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Bill Clinton speaks out for rainforests in Brazil Jeremy Hance mongabay.com June 03, 2009
"What people are worried about Brazil is not (whether) you have the most efficient biofuel in the world... everybody knows that is true," Clinton said, as quoted by Reuters. "(But) the world would say if we let Brazil help us solve our problem at the price of more rainforest destruction, have we really gained anything? That's what you have to answer." While most ethanol is produced on agricultural land and not on rainforests there is ample evidence that ethanol production has pushed other farmers and ranchers deeper into the Amazon for land, causing largescale indirect deforestation. Bill Clinton also noted that 75 percent of Brazil’s carbon emissions are due entirely to deforestation in the Amazon. Worldwide deforestation makes up about 15 percent of the world’s carbon emissions. The Ethanol Summit is mostly composed of ethanol businessmen and women. Related articles Brazil's plan to save the Amazon rainforest (06/02/2009) Accounting for roughly half of tropical deforestation between 2000 and 2005, Brazil is the most important supply-side player when it comes to developing a climate framework that includes reducing emissions from deforestation and forest degradation (REDD). But Brazil's position on REDD contrasts with proposals put forth by other tropical forest countries, including the Coalition for Rainforest Nations, a negotiating block of 15 countries. Instead of advocating a market-based approach to REDD, where credits generated from forest conservation would be traded between countries, Brazil is calling for a giant fund financed with donations from industrialized nations. Contributors would not be eligible for carbon credits that could be used to meet emission reduction obligations under a binding climate treaty. U.S. needs environmental standards for biofuels (10/02/2008) The U.S. lacks criteria to ensure that cellulosic ethanol production will not harm the environment, warn scientists writing in the journal Science. The researchers say that with proper safeguards, cellulosic ethanol can help the U.S. meet its energy needs sustainably. Biofuels 200 times more expensive than forest conservation for global warming mitigation (08/27/2008) The British government should end subsidies for biofuels and instead use the funds to slow destruction of rainforests and tropical peatlands argues a new report issued by a U.K.-based think tank. The study, titled "The Root of the Matter" and published by Policy Exchange, says that "avoided deforestation" would be a more cost-effective way to address climate change, since land use change generates more emissions than the entire global transport sector and offers ancillary benefits including important ecosystem services. Biofuels can reduce emissions, but not when grown in place of rainforests (07/22/2008) Biofuels meant to help alleviate greenhouse gas emissions may be in fact contributing to climate change when grown on converted tropical forest lands, warns a comprehensive study published earlier this month in the journal Environmental Research Letters. Analyzing the carbon debt for biofuel crops grown in ecosystems around the world, Holly Gibbs and colleagues report that "while expansion of biofuels into productive tropical ecosystems will always lead to net carbon emissions for decades to centuries... [expansion] into degraded or already cultivated land will provide almost immediate carbon savings." The results suggest that under the right conditions, biofuels could be part of the effort to reduce humanity's carbon footprint. SHARE THIS ARTICLE:
Tags: Amazon Deforestation Amazon rainforest Rainforest deforestation agriculture biofuels amazon agriculture amazon destruction amazon environment environmental politics ethanol energy climate change climate change politics carbon emissions green green energy greenwashing jeremy hance latin america politics rainforest rainforest destruction rainforests saving rainforests saving the amazon south america threats to the amazon
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