Ethanol is just comically inefficient solar energy
Ethanol is just comically inefficient solar energy | Climate & Capitalism
Waste defined: devoting 30 million acres of prime farmland to growing fuel for cars
Similary with biodiesel, lay waste to rainforests to grow palm oil for biodiesel
Mate, everything on earth comes back to solar energy eventually, that's not news, or even a helpful way of thinking about it.
How easy is it to produce an absolute butt load of efficient solar panels which won't just degrade in 30-40 years? How many tons of rare earth minerals do you have to mine to make that happen?
Now how easy is it to get farmers to grow corn, and stick 10% ethanol in your fuel?
Obviously it's not anything like a complete solution, but it's an easy first measure to take.
Turns out solar is easier and cheaper per kwh.
Next defense of wasting 30 million+ acres of prime farmland when people are starving in the US?
Available farmland is not the reason people are starving in the US
No, wasting resources is. And farmland is a resource.
Don't get me wrong, obviously there will be a starvation underclass in any place with any form of capitalism, but there's no reason to exacerbate the problem. Especially when you could generate the same total energy with 1/5th that land and use the rest for actual food. Or rewilding.