Accompanied by the usual fabulous photography, a new article in National Geographic covers developments in the biofuels sector that could make ethanol from corn obsolete. Corn farming in America is input-intensive, highly mechanized and damaging to the environment, making corn-based ethanol an iffy proposition in terms of cutting carbon dioxide emissions. According to writer Joel K. Bourne, Jr., there are better feed stocks on the horizon:
"We can create ethanol in an incredibly dumb way," says Nathanael Greene, a senior researcher with the Natural Resources Defense Council. "But there are many pathways that get us a future full of wildlife, soil carbon, and across-the-board benefits." The key, Greene and others say, is to figure out how to make fuel from plant material other than food: cornstalks, prairie grasses, fast-growing trees, or even algae. That approach, combined with more efficient vehicles and communities, says Greene, "could eliminate our demand for gasoline by 2050."
