Should I be for or against ethanol?

Question

I dont know too much about it and i need to decide it for a project.

Answer 1

Fact ,the amount of corn needed to make 15 gallons of ethanol would feed a child in Africa for one year.

think about it.

Answer 2

You should be against it, this country uses almost 22 million barrels of oil every single day. To attempt to supplement even 1/3 of that amount of energy via agriculture would deplete the environment severely. Another alternative, must be found, such as nuclear fusion.

Answer 3

If you care for the environment you should be against it.

To produce ethanol, you must clear a field (wildlife be damned!), plow it, spray it with herbacides and insecticides, irrigate it, harvest and process the crop.  This absolutely destroys the ecology that the original field sustained.

Answer 4

When your writing an essay It is best to show the evidence for and against, then in the conclusion you will know wether to support it or not.

http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Bioethanol

Answer 5

Since more land has been dedicated to ethanol producing crops, the price of bread has gone up consistently.

Answer 6

Big oil has created all kinds of lies and myths about ethanol because they feel threatened. Unfortunately alot of people are buying into the myths and not educating themselves on the topic. Ethanol is way better for our environment among other things and heres why:

Cars running on ethanol, which is distilled from agricultural crops and biomass are governed by the same laws of physics as those using petrol in that both fuels emit CO2 as a consequence of combustion, however the crucial difference is that burning ethanol recycles CO2 because it has already been removed from the atmosphere by photosynthesis during the natural growth of agricultural crops, such as corn plants. A corn plant removes CO2 from the atmosphere and uses it to grow and produce cornstarch. The plant is harvested and the cornstarch is fermented into ethanol. The ethanol is burned and the cycle repeats. NO NEW NET CARBON is added to the atmosphere when you use ethanol, unlike gasoline which spews tons of carbon into the atmosphere which has been trapped beneath the earth's surface for millions of years in the form of crude oil. You can burn all the ethanol you want and you are not contributing one iota to global warming. You are simply recycling carbon. And creating demand for ethanol by using it in your car stimulates farmers to plant more corn to meet the demand. More corn means more CO2 is removed from the atmosphere because corn, like all plants, takes in CO2 and gives off oxygen via photosynthesis. So not only are you not adding any new carbon to the air when you use ethanol, you are stimulating the planting of more corn plants which naturally fight global warming via photosynthesis.

In addition, using ethanol means no more devastating oil spills in the ocean which destroy all kinds of marine life and birds. And ethanol is now being produced via "green" means with ZERO fossil fuels used in the process. Read that again---ZERO FOSSIL FUELS ARE BEING USED TO MAKE ETHANOL. Ethanol plants are using wind energy and biomass exclusively for power because it saves them a heap on their natural gas bill.

If it took more energy to make than ethanol yielded every ethanol plant in the country would go out of business because ethanol sells for cheaper than fossil fuels on a unit-by-unit basis. At some ethanol plants the net energy yield is essentially infinite as wind and biomass are used to produce it.

And why do people think that gasoline and diesel require no energy to produce? Gasoline doesn't come out of the ground. Crude oil does. That crude oil has to be shipped on a massive oil tanker 5000 miles from saudi arabia to the gulf of mexico. Then the crude oil has to be refined into usable gasoline. Both steps require massive amounts of fossil fuels.

Brazil has been using ethanol made from sugarcane for 25 years and not a single person has starved yet as a result. Believe it or not, people CAN and DO actually eat other things than just 100% corn all the time.

Haven't met a human yet who eats all corn all the time. Let's stop being brainwashed by big oil lies and start THINKING rationally for a change.

And most ethanol plants are located literally right next to the farming areas where corn is grown. In fact, 90% are farmer-owned co-ops. 5 miles is a much shorter distance than halfway around the world. Educate thyself!

Answer 7

Why not ? You have anything better for now .

Reality Check : I don't think its going to make a difference if we are for or against anyway its already hear.

Allot of people didn't want nuke plants either back in the day but they " who ever they are " built them anyway same going on with ethanol plants going up .

Answer 8

You decide. I don't support the use of ethanol. Ethanol requires lots of fertilization, and fertilizers are rich in nitrogen. During runoff, the nitrogen flows into an area of water and contaminates it, causing more algae to form, sucking up all the oxygen in the water. Then, these waters can't support life for a very long time. If you want clean drinking water, don't support ethanol. And if you want a fuel-efficient car, go with a hybrid or natural gas car.

Answer 9

Make up your own mind but ethanol has it's ups and downs like everything else. The guy who was talking about the fields is almost entirely inaccurate. Up till about right now, it cost as much energy to produce ethanol as it provided. Ethanol technology is quickly becoming more advanced and we can now extract it from switchgrass etc. This means that alot more ethanol can be gotten from and it can be produced more cheaply and efficiently.

The benefits of a near clean burning technology (like ethanol) far outweighs any percieved drawbacks to the environment, don't let anybody try to plant any misconceptions in your head.

Answer 10

For what it's worth, I'm definitely for ethanol, not for mixing with gasoline but for drinking.

Answer 11

Its made of stuff that is also used for food. So it makes food stuff more costly and the poor of the world suffer because of this. It also polutes as much or more than other energy products do.

Answer 12

Personally I believe burning fuel made from food crops at a time that there is a food shortage due to weather related crop failures is very foolish and shortsighted.

Answer 13

For it.  Not for environmental reasons though.  

Alternative Fuel implies choice.  Alternative fuels should not replace gasoline, but be a substitute for it, an alternative.  (In economics substitutes are not replacements)

We don't want to get rid of gasoline.

We want other products to compete against it.  Doing so will lower energy prices and create better products.

Ultimately these products: gasoline, natural gas, ethonal, etc.  become more efficient and better for the environment.

Answer 14

National Geographic has a good article on the topic that may help you decide.  Here's the link