[paul.fr]

according to greenpeace:

If rainforests are cut down to make way to grow 'green fuels', it will not only destroy homes for animals like the orang-utans, it will also be catastrophic for the climate releasing more greenhouse gases by destroying forests than we will save using biofuels.

http://www.greenpeace.org.uk/blog/climate/choose-the-right-biofuel-or-the-orang-utan-gets-it-now-on-video-20070606

Should we care about the plight of the orang-utan and other species in our rush to develop greener fuels?

[dentstudent]

It is my understanding that there are already areas large enough to accomodate for the vast majority of biofuel production without having to resort to the felling of further forested areas. The US for example has thousands of hectares of "wasteland" that could be better used for this purpose, and would therefore already be very close to the largest proportion of end-users, therefore reducing transportation costs etc. In the UK, the farmers have "set-aside" land which they are paid to not use - (I think between 5 and 10% of the total farm area)- the same applies.

There are a large number of alternatives to consider before further inroads are made into the primary forests.

Try this podcast...Its an interview with David Suzuki, and if I remember correctly, they discuss exactly this issue.

http://www.treehugger.com/files/2007/03/treehugger-radio-24-suzuki.php

[huntertime]

paul.fr, Thanks for the post.

I Think dentstudent makes a good point about localising the production in western countries, this certainly make sense. regarding “Should we care about the plight of the orang-utan and other species in our rush to develop greener fuels?”, bio diversity should surly be paramount to scientific community in terms of utilising and understanding nature? Orang-utans are just one of many species becoming increasingly endangered and this campaign should represent more than the plight of the orang-utan, but rather species worldwide.  The development of technologies should factor these environmental considerations in at a base level, they should not need to be debated but simply assumed

[DoctorBeaver]

I'm sure I remember hearing on TV a while back that the amount of land required to grow sufficient bio-fuels is beyond that available in most western countries apart from the US, Canada & Australia.

[Bored chemist]

"Should we care about the plight of the orang-utan and other species in our rush to develop greener fuels?"
Just a thought; if we had done a bit more caring about the environment generally in the past, perhaps we wouldn't be in quite such a fix now.