saveourwetlands.org

Over Producton of Corn/Ethanol Will Do More Harm Than Good for Environment

While the whole process of alcohol fuel is less damaging to the climate than fuel from gasoline or oil, what can be positive for the environment can turn negative. The Bush administrations choice of "Ethanol" could destroy everything from the Gulf of Mexico with its expanding 'dead zone', to the Amazon ramping up deforestation, while increasing food prices worldwide.
  1. Dec. 20, 2007 - Corn Ethanol and Its Consequences - The growth of the corn ethanol industry is fraught with unintended consequences, none of them beneficial to the economy or environment. They include deleterious effects on our overcommitted water resources, on our air quality, on the price of food, and on the financial burden to our citizens while private investors profit.

  2. Dec. 17, 2007 - Corn Boom May Expand "Dead Zone" - The nation's corn crop is fertilized with millions of pounds of nitrogen-based fertilizer. And when that nitrogen runs off fields in Corn Belt states, it makes its way to the Mississippi River and eventually pours into the Gulf, where it contributes to a growing "dead zone" - a 7,900-square-mile patch so depleted of oxygen that fish, crabs and shrimp suffocate.

  3. Sept. 28, 2007 - Jane Goodall Says Biofuel Crops Hurt Rain Forests - Primate scientist Jane Goodall said on Wednesday the race to grow crops for vehicle fuels is damaging rain forests in Asia, Africa and South America and adding to the emissions blamed for global warming...

  4. June 28, 2007 - The Coming Biofuels Disaster - Have you ever tried to solve a problem only to discover that you made things worse in the process? This is happening right now with biofuels. We are on the road to disaster because the problem we are trying to solve has been framed inadequately. Harmful impacts from large-scale biofuel production are largely overlooked. And we aren't even addressing the right problem! The truth can be seen when we frame issues in the context of livability...

  5. June 10, 2007 - Gulf's Dead Zone Growing, Despite Pledge to Control - Waste water and fertilizer runoff from farms (corn/ethanol) and towns hundreds of miles up the Mississippi pour billions of pounds of excess nutrients into the Gulf, sparking unnatural algae blooms that choke off the oxygen needed for the food chain to survive.

  6. March 27, 2007 - Economist: Biofuel May Raise Food Prices - Increased production of biofuels such as ethanol might help farmers' bottom lines and address climate-change concerns, but it could inflate food prices worldwide, warns a former White House economist...

  7. March 7, 2007 - Proposed U.S. - Brazil Ethanol Alliance Threatens Amazon Rainforest - It's a question of whether the Amazon is sufficiently protected and whether the expansion of the ethanol production happens in the context of government policies that try and direct that growth potential in a sustainable base...

  8. Death in the Gulf of Mexico - With farmlands increasingly being used to grow corn for ethanol production the fertilizers that are used run-off into the Mississippi River then flow into the Gulf of Mexico creating a "dead zone" leaving creatures lifeless at its bottom and survivors fleeing to its edges...

  9. June 10, 2003 - Restoring Wetlands May Aid Dead Zone - The federal-state plan to restore Louisiana’s rapidly eroding coastal wetlands could help solve another Louisiana problem: the annual dead zone, an area of low oxygen that forms each spring along the coastline...

FAIR USE NOTICE: This site contains copyrighted material the use of which has not always been specifically authorized by the copyright owner. We are making such material available in our efforts to advance understanding of environmental, political, human rights, economic, democracy, scientific, and social justice issues, etc. We believe this constitutes a 'fair use' of any such copyrighted material as provided for in section 107 of the US Copyright Law. In accordance with Title 17 U.S.C. Section 107, the material on this site is distributed without profit to those who have expressed a prior interest in receiving the included information for research and educational purposes. Save Our Wetlands Inc.(SOWL) has no affiliation whatsoever with the originator of this article nor is Save Our Wetlands Inc.(SOWL) endorsed or sponsored by the originator. For more information go to:www.law.cornell.edu/uscode/17/107. If you wish to use copyrighted material from this site for purposes of your own that go beyond 'fair use', you must obtain permission from the copyright owner.