Biodiesel. We’ve all been told it is a clean, eco-friendly, progressive option to regular diesel, right? Wrong. Biodiesel causes more destruction to the earth and to the atmosphere than regular diesel does.

Biodiesel is marked as “a clean-burning, alternative fuel produced from domestic, renewable resources,” according to biodiesel.org. It is a blend of petroleum diesel, alcohol, vegetable or animal oils, fats, or greases, most commonly soybean oil. This blend can be at any percentage. Even 20 percent bio and 80 percent petroleum diesel is supposed to lower the amount of carcinogenic and global warming causing emissions.

When the Society of Chemical Industry (SCI) compared greenhouse gas emissions of biodiesel and petroleum diesel from the time of production to the time of combustion, they found that biodiesel emits almost the same amount as petroleum when produced from rapeseeds or oil producing seeds.

Here’s the kicker: If the rapeseed plot was replaced with trees, petroleum diesel would emit only a third of the CO2 equivalent emissions as biodiesel. This occurs because petroleum diesel emits 85 percent of its greenhouse gases when it being consumed by the engine. Biodiesel, on the other hand, emits two-thirds of its gas production stage, when the rapeseed is being harvested. Unfortunately, that’s exactly what is happening.

In order to get the bio to put in the diesel, rainforests and grasslands are being destroyed to convert to cropland to grow rapeseeds. According to grist.org, a year’s supply of biodiesel for the average American will take about 10 acres of soybeans. Ten acres. For ONE little person. FOR ONLY ONE YEAR.

There are some many things wrong with this picture. The places to be destroyed are in South America, Indonesia and other tropical countries.

This act of destruction emits greenhouse gasses into the atmosphere when being burned and plowed. It strips the earth of these natural sponges that soak up carbon emissions.

Finally, cropland emits nitrous oxide, a 200 to 300 times more powerful greenhouse gas than CO2.

There is nothing “domestic” about this process; there is nothing “clean” about this process. This process and its destructive methods are complete contradiction to the supposed goal of biodiesel and are not helping in the fight against climate change.