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Joseph Fargione,1Jason Hill,2,3David Tilman,2*Stephen Polasky,2,3Peter Hawthorne2
Increasing energy use, climate change, and carbon dioxide (CO2)emissions from fossil fuels make switching to low-carbon fuelsa high priority. Biofuels are a potential low-carbon energysource, but whether biofuels offer carbon savings depends onhow they are produced. Converting rainforests, peatlands, savannas,or grasslands to produce food crop–based biofuels in Brazil,Southeast Asia, and the United States creates a "biofuel carbondebt" by releasing 17 to 420 times more CO2 than the annualgreenhouse gas (GHG) reductions that these biofuels would provideby displacing fossil fuels. In contrast, biofuels made fromwaste biomass or from biomass grown on degraded and abandonedagricultural lands planted with perennials incur little or nocarbon debt and can offer immediate and sustained GHG advantages.
1 The Nature Conservancy, 1101 West River Parkway, Suite 200, Minneapolis, MN 55415, USA. 2 Department of Ecology, Evolution, and Behavior, University of Minnesota, St. Paul, MN 55108, USA. 3 Department of Applied Economics, University of Minnesota, St. Paul, MN 55108, USA.
* To whom correspondence should be addressed. E-mail: tilman{at}umn.edu
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