a paler shade of green
TRANSCRIPT
Editorial–
SINCE George W. Bush pledged a major US
effort to develop biofuels in his State of the
Union address earlier this year, it seems the
whole world has joined the rush to convert
corn, sugar, cassava, sorghum and palm
oil – not to mention cooking fat and farm
waste – into the fuels of the future.
From China and Indonesia to India and
Cuba, everyone wants to turn crops into energy.
The European Union is even considering a
mandatory 10 per cent biofuel content at
every pump. The dream is to cut reliance on
fossil fuels while also reducing net greenhouse
gas emissions and even helping hard-pressed
farmers. And yet, there is a downside to all this.
With today’s biofuel technologies, filling
fuel tanks this way would require a huge
amount of land – enough to transform the
world’s agriculture (see page 36). The prospect
of growing corn to make ethanol is already
helping to push up global grain prices and
reduce emergency food stocks. Areas
earmarked for palm oil biodiesel production
in south-east Asia threaten to finish off the
region’s surviving rainforests.
What’s more, a rash of studies suggests that
the greenhouse gains from biofuels are far less
than commonly assumed. True, the carbon
emitted by burning biofuels is absorbed by
the next crop as it grows, but manufacturing
the fertilisers and pesticides needed to grow
most biofuels requires large amounts of
energy, as does turning the product into fuel.
The net emissions reductions compared with
conventional fossil fuels are often small – little
more than 10 per cent in the case of corn,
Bush’s biofuel of choice.
Does this mean that biofuels are a wasted
cause? Certainly not. The good news is that the
technology is only just getting started. The
trick will be to find ways to use plants that
grow well without a sea of chemicals, and to
process them more efficiently. We shouldn’t
dismiss all biofuel projects until each new
technology is up and running. Modest use of
biofuels today is perfectly acceptable and
passably green – for instance, there are few
downsides to converting used cooking oil into
biodiesel, recycling farm waste or growing
biofuels on disused land.
The key here is caution. Research into
advanced biofuels has been starved of funds
for decades. It is at a very early stage and may
one day deliver, so we must give it time to
mature. Meanwhile, we cannot grow our way
out of the twin crises of climate change and
energy security. There is a real danger of
creating a biofuels bubble that will burst,
leaving behind a pungent whiff of chip-fat oil,
burning rainforests and rotting fields. ●
THE idea that what we eat affects our health
is deeply ingrained in our collective
consciousness. Most people know that the
wages of dietary sin are a slew of diseases
including obesity, cancer, heart disease,
diabetes and osteoporosis. The World Heath
Organization, too, sees unhealthy eating
as a major problem. It estimates that
non-communicable diseases will account for
75 per cent of all deaths worldwide by 2020,
and considers an unhealthy diet to be one
of the main causes.
That’s all very well, but what actually
constitutes a healthy diet? Obesity-inducing
gluttony aside, it’s surprisingly hard to say.
When nutrition researchers have attempted
to find definitive links between diet and
health, all too often they have drawn a blank
(see page 42). There are many reasons for
this, such as flawed study designs and the
difficulty in getting research subjects to stick
to a particular regime. But there is another
possibility that researchers seem strangely
reluctant to consider: that there are no strong
links between diet and chronic diseases.
While that seems unlikely, it is a possibility
that nutrition researchers ought to entertain.
If it were true, it would be something worth
knowing. At the very least it would suggest
that the magnitude of dietary changes
required for a person to significantly reduce
their risk of disease are simply too great to
maintain in the long run. Then we could all
stop worrying about what we’re eating and
focus our energies on lifestyle changes that
have a genuine chance of succeeding –
stopping smoking, cutting down on alcohol
and taking more exercise. ●
Who says diet is the key to beating disease?
www.newscientist.com 23 September 2006 | NewScientist | 3
A paler shade of greenBiofuels may be less than perfect, but they’re still worth a shot
New Science Publications
Editor Jeremy Webb
Personal Asst & Office Manager Anita Staff
Executive Editor Karl Schneider
Associate Editors
Liz Else, Stephanie Pain
News Editor Matt Walker
Editors Linda Geddes, Rowan Hooper,
Anil Ananthaswamy, Helen Knight
Tel +44 (0) 20 7611 1210
Fax +44 (0) 20 7611 1280
Reporters
LONDON Andy Coghlan, Hazel Muir,
Paul Marks, Zeeya Merali
BOSTON
US Bureau Chief Ivan Semeniuk
David L. Chandler
Celeste Biever
Gregory T. Huang
SAN FRANCISCO
Bureau Chief Peter Aldhous
TORONTO Alison Motluk
BRUSSELS Debora MacKenzie
MELBOURNE
Australasian Editor Rachel Nowak
Features Editors Ben Crystall,
Kate Douglas, Clare Wilson, David Cohen,
Graham Lawton, Michael Brooks,
Valerie Jamieson, Michael Le Page,
Caroline Williams
Features Assistant Celia Guthrie
Tel +44 (0) 20 7611 1230
Fax +44 (0) 20 7611 1280
Opinion
Senior Editor Michael Bond
Editors John Hoyland, Amanda Gefter,
Alison George
Opinion Coordinator Eleanor Case
Tel +44 (0) 20 7611 1240
Fax +44 (0) 20 7611 1280
Researcher Lucy Middleton
Magazine Assistant Cheryl Forde
Production Editor Mick O’Hare
Asst Production Editor Melanie Green
Chief Sub John Liebmann
Subeditors Vivienne Greig, Ben Longstaff,
Julia Brown, Katharine Comisso,
Barbara Kiser
Art Editor Alison Lawn
Design Craig Mackie, David Knight,
Michelle Ofosu
Graphics Nigel Hawtin, Dave Johnston
Pictures Adam Goff, Ludivine Morel
Tel +44 (0) 20 7611 1268
Fax +44 (0) 20 7611 1250
Careers Editor Richard Fisher
Tel +44 (0) 20 7611 1248
Fax +44 (0) 20 7611 1280
Consultants Alun Anderson, Barry Fox,
Stephen Battersby, Marcus Chown,
Fred Pearce, Rob Edwards, Mick Hamer,
Justin Mullins, Ian Stewart, Gail Vines,
Jeff Hecht, Helen Phillips, Gabrielle Walker,
Richard Fifield, Bob Holmes, Emma Young
Press Office
UK Claire Bowles
Tel +44 (0) 20 7611 1210 Fax 7611 1280
US Office
Tel +1 617 386 2190
NEWSCIENTIST.COM
Online Publisher John MacFarlane
Online Editor Damian Carrington
Deputy Online Editor Shaoni
Bhattacharya, Gaia Vince
Editors Maggie McKee, Will Knight
Reporters Tom Simonite, Roxanne Khamsi,
Kelly Young, David Shiga
Special Reports Editor John Pickrell
Online Subeditor Sean O’Neill
Web team Neela Das, Ashis Joshi,
Michael Suzuki, Cathy Tollet, Ruth Turner,
Vivienne Griffith, Rohan Creasey
060923_R_Editorial.indd 3060923_R_Editorial.indd 3 19/9/06 5:02:37 pm19/9/06 5:02:37 pm