Advantages And Disadvantages Of Biofuels

816 Words2 Pages
bulb-icon

Recommended: Short essay on the alternative fuels of future

The concept of this essay is to stress that biofuels are a viable and sustainable energy source than fossil fuels, showing its advantages but not ignoring its disadvantages which also enlightens us about the cleaner and renewable natural resources. Biofuels is an alternative source of energy which can end the global dependence on fossil fuels. Biofuels produce lesser levels of toxic emissions. The usage of fossil fuels captures heat within the atmosphere of the earth which causes the greenhouse effect, resulting to global warming. Hence biofuels release fewer of these greenhouse gases and so likely contribute less to global warming. Primarily the burning of fossil fuels and clearing of forests have intensified the natural greenhouse effect …show more content…

More farmers are now planting crops for biofuel, resulting to an intense drop in food production. According to experts this promising alternative energy source is seemingly causing a global decrease of food supply. As the demand for biofuels increases, more industrialized countries are offering encouragements and subsidizing farmers to grow crops for fuel rather than for food. The biofuel production method was also anticipated to be carbon neutral, as the crops would absorb the carbon dioxide released when the biofuel was burned. However crops for fuel are now grown at such a rate that they need more energy to cultivate, grow and harvest. By the time it reaches households, it would have consumed more energy and released more greenhouse causing substances than the feared fossil fuels would have. The fact that emissions are released during production, processing, fertilizer application and as a result of land use change is highly ignored. Somehow biofuels can sidetrack less harmful and clean resources like renewable energies such as solar and wind energy. Large scale cultivation of biofuel crops, unlike small scale, locally produced and biofuel owned farms are commonly challenged by problems such as severe use of water, chemicals, fertilizers and pesticides. These also often lead to pollution, depleting and degrading available water resources which can cause famines. According to contrary believe of analysts, it has also shown that there is not enough farming land on earth to produce biofuel crops to meet the huge energy needs encouraged by our current and unmaintainable ways of living. http://www.greenerideal.com/science/0516-biofuels/ &

Show More
Related

  • Pros and Cons to Biofuels

    1144 Words  | 3 Pages

    As stated earlier, the burning of fossil fuels to produce energy is one of the largest contributors to global warming. This non-environmentally friendly energy source has to be replaced in order to keep the world going. There is a type of energy source that seems easy to create and doesn’t require radical changes: Biofuels. Biofuels are a greener version of diesel and oil. They are any solid, liquid, or gas fuels produced from organic matter; the range of organic materials used for biofuel production includes plants such as corn, sugar cane, soy, and wheat; vegetable oils and animal fats; ...

    Read More

  • The Pros And Cons Of Ethanol Production

    1713 Words  | 4 Pages

    Ethanol production was developed in hopes of severing our ties with fossil fuels in favor of alternative energy, such as biofuels. Although, VOCs emissions are released during production of ethanol in a factory, the quality of air is greatly improved when burning ethanol versus fossil fuels. Burning ethanol instead of fossil fuels reduces the amount of cancer-causing greenhouse gases that go into the atmosphere. Ethanol production ranks at the bottom of industrial water usage, but is still not out of the woods with the abundance of water usage needed in corn feedstock and ethanol manufacturing and processing facilities. Many acres of land are needed to grow corn crops, however, many corn farmers are successful in growing more corn on less acreage.

    Read More

  • All Biofuels Are Not Created Equal by David Tilman and Jason Hill

    816 Words  | 2 Pages

    “All Biofuels Are Not Created Equal” is a very informative article that everyone should be aware of. The authors of this article show how biofuels can be made to benefit Earth. Our ecological footprint is so big that everyone requires 2.5 Earths to maintain the same lifestyle. What does this reveal? It reveals that Earth’s resources are being diminished. This means that the world needs to do something to prevent this so Earth can last for future generations. The way that biofuels are being made is not very effective in helping this problem. This is because it either requires deforestation or the burning of fossil fuels, which the world is trying to stop. Instead of using corn or sugar cane as ethanol, alternative crops should be used because it will benefit our environment the most.

    Read More

  • Importance Of Climate Change Essay

    1379 Words  | 3 Pages

    The emission of carbon dioxide has contributed to 80% to the heating of the earth atmosphere. Carbon dioxide is produced due the burning of fossil fuels such as natural gas, coal and oil. The burning of fossil fuel is very important in our society today, because it is used for cooking, used to produce electricity, for heating, for cooling and also for transportation. The industrialization has led to the use of fossil fuel for running machines and driving cars. The building of fossil fuel contributes towards 80-90% of the carbon dioxide we find in our atmosphere today. When the ecosystems are altered and vegetation is either burned or took out, the carbon stored in them is relinquished to the atmosphere as carbon dioxide (What causes global climate change, 2005). Methane is another gas being produced in the process which all have served to increase the greenhouse effect in our atmosphere. Methane is produced from the cultivation of rice, from the burning of coal and from cattle, it has increased by 145% due to human

    Read More

  • How Do Fossil Fuels Negatively Impact Earth?

    1233 Words  | 3 Pages

    ...lobal warming and innumerable animal fatalities worldwide. Workers in the fossil fuel industries undergo irrational risks of an inevitable explosion every day. Thousands of human lives have been taken in offshore oil rig explosions, coal mines and natural gas pipelines. In addition, fossil fuels are directly linked to rising global warming temperatures and drast changes in the environment. Likewise millions of avian fatalities were linked to fossil fuels plants, emitting greenhouse gases are responsible for acidic oceans that harm marine species, and thousands of animals are harmed by oil spills in the sea. Based on this research, fossil fuels are harming the Earth excessively. Renewable energy sources offer efficient and cleaner energy that will benefit the globe. Renewable energy is the definite solution to end human’s heavy dependence upon ancient fossil fuels.

    Read More

  • Biofuels Essay

    3324 Words  | 7 Pages

    Introduction:The idea of biofuels is a old concept, reaching as far as the ending of the 19th century. Solid in its idea but flawed in its presentation. Biofuels are a alternative energy to fossil fuels that are made from natural methods such as plants and crops and are key in solving the apparent flaws of fossil fuels. While fossil fuels have been in use for over a century, Biofuels have now risen to the popularity and been exposed to the press. At one point of time biofuel were being considered by some of the most brilliant minds ever in human history such as Henry Ford and Rudolph Diesel who believed that biofuels had the potential to be the new evolution s on only to reappear a century later. Now the world faces the struggles of global warming and the depletion of fossil fuels slowly dimming by day. Throughout the last century biofuels have proven to have a place in our society as a new alternative fuel source. Specializing in Being Natural and healthier than fossil fuels, biofuels have had a rough beginning against its competitor due to key situations such as pricing, Side effects, to fuel power. However the idea was passed on a to the later generations, and continued to pasand prolong usage. However through the last decade they have been highly advertised by politicians and Government officials claiming it to be the future of a powerful working society, and to help in making a new energy free world. Through belief Some even claiming that “By 2050, a new generation of sustainable biofuels could provide over a quarter of the world’s total transport fuel, according to a recent report by the International Energy Agency” (last name). With such improvement biofuels should be the obvious answer to providing a better future to th...

    Read More

  • A Rhetorical Analysis Of Junk Food

    692 Words  | 2 Pages

    618.3 million metric tons of CO2 equivalent are produced each year in the United States alone for agriculture (EPA). Agriculture is one source of greenhouse gasses we can’t eliminate, but we could as a species decide to eat greener. Cows are a massive producer of methane, but very few people are willing to give up or downsize their stake intake. With so much greenhouse gas produced the problem is compiled when the amount of clean water used is taken into context. “Globally we use 70% of our water sources for agriculture and irrigation, and only 10% on domestic uses.” On the same note of water conservation 783 million people don’t have access to clean water. The issue as addressed isn’t agriculture, but where we invest most of our resources in production (The Water Project). McDonalds would not have been happy if he mentioned this, but a Big Mac produces 6.8 lbs. in greenhouse gas emissions (Ganeshan,

    Read More

  • Effects Of Animal Agriculture Essay

    1573 Words  | 4 Pages

    Animal agriculture causes resource depletion, habitat loss, water scarcity, and global hunger. Not only do livestock add on to greenhouse gas emissions, but livestock uses thirty to forty percent of the earth’s entire land surface. As the world’s appetite for meat increases, countries are bulldozing huge areas of land to make room for livestock. Raising animals for food is responsible for ninety-one percent of the destruction of the Amazon. Approximately one to two acres of rainforest are being cleared out every second. More than twenty percent of the world 's oxygen is produced in the Amazon Rainforest. As more trees are cut down, the less carbon dioxide that can be absorbed. For each hamburger that originates from animals raised on rainforest land, fifty-five square feet of forest has been cleared out. Not only that, but most of the freshwater available for consumption is used for agribusiness. Animal agriculture is responsible for thirty percent of all freshwater consumption on earth. Growing crops to feed livestock consumes fifty to sixty percent of the water. One pound of beef requires two thousand and five hundred gallons of water. One gallon of milk requires a thousands gallons of water. One pound of eggs require four hundred and seventy-seven gallons of water. In addition to consuming huge amounts of water, animal agriculture has also polluted millions of gallons of water. Each day, factory farms produce millions of pounds of manure, which end up in rivers, oceans, and lakes. The one trillion pounds of waste produced by factory-farmed animals each year are used to fertilize crops. The waste runs off into waterways along with the drugs and bacteria that they contain. Waste ends up on crops and pits in the ground, polluting groundwater. The excrements of factory farming has contaminated and polluted thirty-five thousand miles of rivers in twenty-two states. The use of pesticides and chemical fertilizers poison waterways and creates dead

    Read More

  • The Effects of Green Revolution in the 70's

    815 Words  | 2 Pages

    ...tive mode of agricultural production. Other global environmental impacts from industrial agriculture include soil erosion, salinization and water logging from irrigation, surface and groundwater contamination from pesticides and fertilizers, and the loss of cultural and biological diversity. The second phase is accelerating these unsustainable trends and is creating a global industrial food system that is highly fossil fuel intensive not only in the production sector, but in processing and distribution – where the average food item is more highly processed, more heavily packaged, and transported increasing distances. By contributing to increasing economic and social inequities at both national and international levels, this system also increases the risks of social instability. The need for more sustainable and socially just food and agricultural systems is clear.

    Read More

  • Biofuels and Their Effects on Water Resources

    1918 Words  | 4 Pages

    1 Fraiture, C et al (2007) Biofuels and implications for agricultural water use. Water Policy 10 67-81. DOI: 10.2166/wp.2008.054

    Read More

  • Saving the Environment with Veganism

    908 Words  | 2 Pages

    Phasing out animal agriculture and replacing it with stronger, safer plant cultivation would greatly reduce pollution released into the environment as animal waste, burning fossil fuels, and contaminated water runoff. The animal waste produced in factory farms is dumped into immense open-air lago...

    Read More

  • Cause And Effect Essay On Greenhouse Effect

    830 Words  | 2 Pages

    The commonly debated “greenhouse effect” refers to “the global average temperature increase that has been observed over the last one hundred years or more” (Spencer). President Barack Obama addressed the issue in an effort to highlight its severity, "We have to all shoulder the responsibility for keeping the planet habitable, or we’re going to suffer the consequences – together” (Leader). The earth’s increasing atmospheric and oceanic temperatures result in climate changes due to cumulative amounts of carbon dioxide (CO2) in the atmosphere. As an outcome, researchers around the globe have established that the by-product of burning fossil fuels is the main culprit of the increasing temperatures. Global carbon emissions from fossil fuels have significantly increased since 1900, as shown above from a study carried out by the Carbon Dioxide Information Analysis Center.

    Read More

  • Climate Change In The Amazon Rainforest

    732 Words  | 2 Pages

    Some of the ways we try to combat Climate Change differes from region to region and culure to culture. One of the remedies that seems to be adapting all around the world is the use of biofuels instead of using fossil fuels. People believe that instead of digging up and using oil and petroleum, our best solution to combat greenhouse gases emitted by fossil fuels is to plant soybeans, sugar cane, palm oil and use that as a replacement. More cars are flex fuled, and use ethenol mixed with petroleum to lessen the use of oil since oil prices are only going to increase with the decreasing amount that is

    Read More

  • Examination of the Causes of the Food Crisis in The Politics of Hunger: How Illusion and Greed Fan the Food Crisis by Paul Collier

    519 Words  | 2 Pages

    With the increases in the global population and the increase need to feed this population, comes the great debate in how governments of the developed and developing world must tackle this important issue. In his article, The Politics of Hunger: How Illusion and Greed Fan the Food Crisis, Paul Collier examines the root causes of the food crisis and three ways (the slaying of giants) governments can easily come in finding a solution in the near-term, middle-term and long-term. The root causes, as outlined by Mr. Collier, are the increasing demand for food and increases in food prices. First, Collier states, “the first giant that must be slain is the middle to upper-class love affair with peasant agriculture.” In other words, increasing commercial agriculture and farming. Second, Collier states that the lifting of the genetically modified foods (GM crops) ban by Europe and Africa will allow a decrease in global food prices. Lastly, he states the United States must lift the subsidies on corn produced for biofuel and find an alternate biofuel source (like Brazilian sugar cane), thus decreasing the price on corn produced for food while increasing overall grain production.

    Read More

  • Essay On Agriculture Industry

    1444 Words  | 3 Pages

    The world’s population is increasing at a rapid rate. According to Worldometers, by 2050 there will be a need to feed 9.2 billion people globally (http://www.worldometers.info/world-population/). This translates to an increase in global food production by 70 percent to meet the global goal (http://www.populationinstitute.org/resources/populationonline/issue/1/8/). However, current food production methods are not sustainable and the amount of arable lands is decreasing. The agriculture industry experiences different challenges ranging from global to technological aspects. The global aspect is the most prominent challenges experienced and influenced by different factors such as dramatic economic growth in developing nations and urbanization resulting in more ‘consumers’ rather than ‘producers’. In addition, farm produced commodities are increasingly used as feed-stocks for bio-fuels in response to decreasing supply and increasing price of fossil fuels. Agriculture biotechnology organizations are committed to solve crop production problems and enhance agriculture productivity to sustainable levels to keep pace with the rapidly expanding global population. Multiple approaches have been utilized by these organizations to address these challenges and to date the two most significant are technological and scientific methods advancement.

    Read More

More about Advantages And Disadvantages Of Biofuels

Open Document