ETC Group - "Peak Soil + Peak Oil = Peak Spoils


Exerpts -
"With the agrofuels boom, the South’s land and labor is once again being exploited to perpetuate unjust and unsustainable consumption patterns in the North. Fuel crops are competing with food crops – and small farmers and poor consumers are losing out. Because huge amounts of energy are required to grow these crops, first generation agrofuels (from crops like maize and rapeseed/canola) may actually accelerate, rather than arrest, climate change." "The last thing the South needs is pressure to grow energy crops instead of food crops."

"Energy crops are the fastest growing segment of the world agriculture market."

"According to agrofuels’ boosters, there’s virtually no end to the benefits of 'energy crops.' As a clean and green alternative to fossil fuels, they claim, agrofuels will create jobs, expand markets for farmers (especially in the global South), clean the air, combat global warming, promote energy independence, make agricultural “wasteland” productive, assure a worried public that governments are tackling climate change, demonstrate that corporations are thinking 'green,' and on and on."

"In the name of 'sustainable energy,' thousands of indigenous and peasant communities have been forced – often violently – off their land to make room for energy crops."

"Since both food and fuel are derived from the same plants, food prices spike along with the demand for energy crops. Climate change will exacerbate the South’s food insecurity. Pressure to grow energy crops instead of food will be another added stress."

"Government incentives (including subsidies) to grow agrofuels are at an all-time high. According to the UN, energy crops are the fastest growing segment of the world agriculture market."

"Supplementing fossil fuels with a small percentage of agrofuels, as governments (mostly in the North) have begun to mandate, does nothing to disrupt – in fact, perpetuates – the economic and social structures that encourage the transport of commodities, people and products all over the globe, every day. Agriculture is already a substantial contributor to carbon emissions – responsible for 14% of global emissions, the same percentage as transport – so we can’t stop climate change by dramatically increasing energy crop production. Even more to the point, agrofuels don’t encourage changes in the North’s voracious energy consumption – nor do they threaten the profits of Big Oil." "Big Oil will move 'beyond petroleum' into bio-based fuels to make up for any losses in market share."

"Rather than viewing agrofuels as a threat, Big Oil sees an opportunity to diversify."

"The specter of peak oil has spurred a scramble for novel, bio-based energy sources (though little enthusiasm for curbing energy consumption)." "Oil giants like BP are diversifying their investments to be sure they’ve got a jump on whatever alternative(s) turn out to be most promising. But don’t expect the most productive and/or least environmentally damaging options to be the ones that are most readily adopted: Powerful governments and corporations will work together to determine the winners – the technologies that best serve their interests."

"The pursuit of more efficient fuel-production technologies continues. The alternative currently producing the most hype (if hardly any energy) is cellulosic fuels. The vision of cellulosic fuel turns every plant, living or dead, and every plant part into fuel feedstock – not just those plant parts with sugars that are easily extracted and then fermented."

"Governments and companies assume they will overcome the technical barriers to commercializing cellulosic fuel – perhaps within the next decade – but what are the implications, if they eventually capture the holy grail? What happens when all plant matter becomes a potential feedstock for fuel? Who will decide what qualifies as agricultural waste?

If the vision of cellulosic fuel is realized and the demand for plant biomass dramatically increases, it raises a host of environmental and social concerns. Helena Paul of EcoNexus, Almuth Ernsting of Biofuelwatch and science writer Alice Friedemann, among others, have outlined the most pressing environmental issues:

* Increase in biomass production from land that is designated as “waste “ or “marginal” will result in vast increases in pesticide- and herbicide-use.
* Removing crop residues from fields will cause decreases in soil productivity and consequent increases in the use of nitrate fertilizers, resulting in greater nitrous oxide emissions.
* Removing crop residues from fields will increase soil erosion and decrease runoff abatement.
* Removal of dead and dying trees from forests will increase biodiversity losses and decrease forest carbon-sequestration capacity.
* Many plants identified as good candidates for second-generation agrofuels are harmful to the environment as invasive species (e.g., miscanthus, switch grass, reed canary grass).
* High risk of gene flow from reduced-lignin GM trees to natural forests with unknown impacts on the environment and biodiversity."