Biofuels: a good idea or not?

Is the growing use of biofuels a good idea? One could say it is, because it diminishes the use of traditional fuels, coming from oil, therefore giving us more time before we ran out of oil. Besides that, biofuels are CO2-neutral and therefore do not contribute to the climate-change.

On the other hand, biofuels need to be grown, and are therefore putting a strain on the land that can be used for agriculture. We al already seeing a rising of the price of food, partially because of this. There are the so called second-generation biofuels, that only use biomatter that is not suitable for food, but it is questionable if that can provide enough fuel to maintain the usage of today.

I think it would be more wise to bring back the use of oil by restraining first of all the use of private transport en invest in public transport, saving the oil for the use in agriculture, industry and distribution. Secondly, we must already develop and make alternative engines, powered by for instance hydrogen, so that, when we ran out of oil, an alternative is available.

Biofuels would give us a little more time but in the end we must still make the switch to a non-oil- based economy. We might as well start with that right away.

Haje 00:09, 21 April 2008 (UTC)