Rakstiņš par to, kāda negatīva ietekme uz vidi varētu būt intensīvai bioetanola ražošanai

"Those who defend the idea of promoting the production of biofuel as an alternative to hydrocarbons say that ethanol is a clean fuel, less damaging to those used to date. Laboratory analysis of the product confirms that in the combustion process, the percentage of the CO2 emissions and other contaminating elements is less than those emitted from burning fossil fuels. Its renewable character is obvious. These are two true factors relating to ethanol, but unfortunately this is not the whole truth. According to a study of the production process associated with this alcohol derivative, there are significant polluting effects related to the necessary use of fossil fuels for field preparation, planting, crop management, harvesting, transferring of raw materials to the factory and its industrial processing. But there's more. The large amounts of agricultural produce needed for this new type of energy would require the conversion of millions of acres of forest in different regions of the planet, mainly in the Third World, which would be the greatest supplier of corn, soy, sunflowers and other crops. To understand the magnitude of the problem: Argentina, with a high percentage of its rural areas already devoted to agricultural production, is said to be prepared to produce 100 million tons of soy. Where would they find the land to reach their goal?
It is not difficult to imagine the negative effects on the climate caused by the elimination of areas that play an important role in the necessary and weak ecological balance. As it is already known, forests are highly beneficial, as they absorb large amounts of rain and contribute in avoiding frequent flooding.
They constitute natural barriers that stop soil erosion and store large amounts of nutrients, which protect the earth's core. They are important providers of the atmosphere's oxygen, indispensable for enriching and cleaning the air.
Add to this the fact that soy and corn are planted in rows, thereby provoking erosion of the land and requiring enormous amounts of fertilizers, herbicides and pesticides, whose residues are generally washed away by rain into rivers, lakes and the sea. There is also the idea of looking for more yields, the production of trans-genetic agricultural products which are not eatable and are turn into substances dangerous for human consumption. And all this is being planned for the developed nations to the North --basically the United States and Europe-- for a regular supply of "clean fuel" for their voracious automobiles. Just calculate how much ethanol the US would need with its 940 cars for every 1,000 inhabitants, approximately 280,000,000 cars. We are not anticipating anything. This is a process underway, maybe at a faster pace than expected and with visible consequences for the reduction of forest areas in the Amazon, the principal lungs of the planet. This bolds the contamination of a portion of the Gulf of Mexico, with so little oxygen that it barely allows the existence of life. After all this, can we really say that ethanol is a "clean fuel"?"

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