This paper reviews various studies that have examined the relationship between corn used in ethanol production and corn prices. They suggest increased corn demand for ethanol could account for 25 to 50 percent of the corn price increase expected from 2006/07 to 2008/09.
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This study examines the impact of biofuel production on the enjoyment of the human right to adequate food and the fundamental right of everyone to be free from hunger. It follows from internationally recognised human rights that States have a core obligation to ensure freedom from hunger for all, and that any decisions which may negatively affect the enjoyment of the right to food should be reviewed. This has also been reiterated by the UN Human Rights Council in its resolution adopted on 22 May 2008 as the result of its special session on the food crisis from a human rights perspective.
The largest U.S subsidies to fossil fuels are attributed to tax breaks that aid foreign oil production, according to research released by ELI. The study, which reviewed fossil fuel and energy subsidies for Fiscal Years 2002-2008, reveals that the lion’s share of energy subsidies supported energy sources that emit high levels of greenhouse gases. Fossil fuels benefited from approximately $72 billion over the seven-year period, while subsidies for renewable fuels totaled only $29 billion.
Consensus is growing among scientists, policy makers, and business leaders that concerted action will be needed to address rising greenhouse gas (GHG) emissions in the United States. The discussion is now turning to the practical challenges of where and how emissions reductions can best be achieved, at what costs, and over what periods of time.
The task of developing and evaluating strategies to reduce emissions of urban air pollutants and greenhouse gases is complicated. There are many ways to produce and use energy, many sources of emissions in an energy lifecycle, and several kinds of pollutants (or greenhouse gases) emitted at each source. An evaluation of strategies to reduce emissions of greenhouse gases must be broad, detailed, and systematic. It must encompass the full "lifecycle" of a particular technology or policy, and include all of the relevant pollutants and their effects.
Earth warmed by more than 0.6 degrees Celsius (ºC) over the 20th century. Past fluctuations in naturally-occurring atmospheric greenhouse gas concentrations have caused Earth to warm and to cool, in cycles of around 100,000 years, with the timing of these cycles largely determined by a repeating pattern in the Earth’s solar orbit.
Global climate change is one of the most complex environmental, energy, economic, and political issues confronting the international community. Its time and geographic scales are unprecedented in their scope, touching every human activity that involves energy or land and requiring a strategy that stretches a century or more into the future. The actions needed to manage the risks of climate change require long-term commitments to severely limit net emissions of greenhouse gases to the atmosphere by developing and deploying new ways of producing and using energy across the world.
This study models and assesses the current and future fossil fuel consumption and greenhouse gas impacts of ethanol produced from three feedstocks; corn grain, corn stover, and switchgrass. A life-cycle assessment approach with an integrated Monte Carlo uncertainty analysis is applied to each of these three bioethanol pathways. Incorporating a Monte Carlo uncertainty analysis within a life-cycle model enables one to account for system variability within the agricultural, technological, and geographic arenas.
To study the potential effects of increased biofuel use, we evaluated six representative analyses
of fuel ethanol. Studies that reported negative net energy incorrectly ignored coproducts and used
some obsolete data. All studies indicated that current corn ethanol technologies are much less
petroleum-intensive than gasoline but have greenhouse gas emissions similar to those of gasoline.
However, many important environmental effects of biofuel production are poorly understood.
The APA Task Force on the Interface Between Psychology and Global Climate Change met in 2008-2009 to examine the role of psychology in understanding and addressing global climate change, including efforts to adapt to and mitigate climate change.
We assessed the potential impacts of land-use changes resulting from a change in the
current biofuel policy on biodiversity in Europe. We evaluated the possible impact of
both arable and woody biofuel crops on changes in distribution of 313 species pertaining
to different taxonomic groups. Using species-specific information on habitat suitability
as well as land use simulations for three different biofuel policy options, we downscaled
available species distribution data from the original resolution of 50 to 1 km. The
The aspiration for producing algal biofuel is motivated by the desire to replace conventional petroleum fuels, produce fuels domestically, and reduce greenhouse gas emissions. Although, in theory, algae have the potential to produce a large amount of petroleum fuel substitutes and capture carbon emissions, in practice, profitable algal biofuel production has proven quite challenging. This dissertation characterizes the production pathways for producing petroleum fuel substitutes from algae and evaluates constraints on algal biofuel production.
Sweet sorghum [SS; Sorghum bicolor (L.) Moench] is a potential biofuel crop for the Great Plains. Sweet sorghum was compared
with corn [Zea mays (L.)] and grain sorghum for potential ethanol yield, energy use effi ciency, and greenhouse gas (GHG) emissions
at seven dryland site-years in Nebraska. Seasonal rainfall ranged from approximately 340 to 660 mm. Soils were deep
with medium texture at all site-years. Th e eff ects of seeding rate, N rate, and cultivar on SS performance were evaluated. Sweet
Despite a rapid worldwide expansion of the biofuel industry, there is a lack of consensus within the scientific community about the potential of biofuels to reduce reliance on petroleum and decrease greenhouse gas (GHG) emissions. Although life cycle assessment provides a means to quantify these potential benefits and environmental impacts, existing methods limit direct comparison within and between different biofuel systems because of inconsistencies in performance metrics, system boundaries, and underlying parameter values.
Crop intensification is often thought to increase greenhouse gas (GHG) emissions, but studies in which crop management is optimized to exploit crop yield potential are rare. We conducted a field study in eastern Nebraska, USA to quantify GHG emissions, changes in soil organic carbon (SOC) and the net global warming potential (GWP) in four irrigated systems: continuous maize with recommended best management practices (CC-rec) or intensive management (CC-int) and maize–soybean rotation with recommended (CS-rec) or intensive management (CS-int).
Carbon dioxide exchange was quantified in maize–soybean agroecosystems employing year-round tower eddy covariance
flux systems and measurements of soil C stocks, CO2 fluxes from the soil surface, plant biomass, and litter decomposition.
Measurements were made in three cropping systems: (a) irrigated continuous maize, (b) irrigated maize–soybean rotation, and
(c) rainfed maize–soybean rotation during 2001–2004. Because of a variable cropping history, all three sites were uniformly
Recent legislative mandates have been enacted at state and federal levels with the purpose of reducing life cycle greenhouse gas (GHG) emissions from transportation fuels. This legislation encourages the substitution of fossil fuels with ‘low-carbon’ fuels. The burden is put on regulatory agencies to determine the GHG-intensity of various fuels, and those agencies naturally look to science for guidance.
This file contains the secondary agriculture and forest resources raw data output as referenced in the Billion-Ton Update Report for years 2012 - 2030.
This file contains the Primary Forest Resources raw data outputs as referenced in the Billion-Ton Update Report for years 2012 - 2030.