Will Biofuels Solve Global Warming
Will Biofuels solve global warming? Global warming is caused by greenhouse gasses; these trap heat in the earth’s atmosphere that should escape from the earth. Global warming is causing sea levels to rise and ice caps to melt this could lead to coastal cities flooding, droughts in area’s which usually get rain and less crops to list only a few affects. The cause of global warming is “greenhouse gasses” these gasses include nitrous oxide carbon dioxide and water vapour.
Cars produce CO2, H20 and trace amounts of nitrogen oxide all greenhouse gases, with the amount of cars on the road surpassing the 1 billion mark in 2010 according to Ward’s Auto with the average car realising 7 tons of CO2 each year it is easy to see why cars are one of the biggest contributors to global warming, producing energy for factories to work also produces harmful gases one solution to this problem is Biofuels. Biofuels is the term given to living or recently living biological material which can be used to fuel cars and other forms of transport they can be derived from any Biomass include animal waste products.
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One of the main advantages of Biofuels is that they are almost carbon neutral; when a crop is growing it performs photosynthesis to create sugars and other organic compounds that provide energy during this process plants take in CO2 when these crops are turned into Biofuels and burned this CO2 is realised back into the atmosphere as no more CO2 has been added it is carbon neutral however some CO2 is produced in transporting these crops and turning them into Biofuels so they are not completely carbon neutral.
Unlike fossil fuels such as petrol Biofuels are a renewable energy source this means they will not run out as crops can be grown back relatively quickly. Biofuels can be created anywhere in the world meaning it is accessible to many people. Biofuels are also cheaper to run than petrol or diesel with the price of petrol rising due to it depleting amount Biofuels are cheaper to attain. Other benefit of Biofuels is that they provide jobs and industry for many farmers all over the world.
One popular type of Biofuel is Biodiesel which has many advantages * Simpler to make than other Biofuels such as Ethanol * Burn up to 75% cleaner * Provide new source of income for farmers However Biofuels also have their disadvantages one of the main problems is the land needed to produce the crops. In the UK in 2010 71. 61 % of the UK land was used in agriculture this left around 28. 39 % of land for other uses, coming of the lack of land environmentalist worry that the habitat of any animals and wild plants creating the room to grow Biofuels.
At this moment in time Biofuels are not sustainable without affecting the price of food and production. Though Biofuels will give farmers more income however it will give farmer more income than growing crops does this leads to the danger of farmers stopping the growing of crops to grow Biofuels this could lead to less food production and ultimately starvation. Biodiesel also has disadvantages * sustainability issues * Making biodiesel is not very efficient Biodiesel cannot meet the demand of diesel.
Biofuels are not the only alternative fuels Hydrogen fuel cells could also be used in cars to power them they are cleaner than most fuels. Electrical cars are also become increasingly popular however unless the electricity is produced using Biofuels they can still be damaging on the environment. There is no definitive answer to “Will Biofuels solve global warming” as the issue we are in is far too complex for just one solution, Biofuels along with other renewable energy sources e. g. wind turbines and hydroelectric power would provide a more viable solution to global warming.
