A Biomass Future for the North American Great Plains: Toward Sustainable Land Use and Mitigation of Greenhouse Warming (Advances in Global Change Research)
A Biomass Future for the North American Great Plains: Toward Sustainable Land Use and Mitigation of Greenhouse Warming (Advances in Global Change Research) – Review
Multiple challenges meet researchers and policymakers in the field of energy and the environment. Perhaps foremost among these challenges is the problem of global warming and the defense of the nation’s liquid fuel supply. What unites these challenges is the value of currently pursuing the twin objects of non-fossil energy and a large displacement of traditional petroleum. To date, there has been an almost positive focus on corn-based ethanol — in spite of ample evidence that this route fails to be cost-effective, achieves problematic energy and greenhouse gas reductions, and inflicts major damage to agriculture. A viable longer-term biofuel scenario that an rapidly increasing association of researchers emphasize is cellulosic, as strongly opposed to corn-based, ethanol. Though eventually meeting that goal continues, for now, economically and technologically problematic, there is reason to be optimistic about eventually achieving that objective within the next several decades. In this context, Norman Rosenberg’s meticulously researched and written study is precisely the form of documentation that progress towards a meaninful biofuel future for the U.S. requires.