The Great Biofuels Con

[zengrifter]

The Great Biofuels Con

By Christopher Booker and Richard North

12/07/2008

Rarely in political history can there have been such a rapid and dramatic reversal of a received wisdom as we have seen in the past 18 months over biofuels – the cropping of living plants, such as soya beans, wheat and sugar cane, to generate energy.


Yellow peril: while Britain’s farmers are encouraged to turn their
fields over to rapeseed for biofuels, the world food crisis has driven
people in Ethiopia to the brink of starvation

Two years ago biofuels were still being hailed as a dream solution to what was seen as one of the most urgent problems confronting mankind – our dependence on fossil fuels, which are not only finite but seemed to be threatening the world with the catastrophe of global warming.

In March 2007 the leaders of the European Union, in a package of measures designed to lead the world in the "fight against climate change", committed us by 2020 to deriving 10 per cent of all transport fuel from "renewables", above all biofuels, which theoretically gave off no more carbon dioxide than was absorbed in their growing.

Since then, however, the biofuels dream has been disintegrating with the speed of a collapsing card house. Environmentalists, formerly keen on this "green energy", expressed horror at the havoc it was inflicting on the world's eco-systems, not least the clearing of rainforests to grow fuel crops.

As the world suddenly faced its worst food shortage for decades, sending prices spiralling, experts pointed out that a major cause had been diverting millions of acres of farmland from food production to fuel. The damage this was inflicting on the world's poor led a United Nations official to describe the rush for biofuels as "a crime against humanity".

MORE- http://www.telegraph.co.uk/earth/mai...112.xml&page=1

[propagandhi]

The current world political environment is like a pack of crocodiles fighting over who gets to drink the last few mouthfuls from a dried up water hole. If we're lucky, we, the gazelles in the fringes, will still be able to find a few small puddles to drink from, amidst all the churned-up mud.

[zengrifter]

Originally Posted by propagandhi

The current world political environment is like a pack of crocodiles fighting over who gets to drink the last few mouthfuls from a dried up water hole. If we're lucky, we, the gazelles in the fringes, will still be able to find a few small puddles to drink from, amidst all the churned-up mud.

Wonderful "we are the world" picture you paint. zg

[aslan]

Using food for fuel is plain asinine. We have more oil than anywhere in the world, but we can't drill for it because it will upset the greenies. We have electric car technology but we let the oil companies buy it up and sit on it. We have clean coal technology but its on a slow boat to China. We have safer nuclear technology than ever before but we can't agree on a safe disposal plan.

We can be environmentally responsible and still have all the energy sources that we need and must have to continue to prosper as a nation. F*ck the greenies and their sacred cows. F*ck the corporations and their exploitation mentalities. We the people need to push them both back into their respective corners while we set up the ground rules to solve the energy problem. Both groups have far too much power and influence. They represent all that is wrong with this country--fanaticism and greed. We've got to start using our brains just a tiny little bit. It's not rocket science! We need energy and we need to preserve the environment. Geeesh!! You'd think we were trying to discover the Theory of Everything! A moron could do a better job then our elected representatives.

[zengrifter]

Originally Posted by aslan

Using food for fuel is plain asinine. We have more oil than anywhere in the world.

If we are going to use food for fuel, maybe science can turn oil into food? Yaa, thats the ticket! zg

[aslan]

Originally Posted by zengrifter

If we are going to use food for fuel, maybe science can turn oil into food? Yaa, thats the ticket! zg

Out politicians are already pretty good at giving us an oil job. I think they expect us to live on oil.

[sagefr0g]

Originally Posted by zengrifter

If we are going to use food for fuel, maybe science can turn oil into food? Yaa, thats the ticket! zg

Poor Haitians Resort to Eating Dirt Jonathan M. Katz in Port-au-Prince, Haiti
Associated Press

January 30, 2008
It was lunchtime in one of Haiti's worst slums, and Charlene Dumas was eating mud.

With food prices rising, Haiti's poorest can't afford even a daily plate of rice, and some must take desperate measures to fill their bellies.

Charlene, 16 with a month-old son, has come to rely on a traditional Haitian remedy for hunger pangs: cookies made of dried yellow dirt from the country's central plateau.

The mud has long been prized by pregnant women and children here as an antacid and source of calcium. But in places such as Cité Soleil, the oceanside slum where Charlene shares a two-room house with her baby, five siblings, and two unemployed parents, cookies made of dirt, salt, and vegetable shortening have become a regular meal.

http://news.nationalgeographic.com/n...iti-eatin.html

[aslan]

Originally Posted by sagefr0g

Poor Haitians Resort to Eating Dirt Jonathan M. Katz in Port-au-Prince, Haiti
Associated Press

January 30, 2008
It was lunchtime in one of Haiti's worst slums, and Charlene Dumas was eating mud.

With food prices rising, Haiti's poorest can't afford even a daily plate of rice, and some must take desperate measures to fill their bellies.

Charlene, 16 with a month-old son, has come to rely on a traditional Haitian remedy for hunger pangs: cookies made of dried yellow dirt from the country's central plateau.

The mud has long been prized by pregnant women and children here as an antacid and source of calcium. But in places such as Cité Soleil, the oceanside slum where Charlene shares a two-room house with her baby, five siblings, and two unemployed parents, cookies made of dirt, salt, and vegetable shortening have become a regular meal.

http://news.nationalgeographic.com/n...iti-eatin.html

Oil is a poor substitute for food. Hey, maybe the Zen Zone should take up a collection for Haiti. How could we do that? Any interest or any ideas?

[zengrifter]

Originally Posted by aslan

Oil is a poor substitute for food. Hey, maybe the Zen Zone should take up a collection for Haiti. How could we do that? Any interest or any ideas?

Charity begins at home - hire an illegal! zg

[Guynoire]

I don't like the term biofuels and I wish people would start calling it by its actual name. If it's ethanol made from corn to my recollection that's called whiskey.