genericbikedude

alchohol from brazilian sugar cane is more efficient than gasoline. if you do your research, the energy used to fertilize the crop, harvest the crop, feed and house the workers, extract the ethanol and transport it to market will leave you with slightly lower greenhouse gas emission than a similar lifecycle analysis for petroleum gasoline.

this is NOT the case for ethanol made from corn in the US, because corn is a less efficient photosynthesizer (by like a factor of 8 or 9 or something), and because american agribusiness is less energy efficient.

for the brazilian sugar ethanol, if you add in the emission from cutting down the amazon to plant the cane, it begins to lose again. same goes for biodiesel from oil palm in indonesia or malaysia.

there are no silver bullets or cheap solutions for saving the planet from out-of-control global heating.