Greenhouse gases (notably CO2, CH4, and N2O) have increased in their atmospheric concentration since pre-industrial era (Ciais et al. 2013). Although there can be natural causes to an increased atmospheric concentration of greenhouse gases, the current increase in concentration has been attributed to anthropogenic emissions (Ciais et al. 2013). Such an increase is a serious problem as an elevated concentration of greenhouse gases will lead to an increase in average temperature (Ciais et al. 2013). An increase in average temperatures will lead to many problems such as the melting of glaciers and subsequent rising of sea-levels as well as thawing of the permafrost that contains twice the amount of carbon found currently in our atmosphere (Ciais et al. 2013). A notable producer of greenhouse gases is the burning of fossil fuels (Ciais et al. 2013). Due to the necessity of fossil fuels, renewable sources of energy such as biofuels have been investigated as an alternative to biofuels. Biofuels are not always the best alternative to fossil fuels as seen in the case of palm oil (De Souza, S. P., Pacca, S., De Avila, M. T., & Borges, J. L. B., 2010).

Oil companies are currently looking to extract fossil fuels from the Arctic (Schiermeier, 2012). It is currently believed that the Arctic holds up 13% of the planet’s recoverable oil and 30% of its gas (Schiermeier, 2012). The current issue with extracting fossil fuels from the arctic is that spills would be harder to control and remediate in comparison to warmer regions (Schiermeier, 2012). An example of such a spill would be the Exxon Valdez offshore spill that occurred in Prince William Sound, Alaska on March 1989 (Li, H., & Boufadel, M. C., 2010)).

Biofuels have been investigated as an alternative to fossil fuels. The first generation of biofuels were derived from edible plants (Lü, J., Sheahan, C., & Fu, P., 2011). Ethanol could be extracted from edible plants by fermentation with yeast and lipids from oil seeds and plants were extracted and transformed into biodiesel (Lü, J., Sheahan, C., & Fu, P., 2011). This method of creating biodiesel, however, was undesirable as the energy required to generate fuel was greater than the fuel return (Lü, J., Sheahan, C., & Fu, P., 2011). Using edible crops also meant that there would be an eventual increase in food price as crops such as wheat and sugar would be diverted into fuel production (Lü, J., Sheahan, C., & Fu, P., 2011).

Generations of Biofuels - Energy from waste and wood. (n.d.). Retrieved from: http://energyfromwasteandwood.weebly.com/generations-of-biofuels.html Lee, R. a., & Lavoie, J.-M. (2013). From first- to third-generation biofuels: Challenges of producing a commodity from a biomass of increasing complexity. Animal Frontiers, 3(2), 6–11. doi:10.2527/af.2013-0010