Sylvicultura Oeconomica

There have been a number of articles in recent weeks citing recent scientific studies that have proven poor lifecycle greenhouse gas footprints from conventional biofuels.  In a nutshell, up till now most greenhouse gas assessments have not taken into account the full lifecycle costs of biofuels production. much of the new incremental sources of bio-oils have been coming from parts of the world where new land is being cleared, often from tropical rainforests, peat bogs, or other dense natural carbon stores. When this land clearing occurs, dramatic carbon releases often result. The result is that many, if not most, biofuels exhibit a lifecycle greenhouse gas footprint that is actually higher than that of the petroleum fuels that they are intended to replace. This does not mean that all biofuels are bad. It just means that we need to be far more careful in the land use changes that occur where we are sourcing these bio-feedstocks, and what cropping systems are used in their cultivation (as application of nitrogen fertilizers are also a major source of greenhouse gas emissions in the biofuels lifecycle. http://www.iht.com/articles/2008/02/07/healthscience/biofuel.php?page=1