I wanted to believe in it, I really did. I saw the smiling hippie faces driving down the road in converted old Volvos, Mercedes, Subarus, and the promise--fuel from simple, harmless vegetable oil?--seemed almost too good to be true, yet there was the proof, driving down the road. And it's true--good old fashioned vegetable oils and fats can be converted to perfectly usable fuel.

What I didn't realize, and am now starting to realize, is that the question isn't whether biofuel technology works or not, but rather its implications.

In short, it looks like the biofuel option would be an environmental disaster.

The reasons have primarily to do with a combination of where biofuels come from and the scale at which they'd have to be produced. The commercial production of biofuels is very environmentally destructive, and the amounts needed would ensure mammoth devastation of natural forests and habitats, likely hastening the extinctions of some of our most endangered species--orangutans, tigers, rhinos, gibbons, and more.

So those smiling hippies have the right idea, but as is so often the case, our monstrous population growth and ever-increasing transportation demands obliterate the practical application of something as seemingly benign as biofuels. Biodiesel, soy, you name it--the scale at which we consume is rapidly leaving us with no responsible choices left at the societal level. Once again, we find ourselves painted into a corner where the only option is to consume less. A lot less. For now, we have a choice, but it's only a matter of time before we don't.

A few generations from now, what will our children think of this era in which thoughtless luxury and a selfish focus on personal freedom at all costs left them with a long list of extinct animals and a crisis of energy and natural resources?

For more information on this topic, read this excellent column by the always-insightful George Monbiot. See also this brief overview of the situation.

Labels: Environment