quite some time. Although at first ethanol seemed to be a good thing when farmers were burdened with low grain prices.
OMG "duh" is right, liberals only took ten years to print one article in their little red commie book, and then the article gets almost everything wrong anyway.
Won't change a thing though we'll still be forced to pay more for food AND fuel because liberals are such an amazingly sustainable bunch of stupid assholes.
...could be devoted to helping feed the world's growing population...
Now I'm confused, I thought that lefties didn't want the world population to grow.
"...land that could be devoted to helping feed the world's growing population"
For the eco crazies it's a feature not a bug. Orginial sin requires that someone suffer and as long as its little brown people that won't get in the way of the delivery of the next iphone, who cares?
The NYT waking up(finally) and smelling the coffee? Hardly. The fundamental calculus of biofuels remains the same: US Biofuel subsidies go mainly to corn, which is mainly grown in Iowa, which is where the first US presidential primaries are held. If you want to become president, you have to win Iowa, which means these subsidies can never be cut, no matter how stupid they are, no matter how much environmental damage they do, no matter how much taxpayer money they waste. Meanwhile the Greens continue to piss and moan about "subsidies to Big Oil"
If we could harness all the Hot air and BS for energy sources then AL GORE and GREENPEACE would be very useful
On the other hand maybe all those folks who have been eating food the first world grew and in many cases gave them need to become food self sufficient. Then this would cease to be an issue.
The "stop reading this crap" point came early: "Some types of biofuels do make environmental sense, the report found, particularly those made from wastes like sawdust, tree trimmings and cornstalks."
When grain prices are low, farmers should be converting grain into whiskey, (or whisky if they grew that sort of grain.) Diversification. But of course, regulations that prevent free enterprise exist to give the government something to do.
The one type of biofuel that makes sense to me is wood. You get warm chopping your own, then it keeps you warm when you burn it. You also have to clean up the ashes afterwards, so bonus, not only does it work as fuel, it can teach an important life lesson, recalling George Washington's quote comparing government to fire: " ...a troublesome servant and a fearful master, ..." - he might have added that it always leaves a mess to be cleaned up.
"The one type of biofuel that makes sense to me is wood."
Aye, indeed...I've got mine going right now. But I just know that ordinary old firewood isn't contemplated when these dickheads talk about biofuels.
A good use for Corn Squeezens
I have also seen "expert" defined as someone with a briefcase more than 100 km from home, but I have always liked the logic that "ex" means washed up, and a "spurt" is a drip under pressure.
Sorry, my previous comment was a reply to a post by NME666.
sawdust, tree trimmings and cornstalks."
Crop residue is an important element in soil conservation.
Traditional use of crop residue as litter for livestock shows this is a venerable concept.