All feedstocks, bio renewables included, have to be sourced from somewhere.

For the past 50 years, humanity has lived beyond the capacity of the earth. (1) When people hear something like that, they don’t know what to think because they simply don’t understand what it means. In layman's terms, for each of the past 50 years, humans have consumed more resources than the Earth provides in one year. All products no matter how “green” have to come from somewhere and all consumption plays a part in environmental damage that is happening on a global scale. In today’s blog, we’ll look at renewable and nonrenewable resources to better gauge the environmental impact of each and decide which has a lower environmental cost.

First, we’ll look at the two main renewables in the US: Corn and Wood

Corn (ethanol production)

https://www.cropprophet.com/what-state-produces-the-most-corn/

WHAT STATE PRODUCES THE MOST CORN? [IN 2021]

Around 40% of all corn in the US is used to make ethanol. (2) The 3 big problems with corn production are air pollution, water pollution, and land usage changes. While the fossil fuel industry accounts for 5.1 million all from agriculture air pollution is a huge health concern in many countries killing around 8.3 million people every single year. (3) The main cause of this air pollution in agriculture comes from the plowing of fields and using pesticides and fertilizers. Not only does the production of these chemicals pollute the air but our excessive usage of fertilizers can lead to nitrogen oxide emissions which are harmful to the environment and human health. Pesticides can also be suspended in the air the spread over a large area harming human and natural life. Corn production also requires large amounts of water which in many areas where it is grown is starting to become a scarcer resource. Even worse the high amounts of chemicals used in corn production can lead to contamination of these water sources making them unsafe for human consumption and leading to water scarcity. This pollution can also cause mass die-offs of marine life in rivers lakes and oceans. While ethanol’s contribution to global warming is well below that of gasoline it is still comparatively worse than plug-in vehicles. This is especially noticeable when comparing the driving distance one acre of corn can provide versus the distance one acre of solar panels can produce for EVs. One acre of corn can fuel a car or around 9,691 miles while an acre of solar panels can charge a EV to drive 710,250 miles. (4) To put that into perspective that's the difference between going to New York to Sydney versus going to the moon and back then driving around the circumference of the earth over 9 times.

https://asmith.ucdavis.edu/news/which-better-crop-corn-or-solar-panels

Should Farmers Plant Solar Panels or Corn?

This inefficiency is due to only a small portion of the corn being suitable for ethanol production with only the kernel being used. Despite being a more carbon-efficient fuel when compared to gasoline there are still inherent inefficiencies in bio-renewable ethanol production which make it much more carbon-intensive than actual renewable energy.

Wood (plantation and natural forest)

In the US, Americans use 10 to 15 billion cubic feet of wood each year and have over 302 million ha (hectares) of forestland with around 11% of that area being planted timberland. (5)

https://www.researchgate.net/figure/Timberland-reserved-forest-land-and-other-forest-land-in-CONUS_fig4_265446841

Timberland, reserved forest land, and other forest land in CONUS.

Over 550 million acres are FSC-certified, which requires sustainable management of forests, however, almost 30% of this land is in the US and Canada which are not the main countries of concern when it comes to deforestation. (6) The main location of deforestation is in the tropics which release huge amounts of CO2 into the atmosphere especially when the forests grow on peat lands. However, plantations can help store carbon and help with biodiversity when they replace pasture or agricultural land that had been converted from natural forests. While they fall short of natural forests in these regards, plantations can produce 3 to 10 times more usable wood which means less area needed for production. (7) This is because plantations use fertilizer, pesticides, and herbicides to enhance tree growth and plant the same species of trees in rows to assist with the harvesting process. There are also semi-natural forests used for lumber production but for the sake of time we will leave this topic for you you can find sources for them in the work cited. (13)(14) After the wood is harvested it still needs to be transported to a sawmill and processed before being shipped to the consumer which also contributes to the overall footprint of wood and lumber production.

Alternatives (gasoline plastic)

Ethanol produces around 40 to 50 percent less greenhouse gas emissions than regular gasoline and does not have the added impact of large-scale spills as oil does, which have caused environmental havoc, killing marine life, damaging soil, and poisoning groundwater. (8) These spills can have catastrophic effects on human life directly and indirectly by damaging the ecosystem people rely on for food and jobs. This makes ethanol a “greener” product but let's just say the bar is pretty low when you're getting compared to petroleum products. Wood and lumber are a more interesting issue as they can be used in some applications as a replacement for plastics, concrete, and steel. Plastics account for 1.5 to 12.5 million metric tons of greenhouse gas emissions from extraction and transportation of fossil fuels, 1.6 billion tons in released carbon from deforested areas, and refinement causes 184 to 213 million tons of emissions as well. (9) Even when they are at their end of life, plastics still contribute to emissions releasing methane and and carbon dioxide. Plastic also has the issue of harming life when it is not properly disposed of. Plastic waste kills over 1 million marine animals every year which harms the marine ecosystem degrading the ecosystem and harming its ability to store carbon and provide food and a livelihood to the billions of people who rely on the ocean for food, and jobs. (10)

https://www.vox.com/2016/5/23/11735856/plastic-ocean

There are 5 trillion pieces of plastic floating in our oceans. This map shows you where.

Steel is another material that can but partially replaced by lumber. Steel production produces air pollution which can cause acid rain as well as contribute to global warming, pollute waterways, and produce hazardous wastes. (11) The energy required to mine, produce, and refine steel is much higher than the energy inputs for lumber. However, there are benefits to all of these different products some economical and some for safety. The choice of which resource is the best is really up for debate and I urge you all to do more research if you are interested and form your own opinions on the issue. However, there is one case in which I strongly believe in one side. I am not a fan of ethanol. While it is touted as a “green” alternative it is still incredibly damaging to the environment and ecosystem and overall, it is simply detracting from more long-term greener solutions to our transportation problems like electric cars, or an increase in public transportation. We cannot afford to settle for something slightly better when rapid and massive change needs to be made to slow climate change to livable conditions. However, as I do not decide where taxpayers' money goes on which laws and regulations are passed the US still subsidizing the ethanol business costing over 5.7 billion dollars not even accounting for all the other subsidies, and while it is better than gasoline it is still incredibly polluting and damaging to the environment. (12)