Clipping of news on Brazilian Culture, Law and Citizenship
10/2/2010
This article was translated by an automatic translation system, and was therefore not reviewed by people.
SAO PAULO - If not done carefully, the expansion of planted area to increase domestic production of biofuel by 2020, forcing farmers to move on the Cerrado and the Amazon, causing deforestation and consequent emission of greenhouse gases that country would take 200 years to compensate, says study published in the journal Proceedings of the National Academy of Sciences (PNAS).
The study, conducted by researchers from Germany and the United Nations, was headed by an American, David Lapola, who has worked at the National Institute for Space Research (INPE) and is currently at the Max Planck Institute in Germany.
"The carbon debt means that the biofuel, instead of reducing carbon emissions compared to fossil fuels actually increases emissions through changes in land use," explains Lapola.
The study simulates scenarios in which to boost biofuel production in 35 billion liters by 2020, the area planted with soybeans increase of 191.000 km ² in 2003, up to 285.000 kilometers ² in 2020. The cane would of 55.000 km ² to 90.000 km ². "Most of the expansion of cane sugar in Brazil in the last 5 years, occurred on land previously used as pasture in the Southeast," says the article. "The same is true for more than 90% of soybean plantations in the Amazon after (...) 2006.
If this pattern of replacement livestock to crops that serve as source of biofuel is maintained, and meat production continues to increase to meet demand of growing population, the authors argue that it will take almost 3 million km2 of pasture in Brazil in 2020 - 44% more than in 2003 - and that part of this area is likely to be subtracted from the Cerrado and the Amazon rainforest. The resulting devastation would generate CO2 emissions, which would only be compensated by centuries of use of biofuels.
"One possibility would be to reduce exports of meat, maybe," he says. "But I also think it unlikely, because exports have increased greatly in recent years and is a very lucrative industry."
Source: Portal do Jornal O Estado de S. Paulo
Carlos Orsi, the estadao.com.br and Afra Balazina, O Estado de S. Paulo
This article was translated by an automatic translation system, and was therefore not reviewed by people.