1.

Record Nr.

UNINA9910459491803321

Autore

Smith James, Ph. D.

Titolo

Biofuels and the globalization of risk [[electronic resource] ] : the biggest change in the North-South releationships since colonialism? / / James Smith

Pubbl/distr/stampa

London, : Zed, 2010

ISBN

1-78032-022-1

1-282-91626-2

9786612916267

1-84813-573-4

Descrizione fisica

1 online resource (161 p.)

Disciplina

333.9539

Soggetti

Biomass energy - Political aspects

Biomass energy - Government policy

Biomass energy

Electronic books.

Lingua di pubblicazione

Inglese

Formato

Materiale a stampa

Livello bibliografico

Monografia

Note generali

Description based upon print version of record.

Nota di bibliografia

Includes bibliographical references (p. [135]-144) and index.

Nota di contenuto

About the author; Acknowledgements; Acronyms; ONE | Introduction: perfect storms; Biofuelled futures; Globalizing technology and risk; Global assemblages; Organization of the book; TWO | Science: biofuels, yesterday and tomorrow; Energy revolution redux; Biofuels - early history; Biofuels 101; Brazil and bioethanol; Biofuels and the United States; Jatropha and India; Tanzania, land and biofuels; Later-generation biofuels; The black box of biorefineries; From the past to the future; THREE | Systems: complexity and knowledge; Capturing complexity; Setting boundaries; Life-cycle analyses

Dealing with uncertainties 'Energy return on investment'; Flawed analyses; Emissions and land-use change; Opportunity costs: indirect land-use change; Limited data and flawed accounting; Complexities of certification; Connecting biofuels and food security; Limits to knowledge, unlimited implications?; FOUR | Synergy: networks and interests; Assembling biofuels; Energy and (over)development; Beyond oil; The sustained failure of agriculture; Actors, discourses and debates;



Actors and networks; The politics of governments and governance; The politics of governments and governance

The power of converging interests Sustaining agricultural research; Sustaining unsustainability; Reconfiguring global land use; Lusophone connections; Reaching across the Indian Ocean; Sustaining over-consumption; Global biofuel assemblages; Calibrating change; FIVE | Scale: solutions and risks; Global-local dialectics; Can biofuels be pro-poor?; Indonesia, Malaysia and oil palm planting; Malian small-scale solutions?; Kenya - striking a balance; Scale and perspective; The global reach of biofuels; SIX | Sustainability? The globalization of risk; Scale and scope; Causes and effects

Assembling biofuels Science; Systems; Synergy; Scale; Sustainability?; The globalization of risk; Notes; Bibliography; Index

Sommario/riassunto

Biofuels and the Globalization of Risk offers a fresh, compelling analysis of the politics and policies behind the biofuels story, with its technological optimism and often-idealized promises for the future. This essential new critique argues that investment in biofuels may reconfigure risk and responsibility, whereby the global South is encouraged to invest its future in growing biofuel crops, often at the expense of food, in order that the global North may continue its unsustainable energy consumption unabated and guilt-free.