Healthy soil and sustainable growing

[Dan Conine <dconine@bertramwireless.com>]

http://www.physorg.com/news109581631.html

Biofuels could increase global warming with laughing gas, says Nobel 
prize-winning chemist Discussion at PhysOrgForum
Growing and burning many biofuel crops may actually raise, rather than 
lower, greenhouse gas emissions. That’s the conclusion of a new study 
led by Nobel prize-winning chemist Paul Crutzen, best known for his work 
on the ozone layer.

He and his colleagues have calculated that growing some of the most 
commonly used biofuel crops releases around twice the amount of the 
potent greenhouse gas nitrous oxide (N2O, also known as ‘laughing gas’) 
than previously thought – wiping out any benefits from not using fossil 
fuels and, worse, probably contributing to global warming.

‘The significance of it is that the supposed benefits of biofuels are 
even more disputable than had been thought hitherto,’ Keith Smith, a 
co-author on the paper and atmospheric scientist from the University of 
Edinburgh, told Chemistry World magazine. ‘What we are saying is that 
[growing many biofuels] is probably of no benefit and in fact is 
actually making the climate issue worse.’