科学与发展网络(SciDev.Net)

The decisions being taken by governments around the world in the quest for sustainability are a catastrophe for humankind in the long-term. Two of these decisions currently at the forefront of news are biofuels, and carbon capture and storage (see Biofuel revolution threatens food security for the poor).

Biofuels — the fuel revolution that will supposedly help us:

(1) Growing crops in the United States for biofuels requires around the same energy input for fertilisers and processing the crops as that saved by replacing petrol on the forecourt (Biofuels - A solution worse than the problem, Daily Telegraph).

(2) By harvesting the peat bogs for biofuels, we release 30 times more carbon dioxide than will be recouped by burning the biofuel produced (Prof. Jack Riley, University of Nottingham).

(3) Growing biofuels takes a lot of land and huge amounts of water — neither of which the world has to spare.

(4) China and India risk famine if they proceed with their biofuels plans, because they don't have enough water to grow both fuel and food (International Water Management Institute).

(5) Biofuels are killing forests and leading to more global warming, besides taking land away from food crops (Global Forest Coalition).

(6) The diversion of land meant for food crops to agrofuel production is a "crime against humanity" (Jean Ziegler, UN Special Rapporteur on the Right to Food).

Carbon Capture — putting off today what others will have to solve tomorrow:

(1) Carbon sequestration and storage (under our oceans and land) is an untried method of locking up carbon dioxide forever, but there is not a 100 per cent assurance that it will not escape. Possible escape routes include earthquakes, land shifts, terrorism (holding the world to ransom) or human disasters/accidents.

(2) Sequestration and storage of carbon dioxide is not a solution, but a problem that humankind will have to face in the future — one that might eventually threaten the existence of human life itself on Earth, for nothing ever designed has lasted forever.

(3) Governments, as usual, are only looking at solving problems today without any understanding of what this will bring in the future. They are attempting to lock up gases that are toxic to humans — leaving any problems for future generations to solve.

(4) If there was a rupture in the storage vessel, the ramifications for the world would be immense, to say the very least. Therefore, carbon capture is a method of putting off  today what others will have to fix tomorrow (if they can).