Term 2:
Environmental Issues

Link for the original article: http://news.bbc.co.uk/2/hi/science/nature/5369284.stm

Review:

This article, from BBC, explores the use of biofuels from an entirely different perspective. Most of us regard biofuels as something which will keep our lives running smoothly even when all the petroleum fuels are deplenished. They are essentially regarded as the future saviours if mankind. But are they? The article reveals a lot of statistical data and many others facts which say otherwise. The article has beautifully stated that biofuels might be a “penny wise pound foolish” way of obtaining energy. Biofuels would need a lot of plantations which would result in the destruction of natural environment. This was a perspective which, according to me, very few people explored. In fact, I feel that the author’s main purpose in writing this article is to clear away some misunderstandings in the minds of the people about biofuel. The article also provides a detailed understanding of why and how biofuel can affect the environment. There is a fact that the amount of grain required to fuel a car for two weeks will feed an African village for a year. With this, the article has clearly mentioned how forests will reduce due to plantations of biofuels. The plantations will also require a large amount of fresh water, which can certainly not be afforded with such a decline in forests. Also, crops like maize require a lot of water which is found in very few places in the world. So, these places will be burdened with producing biofuel, which will again make transporting it quite a business. Thus, it can be realized that the article’s main focus it to point out the drawbacks of biofuel and its use on earth. There are also a lot of other drawbacks like the induction of biofuel into the private sector, which, as explained in the article, can have a lot of negative effects. And it is a bit difficult to contain an industry in the public sector, which often leads to illegal manipulation of that industry in the private sector. And this is largely unwanted as precious land is being absorbed for its production. The article gives many examples to illustrate the point. It shows enlightening illustrations like the Swiss biotech firm which is designing different new ways as well as examples of the current ways and how they will fail. However, the article also examines the issue from a positive point of view. For instance, it states that in the long term view, biofuels have a lot of advantage over conventional fuel, like disposal of forest wastes, etc. In this way, we can conclude that biofuel is not really an effective of energy, in fact almost nothing compared to petroleum fuels. Biofuel can be used only as a secondary and supportive, secondary source of energy, but there has to be some strong primary source of energy, which can save the world after the conventional fuels are extinguished.