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P: Land clearing and the biofuel carbon debt
| Venue: | Science |
| Citations: | 249 - 3 self |
BibTeX
@ARTICLE{Fargione_p:land,
author = {Joseph Fargione and Jason Hill and David Tilman and Stephen Polasky and Peter Hawthorne},
title = {P: Land clearing and the biofuel carbon debt},
journal = {Science},
year = {},
pages = {319--1235}
}
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Abstract
Increasing energy use, climate change, and carbon dioxide (CO2) emissions from fossil fuels make switching to lowcarbon fuels a high priority. Biofuels are a potential lowcarbon energy source, but whether biofuels offer carbon savings depends on how they are produced. Converting rainforests, peatlands, savannas, or grasslands to produce food-based biofuels in Brazil, Southeast Asia, and the United States creates a ‘biofuel carbon debt ’ by releasing 17 to 420 times more CO2 than the annual greenhouse gas (GHG) reductions these biofuels provide by displacing fossil fuels. In contrast, biofuels made from waste biomass or from biomass grown on abandoned agricultural lands planted with perennials incur little or no carbon debt and offer immediate and sustained GHG advantages. Demand for alternatives to petroleum is increasing the
Keyphrases
biofuel carbon debt land clearing fossil fuel food-based biofuels waste biomass carbon dioxide carbon saving abandoned agricultural land southeast asia potential lowcarbon energy source offer immediate ghg advantage united state high priority climate change annual greenhouse gas energy use carbon debt
