December 17th, 2007
Biofuel massacre: ethanol's zone of death
We Americans want our gasoline, or ethanol. That means Midwestern farmers are raising the most corn in sixty years. And that, unnaturally, means more fertilizer is being used. That means more nitrogen-rich run-off from the corn fields. That run-off goes into the Mississippi and thence into the Gulf of Mexico. There that fertilizer is destroying all the life in a growing dead zone in the Gulf of Mexico.
No matter how big the profits, no matter how glowing the political slogans, we humans cannot act on the planet without consequences. John Muir’s Law is true: everything on Earth is connected. A big “Duh” for the ethanol industry and its supporters.
A newsman since 1969, Harry Fuller has worked for CBS, ABC, CNBC Europe, CNET and was founding news director at TechTV. See his full profile and disclosure of his industry affiliations.
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