Brazil tries to puff their chest out as if they're a world leader in this new "technology" when in reality, once again, as in most things, Brazil is an example of what NOT to do....


Brasil é exemplo de desvantagem do etanol, diz jornal britânico
'The Independent' diz que indústria está ligada à poluição e ao desmatamento.

A experiência do Brasil com o etanol pode servir como um exemplo para o mundo das desvantagens apresentadas pela suposta "revolução energética" criada pelos biocombustíveis, segundo uma análise publicada pelo jornal britânico The Independent nesta terça-feira.

O jornal diz que apesar de os biocombustíveis serem quase irresistíveis aos políticos que querem ser vistos como preocupados com os efeitos da mudança climática, a produção do etanol no Brasil tem, no fim das contas, um efeito negativo no combate ao problema porque tem gerado desmatamento e poluição.

"A indústria do etanol no Brasil está ligada à poluição do ar e da água em uma escala épica, ao desmatamento da floresta amazônia e da mata atlântica e à destruição da savana na América Latina", diz o vice-editor de assuntos internacionais do jornal, Daniel Howden.

Segundo o Independent, as conseqüências da "modesta redução" provocada pelo etanol na emissão de dióxido de carbono nas ruas das cidades brasileiras podem ser vistas nas "gigantescas cicatrizes das plantações de soja na Amazônia" e nas "nuvens negras dos campos de cana-de açúcar em chamas".

O jornal diz que o efeito final do etanol no combate às emissões que provocam as mudanças climáticas é negativo.

"Apesar dos níveis modestos de industrialização na maior nação da América Latina, o Brasil passou a ser o quarto país do mundo em emissão de gases de efeito estufa", afirma o Independent.

Segundo o jornal, isso está sendo causado por um desmatamento desenfreado, um fenômeno que, por sua vez, segue os passos do aumento no preço dos produtos agrícolas.

"Enquanto os preços dos produtos usados na produção de biocombustíveis aumentavam nos últimos 18 meses, as taxas de desmatamento quebraram todos os recordes", afirma o jornal.

O Independent diz que, ao mesmo tempo em que o mundo acorda para as ameaças da mudança climática, "incentivos perversos causam um ataque aos pulmões do planeta".

Howden diz que o ambientalista brasileiro Fábio Feldman, que ajudou a passar a lei estipulando o mínimo de 23% de etanol a ser adicianado a todos os combustíveis, está agora preocupado com o legado da decisão.

"Algumas plantações de cana-de-açúcar são do tamanho de países europeus - essas monoculturas imensas têm substituído ecossistemas importantes", diz Feldman, segundo o jornal.

O jornal conclui dizendo que a razão pela qual o argumento de que o mundo pode "plantar" o combustível que precisa parece muito bom para ser verdade é porque realmente é muito bom para ser verdade.

"Apesar dos níveis modestos de industrialização na maior nação da América Latina, o Brasil passou a ser o quarto país do mundo em emissão de gases de efeito estufa", afirma o Independent.

Do you know who are the other 3 top ranking ones,Bo? I am curious. I think China and India are the two of the "Other 3". I am trying to recall the third one.

May be Forrest, with his encyclopedic knowledge will enlighten us

it's the U.S.

There's no such thing as a free lunch, but ALL the carbon dioxide you will EVER be able to extract out of sugar cane was absorbed by the plant during the past 6 months, which is MUCH better than putting carbon dioxide back in the atmosphere which was once removed from it millions of years ago. Things like the burning before cutting can be easily replaced by mechanized cutting at a profit, and water pollutants can be pumped back to soil, increasing productivity, although I would argue water pollution is easier to handle than climate change, just a thought. The "Savanna" Brazil's Southwest, the country richest region was wasted for centuries on non mechanized cattle grazing. Due to new technologies, this region suddenly became very productive for agriculture, with abundant water resources, and actually near to civilization, where sugar cane production, ethanol and sugar account for only 1% of Brazil's agricultural output. Of course our forests burn, we have forests(unlike so many others), and sometimes they burn, or people burn them, which account for more than half of Brazil carbon emissions, seriously, making Brazil look like World's 4th industrial power or that we have 100% of arable land cultivated encrusting on the Amazon(probably the worst soil in the country for agriculture), enough Brits actually heard of Brazil's ethanol production, now a smear campaign is at full swing? You can add 20% of ethanol on your car TODAY, and help the economies of struggling tropical countries all over the world, what more could you actually want? I mean, it's not pumping out of the ground and shipping it for 5 dollars and selling it for 100 dollars, but nothing is perfect, is it?

And guess what :

Brazilians crooks expect to receive.....CARBON CREDITS.....from developed nations !!!!!!!!!!!!

Just another Brazilian scam trying to get money through lies..

You were against the USA ethanol from corn...but guess what :
Brazil is increasing its bio diesel and ethanol...from soyabeans and corn.
You even just increased your mandatory mix from 2 to 3 % for bio diesel.
In reality 15 % of your soyabeans and corn production will be used for bio diesel and ethanol...in 2010 !!!!
And increasing thereafter....of course !


Of course you are right....and the USA were/are and will remain...wrong !!!!

That is the Brazilian UNcommon sense !

So much that until only recently....YOU criticized the USA for producing ethanol from corn.
And now you are just saying the opposite for YOUR corn and soyabeans..

Same for your sugar ethanol :
Still not competitive with gasoline despite your "irrefutable proof" that it is...since 2005.
So much that oil price more than doubled since then, ethanol prices collapsed.....AND IS STILL
NOT COMPETITIVE !!!!!!!!!

What a bunch of liars and junkies Brazilians are.

Ohhhh and the flex fuel engine was NOT developed by Brazilians Engineers....as you have been brainwashed to believe.....BUT by a GERMAN COMPANY CALLED....BOSCH.
It is this company that received the award FROM YOUR MINISTER OF SCIENCES.....and not Brazilian engineers !!!!!!!

Another simple proof how Brazilians enjoy so much to caress their navel...when they have no reason to !!!!!

LAUGH.....LAUGH....LAUGH....LAUGH !!!!

chc does, from time to time, make some imformative comments but he does himself no credit at all by painting all Brazilians with the same brush, as in his 'what a bunch of liars and junkies Brazilians are'.
Dishonesty, corruption and despair exist everywhere, Brazil included - but after all, many of these 'dubious' values and human excesses have been imported especially from the old world - and have, of course, flourished.
Brazil has had to go through many changes in a very short period of time - something that is often forgotten.
That is why perhaps it is particularly Brazil's task to bring about the changes needed to transform the social, political and economic life -by tapping into the vast cultural and human resources available and promoting what is sometimes called ethical individualism.

Ethanol from corn for biofuels is and will remain a very stupid thing to do. Now if you understood anything from engineering , you would understand that ethanol from sugar cane and corn have different properties and purity levels, and you would know that while the US doesn't have any biofuels policies, it still uses a sizable quantity of ethanol in industry. Now soy is constantly used as vegetable oil, I'm not sure what your criticism is about. Who knows where you found Brazilians who believed the flex fuel fuel mixer was developed by Brazilian engineers, but then again, the only issue was finding a cheap and easy way to measure the quantities of ethanol and gasoline in the mixture, which could have been discovered in any university in the world, perhaps by luck, the rest was pretty straight forward, everyday engineering, which perhaps was done by Brazilians engineers that work for Bosch. I mean, as if that was the technological leap of the century, wow, there's no voodoo here kids, it's just ethanol, to use it in your car you only need to increase the fuel intake mixing ratio. Likewise, the modifications for using pure vegetable oil in a Diesel engine can be done by any kid who knows how to handle a screwdriver, vegetable oil to biodiesel conversion can be made by any 1st year chemistry engineer. The only reason USA choses to kill for oil, instead of developing alternatives or drilling for deep sea oil, is because it is of profitable, do you really expect the rest of the world to stand up and applaud? Seriously, go take a physics class you didn't in high school, perhaps someday you will understand why ethanol from corn is NOT COMPETITIVE.

I mean, as if that was the technological leap of the century, wow, there's no voodoo here kids, it's just ethanol, to use it in your car you only need to increase the fuel intake mixing ratio. Likewise, the modifications for using pure vegetable oil in a Diesel engine can be done by any kid who knows how to handle a screwdriver, vegetable oil to biodiesel conversion can be made by any 1st year chemistry engineer.

That was a succinct lecture and thanks! Many in this blog including myself have already commented that Brazilian Military government decided in late 70s after the first oil "shock" to develop an alternative fuel so as not to be dependent on OPEC countries.The decision was strategic, as Brazil was not self sufficient in oil and we had to pay a hefty price. The production of ethanol was subsidized when the program was inaugurated. If I recall correctly, the Ford Motors do Brasil launched first a car that was run on ehtanol. A team of Brazilian and American engineers sat together and designed a carburettor to adjust correctly the fuel intake ratio,but also to add an extra inlet to take in gasoline that was squirted into the carburettor to start the engine on a cold day. That car had a plastic tank that carried around 1 1/2 liters of gasoline and it was placed under the hood.It was a simple but highly functional design. The car was launched in 1980 and I used to own one and the mileage was something around 13 KMs/Liter. I still remember that the cars manufactured by neither VW nor GM (Of Brazil) came nowhere near the one launched by Ford in terms of comfort, mileage or low cost maintenance.

Seriously, go take a physics class you didn't in high school, perhaps someday you will understand why ethanol from corn is NOT COMPETITIVE.

I am against using corn as well as sugarcane to produce ethanol to fuel the cars. Especially , when the prices of food items are sky rocketing on the planet.Fine, we have a huge cultivable land mass but we should use it to feed our people and rest of the world.Unfortunately, we are trying to fuel the vehicles and feed the people in rest of the world at the expenses of domestic consumers!

I for one would prefer nuclear power plants at constant 90% capacity, and aluminum water based fuel cells, but we all know it's just not going to happen. It's not a question of Brazil producing ethanol for the whole world, but having the intention of at least trying to advert climate change, bringing agriculture to new places, irrigating the Sahara for all we know, doing something positive with those 100 dollars per barrel, instead of financing corporate speculation. Perhaps the food prices are sky rocketing because of how much modern agriculture is dependent on oil, I don't believe the truly poor can be affected by global market prices, and forcing a population exodus away from cities should be viewed in a positive light.

The US is far from being done with hydrcarbons, ethanol is a flirtation for them and others..search the "the bakken oil formation" and if proven, their interest in ethanol from corn will dissipate as they may be assured of a safe, domestic supply of oil..already being supplied from the oil sands in neighbouring Alberta