We already have issues with food. Whatever happened to hydro-powered vehicles? Why are we investing in something that will further damage our environment rather than really cool cars that will, instead, help the environment and put water back in? I'm sure that there's a catch with hydro-powered vehicles, but I don't think that it'll be as large of a toll as taking food out of the mouths of people to power vehicles and create even further deforestation in order to have a means for this end.
100% |
0% (4 votes)
ANY Hydrocarbon + O2 = CO2 + Water + (in incomplete combustion, carbon (soot))
CO2 = Greenhouse Effect.
It’s that simple.
What we need is a paradigm shift to TRULY renewable sources.
43% |
57% (7 votes)
We need to use our crops to feed people.
50% |
50% (6 votes)
Stop thinking about what to burn next. The same goes for electric cars. To make electricity there are still plants burning coal. Step over your fear because the sooner the better.
Nuclear plants - The nuclear is sooo scary but counting the ration of blown up plants and land devastated to bio fuel then its major plus for electric cars
Hydrogen - Well true, Arnold Schwarzenegger has a Hydro-Hummer so we should all do it :) Nah, but true, instead of electricity it is more like a fuel.
50% |
50% (6 votes)
There are 923 million people starving. Turning corn into fuel because you want to get to the McDonald's DriveIn isn't gonna help those poor suckers.
The impact of biofuel on the foodmarket is proven, think about it.
50% |
50% (4 votes)
That last thing we want to do is start burning food.
67% |
33% (3 votes)
Bio fuels are part of an interim solution for our demand on energy.
Bio fuels are carbon neutral, when farmed correctly.
Existing engines can be converted. Reducing time, resources and money.
Bio fuels should be STRICTLY monitored and grown LOCALLY and not transported great distances.
They are part of an overall solution for energy combined with wind, tidal, solar, hydro, geothermal and much more. No ONE solution will be the best but a mixture based on the local environment.
67% |
33% (3 votes)
The combustion engine is the culprit, regardless of the fuel. The electric car, coupled with solar/hydro/wind power is the future.
25% |
75% (4 votes)
Biofuels MUST come from a waist source or other technology like algae (look into it)
Corn, canola, other plants like these cannot be used for efficient fuel production.
Clearing rain forests makes no sense if your goal is becoming carbon neutral. Neither does hydrogen in the short term. There is no distribution method! At least for now we need a liquid fuel at ambient temperature and pressure.
'There will be no food' argument is a falacy. Biofuels are made out of sugarcane (ethanol), sunflower and/or mamona oil (biodiesel). Today, production destined for food is mostly based on corn, soy and rice. It's a new market that opens up, not a change in the current food market.
The use of biofuels does release CO2 in the atmosphere too, obviously. But contrary to fossil fuels, this CO2 is not being introduced in the environment "for free"; instead it is already part of the natural CO2 cycle.
Biofuel is just the begining! :)
There is only so much carbon we can take from the inside of our planet and release to the outside.
Bio fuel reduces this.
biofuels made from recycled products is good. biofuels made from land clearing is bad.
A robust biofuels industry will help reduce GHG emissions from biomass decay of the growing biowaste problems we face now and in the future. It can be used to clean up disaster debris from hurricanes and floods; divert urban waste from landfills; and salvage wood from wildfires and forest bug infestations. Urbanites need this industry to help rural communities become stronger.
One cannot use corn for the production of ethanol or turn farmlands growing food crops into bio-fuel farms without sowing the seeds of a large-scale disaster.
But molasses can be used for the production of bio-ethanol and bio-diesel can be extracted from sources like Jatropha and Pongamia that are grown on wastelands.
Bio-fuels cannot be a permanent replacement for fossil fuels. They can be a stop-gap arrangement to be used along with fossil fuels till new technologies are perfected.
I voted for biofuels but my true feelings dictate that I clarify. I personally believe biofuels as they are currently mandated is complete and utter nonsense, both economically and environmentally. However, the pickle we find ourselves in is one that requires solutions we have yet to find. The very solution COULD be biofuels.