Now I understand that we’re almost at the point where nothing is going to stop the planet plunging into a period of climate change that could ultimately wipe us out. There is no doubt that the climate is changing and we must do something to stop and reverse that change … but are we rushing into doing some things with undue or even dangerous haste?

Could it be possible that instead of reducing greenhouse gases and saving the planet we’re actually on the verge of increasing the amount of greenhouse gases in the atmosphere and speeding the pace of climate change?

It hardly seems likely does it that we could be doing anything like that? Well perhaps we are and if a study that’s just been published in the journal Science is anything to go by then that’s exactly what we are doing.

It’s an undisputed fact that governments and private companies are pouring billions of dollars into research to find some form of advanced fuel that can be made from wood and grass. It’s being done in an effort to produce what is known as cellulosic biofuels that will cut carbon emissions because it’s known that these types of fuels have far less carbon emissions than normal petrol.

But in the short term … over the next 20 years … it’s quite possible that there will be no net reduction in the production of greenhouse gases if we use these fuels. Instead of a net reduction there will actually be a net increase in the amount of greenhouse gases that escape into the atmosphere.

How could this be? Perhaps it’s because of the haste with which we’ve embraced these new fuels. It could be that in our haste to save the planet we forgot to account for all the issues that might arise if we pushed ahead to develop cellulosic biofuels.

You see these new fuels require fast-growing trees … such as poplars …and tropical grasses and so, in some parts of the world, the drive is on to cut down slow-growing trees and create more land on which to grow the tropical grasses. And where the land has already been cleared for farming, if it’s suitable for growing the tropical grasses that can be turned into biofuels, then food crops are being ripped out and replaced with grass.

And right there are two serious problems. At a time when we need to be boosting food production we’re actually cutting back on it in some places simply because the farmers would rather grow tropical grasses and deforestation is taking place to make room for more crops of tropical grass. And we also have the problem of deforestation.

There’s also another problem that suggests that the plan to develop cellulosic biofuels has not been thought through. To encourage the grown of the poplar trees and the tropical grasses large amounts of nitrogen based fertilizers need to be applied … and of course that means even more greenhouse gases … carbon dioxide and nitrous oxide … escaping into the environment.

So in an effort to save ourselves … and the planet … we’re actually making things worse for ourselves and because the rush was on to get environmentally friendly things happening no one appears to have looked beyond the end of their nose when they were thinking about these cellulosic biofuels.

Another related study that has also been published in the journal Science suggests that we have gone beyond simply not thinking things through. It suggests that the United Nations has actually fudged the figures on the amount of carbon savings that biofuels offers and those incorrect figures have been picked up by the European Union and treated as solid fact and they have even made their way into climate legislation here in the United States.

Instead of taking into account the fact that there would be land clearing and more greenhouse gases for the fertilizers that would be used to encourage the growth of the materials that go into biofuel those realities were either overlooked or ignored. Now we’re going to have to live with the fact that what we thought would be good for helping to save the planet is just going to make things worse.

So what can we do about this looming problem? I guess the first thing we need to do is wait to see if other researchers agree that there is a chance that biofuels will actually increase the level of greenhouse gases.

If there is some agreement that biofuels are not as environmentally friendly as we might have hoped then it’s time to start making people aware of the problem and push towards having the governments who are investing all those research dollars call a halt to that investment. Trying to stop the government from doing something that it has already embarked upon can be like trying to stop a runaway train but it’s what we’ve got to do.

We’ve also got to encourage governments and investors to make better decisions in the future and not rush into things simply because they want to be seen to be doing something about a serious problem. When they do that all that happens is that we end up with a worse mess than when we started and that’s what looks like is about to happen with biofuels.