Increase In Corn Biofuels Will Spell Disaster For Marine Life In Gulf Of Mexico.
I knew this was a bad idea, but not for this reason as well…
A planned increase in US ethanol production from corn would spell environmental “disaster” for marine species in the Gulf of Mexico, said a co-author of a science study published Monday. A boost in corn production will worsen the Gulf’s so-called “dead zone,” an area with so little oxygen that sealife suffocates, said Simon Donner, a geographer at the University of British Columbia in Western Canada.
“Most organisms are not able to survive without enough oxygen,” Donner told AFP. “All the bottom-dwelling organisms that can’t move away are probably going to die, while fish will migrate if they can.”
Donner and Chris Kucharik of the University of Wisconsin used computer models to conclude that growing enough corn to meet US biofuel goals set for 2022 would cause a boost of 10 to 34 percent in nitrogen pollution in the Mississippi and Atchafalaya Rivers, which run into the Gulf of Mexico.
With 1/2 acre of corn needed to grow just enough “fuel” to power one car 3,000 miles, there has to be a better way than jumping from one fossil fuel to just another version of the same thing. We would spend more energy growing, cultivating, and converting the corn than could possibly equal the output in fuel we would get back. It makes no sense.
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