Vielen dank, EU

Endnu en konsekvens af, at EU bruger milliarder på at omdanne afgrøder til bioetanol: De tyske ølpriser er på himmelflugt.

Men hvis det er for klimaets skyld, kan vi vel allesammen godt tåle at drikke lidt mindre øl, ikke? Uheldigvis tyder ny forskning på, at når der tages højde for alle led i produktionen, er bioetanol faktisk med til at forværre drivhuseffekten.

The benefits of biofuels have come under increasing attack in recent months, as scientists took a closer look at the global environmental cost of their production. … It does not matter if it is rain forest or scrubland that is cleared, the greenhouse gas contribution is significant. More important, they discovered that, globally, the production of almost all biofuels resulted, directly or indirectly, intentionally or not, in new land’s being cleared for food or fuel.

”When you take this into account, most of the biofuel that people are using or planning to use would probably increase greenhouse gases substantially,” said Timothy Searchinger, lead author of one of the studies and a researcher in environment and economics at Princeton.