Is ethanol the answer to the global energy crisis despite the fact that bio-fuels add new problems to our planet? Is the promised green future truly green or are we blinded merely by reflections of the grass appearing brighter on the other side. A slight change of perspective would clearly bring out how the alternative energy boom is a bane, posing fresh questions that need to answered soon, especially because the choice is between vital food needs and fuel.

“Opec for Ethanol”: Leading alternative fuel looking for alternatives

Certainly, we cannot dump one for the other; we need food to survive and fuel to help us create food.

George Bush and Luiz Inácio Lula da Silva have reached an agreement to foster ethanol development. The creation of an international market for ethanol in Brazil, a world leader in ethanol production and ironically, the fourth largest producer of carbon emissions in the world – reason – deforestation, is an initiative to break the chains and get free from the whims of the oil market. However, tensions remain on price-per-gallon for the ‘new fanged oil’ and hence triggers the real story with climax apparently we all already know. So, after Middle East is Latin America next on target? Probably yes.

Now coming back to oil, the so-called “Opec for ethanol” has lured major players to invest in biofuels on a large scale, and here lies the problem.

Ethanol, the emerging global commodity, that would possibly rout oil in the near future, perhaps seems a green panacea to all its promoters, but not to environmentalists. The clean-burning, renewable energy source is made from barley, wheat, corn, sugar cane or beet but gobbles up boundless fields of crops. No doubt, it’ll satisfy our energy needs, as done by oil, but then what about food.

Brazil has substituted 40 per cent of its petroleum usage, America will do that by 20 per cent by 2017 and other nations too are not far behind.

Read: Bush’s New Populism in Latin America

Food or fuel: The argument

The ethanol industry is posing serious dangers to air and water pollution, massive deforestation, and food shortage.

The American economist Lester R Brown, from the Earth Policy Institute, warns:
The competition for grain between the world’s 800 million motorists who want to maintain their mobility and its two billion poorest people who are simply trying to stay alive is emerging as an epic issue.

Biofuel is an alternative, but just an alternative, not a universal remedy to global energy needs. Crops grown for biofuel with fertilizers certainly create carbon dioxide imbalance in the atmosphere and is highly energy-intensive. Moreover, the fact that “the grain needed to fill the petrol tank of a 4X4 with ethanol is sufficient to feed a person for a year”, poses serious questions as far as land holdings and crop production is concerned.

Read: The Big Green Fuel Lie

Moreover, with the biofuel boom, farmers too would switch land use from food crops to fuel crops and hence directly affecting global food prices. Also, whether we’d have enough water, which in fact is the most important commodity in the world today, in the near future to grow both fuel and food crops on an enormous scale or not too is a serious question.

Read: Ethanol-driven feed costs cut US meat output-USDA

Now, the reality: Turning the tide for green gold mining, new breweries ready to satisfy oil addiction

Perhaps, much before the dawn of the above lingering arguments, researchers figured out the answer in the gut of termites. The microbes present in the gut produce potent enzymes capable of efficiently and cost effectively transforming woody wastes into sugars for ethanol production. Acknowledging the fact that “termite microbes could generate 2 liters of hydrogen from a single sheet of paper” is a major breakthrough. The termite technology hence can take over crops like maize and sugar cane without making a dent on global food crises and that too within a matter of few years.

Termites are just the tip of the iceberg. There are other viable alternate energy technologies, coupled with biotechnology and nanotechnology, which though are in developing stage, can make our dream of a clean green planet a reality.

In addition, did I mention that Greenhouse effect is a myth? Certainly, we need to change our perception and act and garner the available resources instead of beating the drum fastened with a thin film separating life and environment. Nevertheless, till all this becomes a reality, US has a lot of time to gratify its oil (read ethanol) addiction and needless to say, Latin America is on the target.