Transcript

A tweet by some news company saying “Your bowl of rice is hurting the climate too.” It has a link to an article and a picture of a bowl of rice. It has a quote saying “Should I just die”

  • Frezik@lemmy.blahaj.zoneEnglish
    4·
    7 days ago

    Now count how much CO2 was emitted during the production and transportation of that biofuel.

    Here’s a link to the study the above YouTube vid is based on: https://www.pnas.org/doi/10.1073/pnas.2101084119

    . . . caused enough domestic land use change emissions such that the carbon intensity of corn ethanol produced under the [Renewable Fuel Standard] is no less than gasoline and likely at least 24% higher.

    • AndiHutch@lemmy.zipEnglish
      3·
      7 days ago

      Ok, here is a study that does factor land use change and transportation, and it is still about a 50% percent reduction. Corn ethanol emits 46% less greenhouse gases than gasoline. The land use changes referenced in the paper you linked seem a lot higher than most other sources I have seen. It makes me question whether they are calculating it accurately. I am no expert on how they should be calculated, but why is there a 30-40g co2 per MJ fuel produced difference in between the different studies? The figures I see in other studies are around ~5g co2 per MJ fuel not 38g.

    • AndiHutch@lemmy.zipEnglish
      4·
      7 days ago

      Ok, I can see how factoring in (or not) land use changes could make a big difference in the numbers. I would however, attribute the cause of that to the poor policy put in place by the governmental bodies not an inherit factor of biofuel production. The subsidies put in place to encourage corn production in particular are unfair and could be the factor leading to those land use changes. I can see how policies boosting the price and lowering the risk of planting corn would lead to land being moved from somewhat natural prarieland or forest to cropland. I might take a more in depth look at both the studies later to compare them.