Ethanol from crops is part of perhaps a 2-5 year carbon cycle so there is no net change in CO2 in the air over a short geological period.
CO2 generated from fossil fuels is releasing it into the atmosphere after being locked away for millions of years. So over a short geological period there is an increase in CO2 in the atmosphere. Of course it’s still part of the same carbon cycle and in the eyes of geological time not really any different but to our species it could be deadly
Not that Im knocking anyone willing to sully themselves with debate on the issue, but this is a somewhat simplified calculation. It's appeal is it's simplicity. If at any stage in the production process, dead dinosaur sh1t is used to manufacture the end product, by way of the production of fertilizers, pesticides, insecticides or indeed, the mechanical logistics of delivering these to the crop; not to mention it's manufacturing from vegetable to oil...it is nothing more than a sound bite of political cynnicism, designed and tailored to be the very vehicle to get past the attention span without scrutiny...
Until the quality of our lives is monetised.. clean air, clean water, the sights, sounds & colours of a vibrant world, driven by biodiversity; unless these aspects of human existence are quantified and costed, we will survive to be the only species on an otherwise barren world.
5% of the world's land mass is rainforest, for example. It is home to over 50% of the world's species, not to mention the medicine cabinet ( quite literally) of **** sapiens..And yet, we cut it down for palm oil and teak like its someone else's responsibility...
Ive always found that (over simpified ) statistic ( statistics; always wrong, sometimes useful) to be a startling indication of the capacity of **** sapiens to be stupefyingly ignorant....
seriously - you cant say 'h0mo' sapiens..?