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This is where "green" protesters lose the sympathy of the general public and generally show themselves up as impractical dreamers who are mainly interested in the protest rather than the results. Petroleum releases carbon which has been locked away under the Earth for millennia, thus increasing atmospheric carbon today. Biofuels take carbon out of the atmosphere while growing and release it when burned so there is no net increase in atmospheric carbon. Of course deforestation is a problem if the land is being cleared to grow biofuels, but why aren't they out protesting the much more wasteful meat industry?

It seems to be getting that way a bit Neil. Don't want nuclear power, don't want wind power. Don't want fossil fuels, don't want biofuels. I usually have respect for people who are activly involved in this way but am I begining to ask myself if these protesters are 1) Coming up with an alternative and 2) Accepting the bigger picture. I used to march and protest with CND, but I noticed an unpleasant change from a Peace movement to an anti-Iraq war movement, the two are not quite the same thing.

This is what's called having your cake and eating it too! Biofuels good, oil-derived fuels bad. Now biofuels bad. Well OK, nearly every form of energy production carries its pros and cons, so can we not have these numpties growing up a bit and getting into the real world for a change. Small scale, waste crops may power a tractor to the end of the field, but we need fuel in more quantities than that! One of the major problems is "the burgeoning population" with each added human requiring his or her quota of energy, but you don't hear many protests about that. However population growth far outweighs whether a forest was levelled for biofuel crops. That is if you accept that CO2 causes the feared global warming, which I don't. Followed through to logical conclusions, this type of protestor would be happy to live in their own comfort while the rest of us die of cold or lack of economic activity. Anyway it was nice that Greenergy gave them a cup of tea, which was presumably hot.

I really admire environmental protesters. They have a tendancy t think they are on some sort of morale high ground and are right on and trendy but they never really take a balanced view nor do they offer any practicable alternatives. Mind you they normally like their lights on e-mail working beer cold and houses warm

I'd like to thank these protestors for targetting one of the most environmentally destructive industries. With the increased demand for agricultural land caused by growing biofuel incentives the pressure on rainforests is immense. This would be tragedy enough for the diversity of life, human and non-human, in these areas. But as the Amazon shrinks, due to increasing demand for soya, it is in danger of dying completely. The Amazon maintains its own rain fall - in the past few years we have already seen record droughts in this area. If the Amazon goes up in smoke it will release CO2 equivalent to many years of fossil fuel burning and we will lose a major global climate stabiliser. Depressing news - but we have a right to protest in this country! Which is a lot more than can be said for many people thrown off their land by biofuel developments. So , why aren't more of us protesting such suicidal developments? By all means target the meat industry or demand global peace. There are not enough people out there making a stand against the issues threatening out future. Those who do have to choose what seems most important for them. Please don't criticise for choosing one important issue rather than another. Rather, let's empower ourselves by making a stand against violence and destruction.

Well Chaps the only way to go is nuclear. So better get on with it afore we freeze our coconuts off.

Humans emit 8 billion tonnes of carbon per year from burning fossil fuels, but the peatlands in Indonesia and Malaysia - soon to be converted into large-scale biofuel plantations - will emit 50 billion tonnes. How can this be a solution to climate change?!

I know it must seem like nothing is good enough for the environmentally minded among us but I applaud these protestors for highlighting what is a complicated but potentially extremely dangerous issue. Biofuels are being presented as the solution to all our problems, invested in by corporations seeking to continue to make a profit with little or no regard for communities in the global South being displaced by biofuel development programmes or the long-term environmental impact of carbon sink destruction as areas such as the Amazon get destroyed to create biofuel growing areas. It is vitally important that the solutions that are developed for tackling climate change do not perpetuate the immense inequality and injustice that we see around us daily. What I find really staggering is that noone here has yet mentioned that we might have to actually reduce our consumption if we have any hope of reaching the necessary reductions in greenhouse gas emissions. Instead of looking for ways in which we can continue to consume as much as we want, flying on budget biofuel flights, eating food from miles away and consuming products from booming, high emissions industries, we should be promoting the development of genuinely sustainable, renewable alternatives to fossil fuels and more equitable ways of living. We must stop being fooled into thinking that we can continue such excessively wasteful lifestyles by the corporate greenwash which encourages us to falsely believe that we can offset our carbon and presents us with market-based, unsustainable solutions such as biofuels. Reduce, Reuse, Recycle is a familiar motto but it really is going to have to happen if we are to avoid catastrophic climate change. There is now scientific concensus that the current rapid rate of climate change has been and is being caused by human-related emissions and for those wishing to be convinced of this I would recommend reading the International Panel on Climate Change's report from 2007 which can be found at http://www.ipcc.ch/i ndex.htm I have to say that these protestors are not "numpties" but are doing their upmost to secure the planet and humanity's safety for future generations. Which I think is pretty **** important. It is better to have died trying than never to have tried at all. Respect, peace and blue skies.