Nicole Goldman, owner of “g”Green Design Center in Mashpee Commons, said that people walking through her door are not always aware of the simple steps they can take to become more green.

With her “one-hour speed greening” service, she walks customers through their homes, recommending a switch to plant-based cleaning products, setting up an easy recycling and composting system, and other low-impact ways of greening the household.

Step 1: Reduce Your Consumption

Now in business for four years, Ms. Goldman said she has seen a growing demand for eco-friendly products and services, and the market— and the tax code— are responding.

“People are not sure where to begin. They get overwhelmed and think they have to do everything at once. We help give them a jumpstart,” Ms. Goldman said.

She added that even though some of the products in her store are more expensive than what one might find at Home Depot, the quality and durability makes them a more ecologically responsible choice— and will end up saving customers money.

“Being green is about thinking smartly about the materials you put in your house, what you ingest, and what resources you consume,” she said.

Step 2: Energy Efficiency

Homeowners interested in reducing their energy bills should take advantage of a home energy audit before replacing windows or insulation, she said. She recommended a comprehensive home energy audit provided by Cape Light Compact for a small fee.

“People are a lot more educated and aware about their energy use. They see the costs of fuel going up. It’s not just about saving money, but it’s certainly a forceful incentive,” Ms. Goldman said.

According to Cape & Islands Self Reliance, federal tax credits for household renewable energy have been extended for another year, meaning homeowners and businesses can qualify for rebates of up to 30 percent of the cost of installing wind turbines or solar photovoltaic systems, solar thermal systems for heating and domestic hot water. These systems generate renewable energy on-site and sell any unused electricity back to the grid.

“The paybacks are much quicker now. Not only does the government pay back the cost of the system, you then go on to enjoy free use,” Ms. Goldman said.

Step 3: Compost is Black Gold

If installing solar panels or a wind turbine is not an option, there are still a number of ways to establish eco-friendly habits in the home.

Anne-Marie Runfola, a composting expert and member of the Falmouth Farmers Market board of directors, said that the average household can reduce 30 to 70 percent of its trash by composting food scraps and recycling.

“We don’t have the space for landfills, so we’re trucking and training trash farther. That’s bad for air quality, carbon emissions, and the economy,” she said.

Composting has the added benefit of being an excellent fertilizer for a garden or potted plants. By mixing a carbon source such as leaves with nitrogen-heavy compost, nutrients are “fixed” at the source, helping control nitrogen runoff and erosion, she said.

Using compost instead of fertilizer made from petrochemicals on one’s garden has much less of an impact on the environment— and on the pocketbook, Ms. Runfola said. “By throwing food out, we’re paying for garbage to be taken away, and we’re paying again for fertilizer to go in,” she said.

Step 4: Eat your vegetables

While carbon dioxide has grabbed most of the attention as a greenhouse gas, nitrous oxide and methane are even longer-lasting and effective agents of climate change.

For that reason, the European Nitrogen Assessment reported at conference held this month in Scotland that the best thing people can do to reduce their nitrogen footprint is eat less meat, said Eric A. Davidson, a senior scientist at the Woods Hole Research Center.

Livestock are not particularly efficient at converting protein in the food they eat. A cow converts 10 percent of the protein it eats into meat products that humans consume. Pork and chicken are a little better, and fish is probably the best. So eating meat is wasteful in terms of the protein needed in the human diet.

-Eric Davidson, WHRC

That protein inefficiency has upstream effects, Dr. Davidson said. The greenhouse gases created by confined animal feeding operations and the fertilizers required to grow crops to feed them amounted to 6.3 percent of total US emissions in 2009, according to the US Environmental Protection Agency.

Fertilizer and manure runoff to the Mississippi River has created a “dead zone” in the Gulf of Mexico due to an overabundance of nitrogen, killing fish and other marine life.

Dedicated carnivores need not give up meat entirely, said Dr. Davidson. As demonstrated at the nitrogen assessment conference, simply reducing the amount of meat consumed each day or at each meal makes a difference, while satisfying hunger.

“It’s probably not a big enough difference for mitigating our local problem of nitrogen in our sewage. But for the Mississippi River or global climate change, one thing everyone can do is reduce the portion size and frequency of eating meat,” Dr. Davidson said.

What’s your nitrogen footprint? Calculate it here!

Step 5: Drive less, ride more

With gas prices topping $3.83 per gallon in Falmouth yesterday, people are motivated to find alternatives to driving, said Thomas S. Cahir, executive director of the Cape Cod Regional Transit Authority.

Since last July, the bus company has seen 16 percent more riders on its fixed route service over the previous year. Ridership on the SeaLine from Woods Hole to Hyannis was up by nearly 16.5 percent, while the WHOOSH trolley from Woods Hole to the Falmouth Mall was up by 15 percent.

“We’ve always felt the geography and seasonal aspects of the Cape really scream out for a vibrant and robust transport system. But it’s hard to get people out of their cars,” said Mr. Cahir, pointing to the CCRTA’s new hourly schedule and billing system on its B-bus service as reasons for increased ridership.

According to the American Public Transportation Association, cars and trucks are responsible for 33 percent of total greenhouse gas emissions in the United States, but a person who commutes 20 miles a day by bus instead of driving can reduce their carbon footprint by 10 percent.

Mr. Cahir said the CCRTA’s bus fleet uses 20 percent biodiesel, increasing the environmental benefits. The CCRTA plans to expand with a route in Bourne and Sandwich by October and a statewide public transportation pass that can be used from Logan Airport to the Steamship Authority and island bus systems by next year.

Step 6: Bike to work

But the most ecologically responsible way to get around is bicycling, said Edward S. Gross, chairman of the Falmouth Bikeways Committee.

“Biking is a non-polluting activity and contributes to our own health. It’s also a community service, reducing congestion on the road,” he said.

Since the Shining Sea Bikeway was extended in 2009, use of the nearly 11-mile path has increased by 50 percent, averaging 1,440 users on a weekend springtime day, he said.

Falmouth can certainly do more to become a bicycling-friendly community, he added, by painting bike lanes and “sharrows” on the roadways and routes to schools. It is something of a catch-22, however, because the town will probably not take these steps unless there is a demand— and until people think it is safe to ride a bike on the road, there won’t be as much demand.

In its annual bid to promote bicycle commuting, the League of American Cyclists has declared May as National Bike Month, with May 16 to 20 as National Bike to Work Week.

In Falmouth, bicycling advocates will be observing Bike to Work Day on May 18, with free coffee, pastries, and information at two booths along the Shining Sea Bikeway.

Six steps… and beyond

So, to recap, there are six things you can do today, this week, or this month to green up your life: don’t buy something that you can’t reuse or recycle;  turn off unnecessary appliances and sign up for a free energy audit; throw away food scraps in a bin and attend a composting workshop for the next steps; trade in some of your meat for fresh vegetables;  take the bus, carpool, or bike to work or on your errands.

Anything else? Let us know how you celebrate Earth Day!

What some may consider a pie-in-the-sky scenario is becoming closer to reality, as the Department of Environmental Protection develops a zero waste policy goal for the future.
With skyrocketing solid waste disposal costs and the toxic emissions from landfills and trash incinerators contributing to climate change, the concept of zero waste is being embraced as a realistic, common-sense solution to a number environmental and social ills.

Lynne Pledger, of Clean Water Action and Don't Waste Massachusetts

While it may not be possible to completely eliminate all waste, Lynne Pledger, the solid waste director of Clean Water Action, outlined the steps for getting closer.

“Zero waste is like the North Star. You don’t have to get there, just use it as a guide,” Ms. Pledger said in a forum organized by the Falmouth Climate Action Team, the Falmouth Solid Waste Advisory Committee, and the Cape and Islands chapter of the Sierra Club.

Not only does waste represent inefficiency in society, it is a major contributor to climate change, emitting potent greenhouse gases (methane and CO2) and toxins from landfills and incinerators, Ms. Pledger said.

Throwing things away instead of reusing them also means more natural resources are consumed, destroying ecosystems and habitats in the process.

For example, the bauxite needed to produce aluminum cans has ravaged parts of Jamaica, Iceland, Guinea, Australia, and India— a process that also requires 20 times the amount of energy as recycling aluminum.

The 3 R’s

The mantra of the waste disposal hierarchy—reduce, reuse, recycle—rings true in achieving zero waste, said Ms. Pledger.

By reusing shopping bags to composting, people are already taking steps to reduce their household garbage.

But in order to get to zero waste  municipalities and manufacturers will also have to step up their efforts.

The DEP’s Pathway to Zero Waste solid waste master plan for 2010-2020:

According to the DEP,  recycling, reuse, and remanufacturing:

To cut the state’s garbage in half, commercial-scale composting facilities or anaerobic digesters will be needed in every region to handle food scraps from residences and businesses, Ms. Pledger said.

In the 125 municipalities nationwide that offer curbside composting along with recycling and trash disposal, she said trash collection has decreased to twice a month, offsetting costs.

A pay-as-you-throw program for curbside trash collection has also proven to reduce solid waste tonnage, Ms. Pledger added.

Setting a nationwide example, San Francisco instituted a mandatory recycling and composting program last year, a huge gain in achieving its goal of zero waste by 2020.

Boston and San Francisco are similar in size and demographics, Ms. Pledger pointed out, but currently San Francisco diverts 75 percent of its solid waste, while Boston diverts only 13 percent.

“The difference is political will,” she said.

Think globally, act locally

Taking steps toward zero waste represents an opportunity for Falmouth to increase “green tourism” while also saving money and protecting the environment, Ms. Pledger said.

Local boards of health have the authority to determine what can be handled at a transfer station, she said— meaning that the board could decide to ban recyclable goods and organic materials from the Upper Cape Regional Transfer Station.

Falmouth DPW Director Ray Jack has gone on the record in support of regionalizing solid waste services, another of the DEP’s solid waste guidelines. He has also expressed support for mandatory recycling program and a materials reclamation center on Cape Cod.
As the Cape’s contracts with the SEMASS waste-to-energy incinerator near expiration (2015 in Falmouth) and the Bourne landfill, well, fills, this forward-thinking step could reduce our solid waste disposal costs significantly—meanwhile creating a market for used (but still perfectly useful) construction and art materials.
A reclamation facility similar to Urban Ore in San Francisco would create a market for builders who want cheaper or more unique building materials, and could also be expanded to take in household goods, clothing, and other useful materials, similar to the Falmouth Waste Management Facility’s popular Swap Shop.

The EPR model

-Product Policy Institute

EPR is just one way of incorporating societal costs into consumer products.

But he is not stopping in Falmouth for long: shortly after Christmas, Febos will hit the road in his Rabbit, armed with nothing more than a camera, a laptop, and a tank full of vegetable oil.

Combining his interest in low-impact living with a quest to find other people who are setting that example, Febos plans to drive across the country in his vegetable oil-powered car.

With a binder of information as a road map, he plans to visit at least 35 sustainable projects in urban and rural locales, hoping to gain insight and inspiration into how society can design itself according to ecological principles.

In what may be viewed as a modern-day version of Jack Kerouac’s On the Road, Febos plans to blog his way across America.

I’m documenting the life process of living more sustainably and happily, while minimizing my use of resources and assessing my impact on the blog. The idea is to inspire people to see how others are making their lives more sustainable with fun, cool projects. That way people can see how they can make changes in their lives.

-Barry Febos

Creating, not consuming

For Febos, repurposing waste products into useful materials is a way of life—and a form of artistic expression.

His journey began in October with a “live-in” exhibition in a Baltimore gallery, entitled “Moving to Utopia: unpacking a quest for a more sustainable life,” a slogan that is also stenciled onto the side of the Rabbit.

Living in the gallery for a week, Mr. Febos depicted his planned journey through photos, drawings, maps, and video, while cataloguing his possessions and “auctioning off” the items he deemed unnecessary. He plans to do a version of this show in New Orleans, and another when he returns to Falmouth.

His previous art projects have included making notebooks out of plastic bags and paper that had been printed on one side, making windows out of glass bottles, and a hammock made of used fabric and plastic bags.

One man’s food is another man’s fuel

While working on community art projects in Baltimore, Febos started to get interested in the mechanics of biodiesel engines a couple years ago. He bought the Rabbit, already equipped with a vegetable oil conversion system built into it, and started imagining the possibilities.

“Having a vehicle that runs on veggie oil seemed like a way to creatively use other people’s waste,” he said.

Though diesel engines can run on straight bio-diesel, using discarded vegetable oil requires a few additional steps, said Febos.

First, one has to find a source of oil. Usually, restaurants and fast-food establishments have to pay to dispose of the used oil, and are only too happy to have someone take it off their hands, he said. A classified-type website, Fillup4free.com, is another source for finding free or cheap waste oil.

Once he collects 10 gallons to fill a separate fuel tank, the oil must then be filtered to remove any food particles or water.  Febos has constructed a simple filtration system using plastic buckets and fine-meshed cloth.

He plans to have several gallons of oil filtering while he drives—so as to avoid running out of fuel with no McDonald’s in miles.

Bio-diesel mechanics

One issue with a built-in conversion system is that diesel engines cannot start with vegetable oil, and the car must be warmed up completely before switching over to the bio-diesel source. Therefore, the Rabbit has a regular fuel tank for starting the car and flushing oil from the fuel lines during the last few miles of each journey, Febos said.

“The conversion system is not as good for driving locally. For a three- to four-mile trip it doesn’t really work,” he said.

Mr. Febos plans to take the southern route across the United States, where warmer temperatures should make the oil less likely to congeal. He said the Rabbit gets up to 50 miles per gallon while running on either regular diesel or vegetable oil.

In addition to getting an MPG that rivals hybrid vehicles, running a car on veggie oil benefits the environment in a number of ways.

According to the non-profit educational organization, NOLS, running your car on recycled veggie oil:

• Makes us more energy independent. As long as people eat French fries, there will always be an oil source. Plus, your tailpipe will give off the pleasant odor of fried food, instead of toxic fumes!
• Reduces our dependence on oil from foreign sources or environmentally sensitive areas.
• Does not release sulfuric acid (SO2) into the atmosphere, one of the main causes of acid rain.
• Reduces our carbon dioxide (CO2) emissions by 78%.
• Produces 48% less carbon monoxide, a poisonous gas, than regular diesel fuel.
• Creates 48% less asthma-causing particulate matter, and 80% less cancer-causing polycyclic aromatic hydrocarbons (PAH’s) than petroleum diesel.

Connecting the dots

The first stop on Febos’s itinerary is just a few miles from his parents’ home. Having received some guidance on biodiesel vehicles from Joseph L. Hackler, a member of the Alchemy Farm Neighborhood Association, Febos plans to start his blog with a post about the agricultural and renewable energy projects at Alchemy Farm, home of the former New Alchemy Insitute.

Other highlights of the journey will include the Germantown Community Farm in upstate New York, where a fellow Falmouth native, Kaya Weidman, is working on starting up a community radio station, WGXC.

He also plans to visit a shanty boat project in Providence, Rhode Island, where a group has created something like a floating ark, complete with a vegetable garden and chickens and ducks on board.

Farther south, Febos plans to visit intentional communities in Virginia and Tennessee, staying for a while in each place to blog and contribute to projects. He also plans to visit the Project M Lab’s Rural Studio in Greensboro, Alabama, where designers tackle problems and find solutions for poor communities.

“I’m still learning. I want to see and participate in what people are doing, so that later I’ll have the resources to make things happen,” Febos said.

They came to learn advanced satellite imaging techniques, and left at the end of September with maps that will help their countries manage their forests and take part in a potential global carbon credit trading system.

The pan-(bio)mass challenge

The WHRC is leading an effort to create the first pan-tropical biomass map that will demonstrate the future effects of deforestation and land use change across the globe. This information is key in developing the Reduced Emissions from Deforestation and Forest Degradation (REDD) policy initiative being negotiated under the United Nations Framework Convention on Climate Change (UNFCCC).

Mukund Srivastava (left), of the Indian Forest Survey, works with Tina Courmier of the Woods Hole Research Center and Abel Siample of the Zambia Forestry Department, to develop a map that shows the land use and carbon-sequestration capacity of India.

Under the REDD system, countries like the United States that emit a large amount of greenhouse gas could purchase carbon credits from countries like Gabon that have a lot of forest, but need cash to continue to protect it.

The system is also designed to encourage countries like Kenya to build up its forests, reversing the trend of deforestation that threatens to increase not only global carbon emissions, but also the ability of its citizens to grow food and find safe drinking water.

Using the maps, governments and tropical forest stakeholders will be able to monitor and track changes to land cover, helping inform policy decisions, said Joseph Kellndorfer, a WHRC scientist co-leading the pan-tropical mapping effort.

Tropical deforestation is estimated to be the cause of about 17 percent of man-made global carbon emissions, which makes it an easy target for combating climate change, said Dr. Kellndorfer.

“These maps give us a first estimate of what we’re talking about trading,” he said.

As the scholars taking part in the workshop indicated, deforestation is caused by a variety of factors. While logging is an obvious source, agricultural expansion—exacerbated by population pressures and a turn to the cultivation of cash crops—is also taking a major toll on tropical forests across Africa and Southeast Asia.

In Colombia, a decades-long guerilla war is having an impact even in remote forests; in Bolivia, hydroelectric projects threaten to flood the lush jungle of the Amazon basin.

The forest for the trees

Poverty is the number one barrier to forest conservation, said Edward Ssenyonjo, a remote sensing specialist with the Ugandan National Forest Authority. “More than 80 percent of people depend on the natural environment, mainly forests, to survive. This is compounded by a population growth [rate] of 3.2 percent,” he said.

His colleague, Abel Siample, of the Zambia Forestry Department, said that investment in alternatives to charcoal production and agricultural expansion are the only way to stop encroachment in protected forests.

Joint forest management committees in Zambia and India are giving disenfranchised people a say in how REDD funds are distributed, said Mukund Srivastava, of the Indian Forest Survey.

With a structure based on equality for women and the rural poor, these committees are developing a model so that a portion of REDD revenue returns to the community to attract tourism or sustainable industries and build up infrastructure.

People realize it when they hit the wall, and there is no more forest, but they cannot stop without alternatives. It’s a human dilemma: we do not change our behavior until it becomes too late.

-Nadine Laporte, associate scientist

However, said WHRC associate scientist Nadine Laporte, throwing money at the problem is not a sure way to protect diminishing forests. Sensitive to the socio-economic hardships that people in developing countries face, she is working with the scholars to find solutions to deforestation while meeting the needs of impoverished people.

“In Africa, deforestation is done by people who are trying to feed their families,” said Dr. Laporte, pointing out that people are driven to cut down the forest in a quest to find wood for cooking and heating.

Think global, act local

Peter Ndunda, of the Green Belt Movement, and WHRC Associate Scientist Nadine Laporte go over Peter's map of Kenya

Although REDD was not adopted by the UNFCCC Conference of Parties that met in Copenhagen last December, Dr. Laporte said it is only a matter of time before a global carbon-trading system is in place.

Already, there are several bilateral agreements in place between developing nations and high carbon-emitting countries and states. Progress on REDD achieved in Copenhagen will continue at the next COP meeting in Cancun, Mexico, starting in late November.

Shifting the focus of international climate talks to helping communities and developing nations solve their own problems, the field survey sessions that Dr. Laporte and her colleagues take part in reach some of the most rural or forested areas in the world.

Community capacity-building is the name of the game for Peter Ndunda, a GIS specialist with the Kenyan Green Belt Movement (GBM), a non-governmental organization founded by Nobel Peace Prize winner Wangari Maathai.

By building up tree nurseries and embarking on a nationwide tree planting campaign, the GBM has been able to stem the trend of deforestation in part of Kenya. In addition, GBM offers civic and environmental education programs that help people understand how forests help retain soil and water, thereby supporting food production and safe drinking water.

A map of Kenya's forest cover shows the GBM's progress, but huge areas in the east remain deforested.

While GBM has made great strides in the last 20 years, the biomass map Mr. Ndunda created at WHRC shows how much further the country has to go.

Indeed, great swaths of Kenya were colored in brown on his map, indicating low forest cover; while the green areas where GBM is active nonetheless indicate that human activity has spilled over the boundaries of designated conservation areas.

“How do you help communities increase their yields without compromising future generations?” Mr. Ndunda asked.

With additional income from REDD, communities will have the time to wait for the trees to grow, while also improving their farmland, he said.

“REDD provides a great opportunity to help resolve the global challenge of poverty. This is a huge economic and ecological benefit that we cannot quantify.”

If you teach a man to map…

Nguyen Hanh Quyenv, of the Vietnamese Academy of Science and Technology, works on a biomass map that she says will help her country develop forest conservation policies

Some of the scholars taking part in the WHRC workshop were able to create a map of the forest cover as well as the biomass capacity of their country.

Using readily-downloadable data from free sources like Google Earth–as well as sophisticated software and the 160 processing systems owned by the WHRC– the scholars were able to create forest-cover maps of their entire country with a 15-meter resolution, and biomass maps with 500 meters resolution.

Another benefit offered through the WHRC program is the use of satellite radar imaging, a powerful tool that can penetrate the cloud cover that tends to persist over tropical forests, Dr. Kellndorfer said.

That way, forest managers will have more accurate “snapshots” of a forest region, without gaps in data due to cloud cover.

That was a difficulty for Edersson Cabrera, a remote sensing expert with the Colombian ministry of the environment. Though he has been collecting data on the country’s diverse range of forests for the past two decades, thick cloud cover in some years led to gaps in knowledge about how land use had changed over time.

Eric Armijo, of the Friends of Nature Foundation in Bolivia, said the maps he is working on with the WHRC will give his organization the tools it needs to make sure conservation policies are in place— and working.

“It’s a powerful way of pushing the decision-makers,” he said.

According to scientists at the Woods Hole Oceanographic Institution, 30% of the world’s carbon dioxide (CO2) emissions, known to be a leading cause of global warming, are being absorbed by the ocean. Small coincidence that over the past 50 years of global  industrialization, rising CO2 emissions have also led to a 30% increase in the average acidity of ocean surface water.

This phenomenon is just starting to attract the attention– and alarm– of policymakers and the shellfish industry.  I talked to Scott Doney and Sarah Cooley at WHOI to find out why.

How does ocean acidification happen?

When CO2 in the atmosphere combines with seawater (H2O), the molecules combine to form carbonic acid (H2CO3). This acid is weak and dissociates rapidly in basic seawater, releasing hydrogen ions. When these ions combine with the carbonate ions already present in the water to form bicarbonate, they rob coral and shellfish of the materials they need to grow their shells and skeletons.

Scientists estimate that the pH of seawater has decreased by about 0.1 units– a 30 % decline on the logarithmic pH scale– and could decline by 0.3-0.5 units more in the next 100 years, as CO2 levels rise. Over time, they warn, the ocean’s ability to absorb CO2 could diminish the development of coral reefs and marine organisms with calcium carbonate shells, with side effects reverberating throughout the ecosystem.

Scott Doney, of WHOI, explains the connection between CO2 and your favorite seafood dinner

The question is when, and where, said Dr. Doney. Using carbon emissions projections from the Intergovernmental Panel on Climate Change, he predicted that acidity levels in the ocean will double by mid-century, and carbonate ions could decline by half.

Carbon dioxide, if you look at it as a pollutant, is very long-lived, lasting from hundreds to thousands of years. It will also continue to grow through the mid-century, with no good indication that we’ll be able to stabilize it.  We’ve now increased atmospheric carbon dioxide to a range that hasn’t been seen since 800,000 years ago,  judging from ice cores.

-Scott Doney

In a 2008 paper, Drs. Cooley and Doney indicate that bivalves, such as scallops and oysters, would feel the effects of acidification more heavily than sea urchins or crustaceans, such as lobsters, shrimp, and crabs, due to their use of a more soluble form of calcium carbonate in their shells. The effects of acidification on fish is not known, but should be studied, Dr. Doney said.

“There’s no indication that this will destroy sea life, but it certainly will diminish and dislocate some species,” he said.

Calling for additional research into the socio-economic, as well as biological and political ramifications of ocean acidification, Drs. Doney and Cooley, with WHOI marine policy specialist Hauke Kite-Powell, are investigating the impacts on the shellfish industry in the Northeast.

The economic effects of ocean acidification will be felt locally, the scientists say. In New Bedford, the top American port for shellfish, they found:

• By 2060, a 25 % loss in shellfish populations would decrease landing revenues by $67 million a year, or $2.2 billion
• Losses in primary revenue from commercial harvests—or the money that fishermen receive for their catch—could add up to as much as $1.4 billion within 50 years
• In comparison, a 25 % decrease in the seafood employment sector contributed to a dramatic economic decline from in New Bedford from 1992 to 1999, when 20 % of residents were living below the federal poverty level

The Bigger Picture

Dr. Doney’s research also takes a look at the global picture, especially at areas of the developing world that are dependent on viable fisheries.

“As with so many aspects of environmental degradation, the Third World is often hit hardest, and is the least resilient,” he said. “We want to make the connections with fishing communities and how they can adapt.”

Acidification could be the death blow for coral reefs, which are already impacted by pollution and overfishing, Dr. Doney said, which will have an impact on coastal erosion, fish habitat, and tourism.

Regions that are impacted by acid rain and nutrient runoff might already be experiencing the effects of acidification, he added. While a connection between nitrogen loading and acidity has not been thoroughly studied, Dr. Doney warned that algal blooms from excess nitrogen release CO2, “an unfortunate synergy” that could occur on Cape Cod.

In a report published earlier this month in Science, Marine Biological Laboratory senior scientist Jerry M. Melillo and research associate David W. Kicklighter found the costs of producing biofuels may outweigh the benefits of burning them.

Due to a rising demand for corn-based ethanol, cropland in the United States is slowly being converted from food to biofuel production, Dr. Melillo said, mirroring a global trend.

The scientists’ model, which looked at economic and biogeochemistry data, predicted that the land devoted to biofuels will become greater than the total area currently devoted to growing food by the end of this century.

The displacement of food crops and forests for growing biofuel products will release up to twice as much as the carbon dioxide (CO2) emitted from the same land, they found.

“Large greenhouse gas emissions from these indirect land-use changes are unintended consequences of a global biofuels program, consequences that add to the climate-change problem rather than helping to solve it,” said Dr. Melillo.

Oil for food

Increasing biofuel consumption in the United States may also lead to land use changes in other parts of the world. Dr. Melillo pointed out that as the United States grows more corn, it is growing less soybeans, which are in high demand from China. As a result, China is buying more soybeans from Brazil, a country that is rapidly destroying its rainforests to convert to agricultural production.

“Our ethanol production is having knock-off consequences on land use in Brazil. There are several degrees of separation but everything is connected,” Dr. Melillo said.

Growing more biofuel crops could also mean that fertilizer use will increase, resulting in greater nitrous oxide (N²O) emissions. Dr. Melillo said this potent greenhouse gas could become more important than carbon dioxide as a driver of climate change by the end of the century.

“When you cut down [trees or crops], you release carbon. Burning wood in remote tropics, or allowing it to decay, that’s a big pulse of carbon. And once you clear the land, the next thing is to fertilize,” Dr. Melillo said.

The N²O threat

Unwillingness to use fertile cropland to grow biofuel plants can mean that less productive land—and more fertilizer—is used, Dr. Melillo said. By 2100, the scientists estimated that more than half of the total N²O emissions will come from fertilizer, surpassing CO² as the leading cause of global warming.

For this reason, Dr. Melillo said that N2O emissions are what he is worried about over the long term.

“Fertilization is probably going to go on for a long time. Whereas, the large carbon losses occur around the time of conversion of natural lands,” he said.

Current climate policy is aimed at reducing CO2 emissions to 350 parts per million, a target that some countries are trying to achieve by increasing their dependence on biofuels. So far, Dr. Melillo said, greenhouse gas emissions from biofuel-related land use change are not included in any country’s carbon credit accounting.

Furthermore, the spin-off effects of such policies, Dr. Melillo said, could mean that land prices will increase, leading to higher prices for food and wood products.

Because most of the ethanol used in Massachusetts is not produced in the state, he said that the ecological consequences in the US will mostly be felt in the Midwest, where farms and refineries dedicated to ethanol production have sprouted up.

“Corn is a nitrogen-demanding crop. It does not use fertilizer efficiently, so it runs off into the groundwater, down the Mississippi, and to the Gulf Coast,” Dr. Melillo said.

“I have a feeling there will be work in the agricultural community to maximize the efficiency using of nitrogen by breeding crops,” he said.

While Dr. Melillo said he is not planning to attend the United Nations climate change conference in Copenhagen next month, he will present his research on biofuel issues to officials in the European Union next week. He will be pushing for a global greenhouse gas emissions policy that protects forests and encourages best practices for nitrogen fertilizer that will reduce emissions associated with biofuels production.