Additional Resources on Cellulosic Ethanol, Agrofuels, and Related Topics:
“Next Generation Biofuels”: Bursting the New “Green” Bubble (2009)
The letter explains why large-scale industrial production of transport fuels and other energy from plants such as corn, sugar cane, oilseeds, trees, grasses, or so-called agricultural and woodland waste threatens forests, biodiversity, food sovereignty, community-based land rights and will worsen climate change. The letter’s originators warn that if Obama’s “New Green Economy” runs on agrofuels it may trap the U.S. in a dangerous “Green Bubble” of unrealistic promises from an unsustainable industry.
The True Cost of Agrofuels: Impacts on Food, Forests, People and Climate (2008)
This report is a comprehensive analysis of the many facets of the Agrofuels agenda covering issues of soil, corporate control and consolidation, water, plantations and pulp mills, fertilizer usage, Genetic Engineering, transportation, and climate change. The conclusion fleshes out pathways and solutions to meeting the challenges for which agrofuels are a false solution.
From 1st- to 2nd-Generation Biofuel Technologies (International Energy Agency, 2008) (Extended Executive Summary)
A pillar of energy orthodoxy, the IEA, has all but written off the potential for second generation biofuels in the next decade, and suggests the breakeven prices required will be quite high. “Overall, unless there is a technical breakthrough in either the biochemical or thermo-chemical routes that will significantly lower the production costs and accelerate investment and deployment, it is expected that successful commercialization of 2nd -generation biofuels will take another decade or so.” The IEA also introduces useful text on the realities of first generation biofuels.
Biofuel Archive and other publications by Dr. Tad W. Patzek
- Concerns over notes on biofuels in IPCC AR4 Mitigation report and SPM (2007 letter to chair of IPCC)
- How Can We Outlive
Our Way of Life? (2007 paper prepared for the 20th Round Table on Sustainable Development of Biofuels: Is the Cure Worse than the Disease?) - The Forest Killers (2006 Peter Huber article in Forbes Magazine)
- Green Plants, Fossil Fuels, and Now Biofuels (Bioscience, 2006)
- Why cellulosic ethanol will not save us? (2006 article in Venture Beat)
- The Real Biofuel Cycles (Online Supporting Material for Science Letter, Vol. 312, p. 1747, 26 June, 2006)
How GM Crops Destroy the Third World
Written by Lim Li Ching and brought to you by the Independent Science Panel (ISP), a panel of scientists from many disciplines, committed to the Promotion of Science for the Public Good. This page has case studies from Argentina, Indonesia, and India.
