A Biofuel Debate: Will Cutting Trees Cut Carbon?
The world could feed 35 billion people (the earth’s current population is seven billion) if only the productivity of agriculture and livestock in the developing world were brought to developed country standards, he said. “Mozambique could feed all of Africa if it just increased its productivity to that of the Netherlands.”
.. “In many contexts, allowing a forest to grow will do more to reduce carbon dioxide in the atmosphere for decades than producing bioenergy,” he told me.
.. And he finds the estimates of future agricultural productivity unbelievable when applied to any reasonable understanding of the real world. Indeed, it will be hard to maintain the productivity growth of the last several decades, he says, let alone substantially increase it.
“Because the world needs to produce 70 percent more of virtually all the products of land — crops, grasses and wood — by 2050, there is no additional room for bioenergy, and any capacity to increase crop yields and to make better use of any underutilized land is already needed for these other purposes,” Mr. Searchinger said.