In today's Sydney Morning Herald (Sydney, Australia), an article by Chee Chee Leung states that we, as humans, use too much solar energy captured by plants for one species. This article is based upon a report by German and Austrian scientists.
Not only that, but "going green" doesn't help, either. To quote Leung...
"They also warned that the increased use of biofuels - such as ethanol and canola - should be viewed cautiously, given the potential for further pressure on ecosystems."
Later on in the article, Leung lays out a few statistics...
"This showed humans used 24 per cent of the energy that was captured by plants. More than half of this was due to the harvesting of crops or other plants.
The human use of the natural resource varied across the globe, ranging from 11 per cent in Oceania and Australia, to 63 per cent in southern Asia."
Leung quotes a University of Melbourne agriculture professor as his closing statement...
"'Here we are, just one species on the earth, and we're grabbing a quarter of the renewable resources … we're probably being a bit greedy.'"
Upon reading this article, I feel that environmentalists and some groups of scientists are putting us in a "damned if you do, damned if you don't" situation. If we invest in biofuels, they start telling us we're using too much agricultural land, and using more plant-captured solar energy. If we don't, and continue to use oil, they start into global warming, "break-the-addiction" rants.
Will someone tell these people you can't have it both ways?
Subscribe to:
Post Comments (Atom)
No comments:
Post a Comment