Biofuels under attack as world food prices soar

[Mr. Dirlewanger]

http://news.yahoo.com/s/afp/20080420/ts_afp/foodbiofuelsclimatewarming


PARIS (AFP) - Hailed until only months ago as a silver bullet in the fight against global warming, biofuels are now accused of snatching food out of the mouths of the poor.

 
Billions have been poured into developing sugar- and grain-based ethanol and biodiesel to help wean rich economies from their addiction to carbon-belching fossil fuels, the overwhelming source of man-made global warming.

Heading the rush are the United States, Brazil and Canada, which are eagerly transforming corn, wheat, soy beans and sugar cane into cleaner-burning fuel, and the European Union (EU) is to launch its own ambitious programme.

But as soaring prices for staples bring more of the planet's most vulnerable people face-to-face with starvation, the image of biofuels has suddenly changed from climate saviour to a horribly misguided experiment.

On Friday, the head of the International Monetary Fund (IMF) said biofuels "posed a real moral problem" and called for a moratorium on using food crops to power cars, trucks and buses.

The vital problem of global warming "has to be balanced with the fact that there are people who are going to starve to death," said Dominique Strauss-Kahn.

"Producing biofuels is a crime against humanity," the UN's special rapporteur for the right to food, Jean Ziegler of Switzerland, said earlier.

Biofuels may still be in their infancy but they are growing rapidly, with annual production leaping by double-digit percentages.

In a speech on Wednesday that set down a target for reducing US carbon emissions, George W. Bush pointed to legislation requiring US producers to supply at least 36 billion gallons (136 billion litres) of renewable fuel by 2020.

In 2007, 20 percent of grain -- 81 million tonnes -- produced in the United States was used to make ethanol, according to US think tank the Earth Policy Institute, which predicts that the percentage will jump to nearly a quarter this year.

"We are looking at a five-fold increase in renewable fuel," Bush's top climate change advisor, Jim Connaughton, said in Paris on Thursday at a meeting of the world's major greenhouse-gas polluters.

But more than half of that legislatively-mandated production would come from "second-generation" biofuels made from non-food sources such as switchgrass and wood byproducts, he said.

The EU's and the Brazilian delegates in Paris contested the link between biofuels and the world food crisis.

"This is highly exaggerated," Sergio Serra, Brazil's ambassador for climate change, told AFP.

"There is no real relation of cause and effect between the expansion of the production of biofuels and the raising of food prices. At least it is not happening in Brazil."

EU Environment Commissioner Stavros Dimas said experts would report back by the end of May on how to guarantee that Europe's planned biofuel boost would not impinge on the environment or the poor.

"There are a lot of concerns about social impacts, rising food prices and environment issues, and for all those reasons we want to insist on sustainability criteria in our legislation," he said.

Defenders of biofuels say food shortfalls have multiple causes, including a growing appetite for meat among the burgeoning middle class in China and India.

On average, it takes more than four kilos (eight pounds) of grain to produce one kilo (two pounds) of pork, and two kilos (four pounds) of grain to yield a kilo (two pounds) of beef.

Climate change may well be a contributing factor.

Some scientists fear rising temperatures and shifting rainfall patterns may be worsening water scarcity in key agriculture areas such Australia's wheat belt, and rice-growing deltas may be hit by saline intrusion from rising seas.

In addition, the surging cost of oil has had an indirect impact on many poor people, adding to the pinch caused by rising food prices.

[SDML]

Blah, blah, blah......

[spunkloaf]

Didn't you say global warming is a hoax d-wang?  I might be confusing you with somebody else.

If you did, then you're fighting a cat with a feline on this topic.

This is all more evidence that oil fucks with our economy.

[Mr. Dirlewanger]

Didn't you say global warming is a hoax d-wang?  I might be confusing you with somebody else.

If you did, then you're fighting a cat with a feline on this topic.

This is all more evidence that oil fucks with our economy.

No, what I said was:

I hope you didn't find my statement insulting. I am not saying that environmentalism etc is pointless or that people who are vocal about their concerns are deceitful. I think it is abundantly clear that the issue of climate change has been grossly abused by Left leaning organizations and pols. Does it not give you pause that 99% of supposed solutions to this problem (I don't think we can do much at all, personally) entail increased state control and involvement? Why all the big government solutions? Will the same people who tell us that Bush uses our fear of terror for political gain tell us that we better regulate the bejesus out of American industry because if we don't we're all gonna die? You bet they will and they already have.

I stated no position on this biofuels controversy. I simply posted an article I thought was interesting.

[SDML]

Query: If the planet is over-populated as it is, why do we strain finite resources to the breaking point by trying in vain to use technological advances to get Earth to support even more than the current 6.6 billion people?

Query: If the poor & starving are largely in resource-poor countries and essentially garanteeing starvation by over-breeding (or insert politically correct term if it makes you feel better), why would anyone feel the need to connect this with use of resources - edible or otherwise - by others in resource-rich areas?

Statement: Unless you (not directed at Mr. D - only at those who take offense to the above queries) are prepared to stop watering your lawn, cut your food intake to <800 calories/day, reduce your carbon footprint to that of an individual in a 3rd world nation, and send the saved resources to a family in destitution in, say, Somalia or East Timor or Malawi or The Congo (who all top the list of poorest countries on Earth), then stifle that plastic bleeding heart bull-shit.

And then ask yourself why a corrupt & greedy organization like the WMF would give enough of a flying fuck to call for a moratorium on biofuels. Still believe it's out of the goodness of their black fucking hearts?

[spunkloaf]

Didn't you say global warming is a hoax d-wang?  I might be confusing you with somebody else.

If you did, then you're fighting a cat with a feline on this topic.

This is all more evidence that oil fucks with our economy.

No, what I said was:

I hope you didn't find my statement insulting. I am not saying that environmentalism etc is pointless or that people who are vocal about their concerns are deceitful. I think it is abundantly clear that the issue of climate change has been grossly abused by Left leaning organizations and pols. Does it not give you pause that 99% of supposed solutions to this problem (I don't think we can do much at all, personally) entail increased state control and involvement? Why all the big government solutions? Will the same people who tell us that Bush uses our fear of terror for political gain tell us that we better regulate the bejesus out of American industry because if we don't we're all gonna die? You bet they will and they already have.

I stated no position on this biofuels controversy. I simply posted an article I thought was interesting.

Thanks for clearing that up, and I'm sorry for the confusion.  I also find this article interesting, as I am not yet sure which measures to personally support for weaning our country off of oil.

There's a man who discovered how to convert salt water into burnable fuel.  Watch this...very interesting.

<a href="http://www.youtube.com/v/Tf4gOS8aoFk" target="_blank">http://www.youtube.com/v/Tf4gOS8aoFk</a>

[spunkloaf]

I wonder if this is a hoax...if not, it would be pretty sweet!

http://www.runyourcarwithwater.com

<a href="http://www.youtube.com/v/6Rb_rDkwGnU" target="_blank">http://www.youtube.com/v/6Rb_rDkwGnU</a>

[SDML]

This last clip is a few years old. There is a product on the market right now (a buddy of mine installed it on his car) that uses water not as the primary fuel source, but as a "fuel enhancer". To somewhat over-simplify, a fine mist of water is sprayed across an electrical arc, which breaks the bonds that connect the hydrogen and oxygen atoms. Hydrogen & oxygen are both, of course, highly flammable. This process takes place along with the gas being sprayed in, and BOOM.

The rather obvious problem one encounters is that water freezes in the winter, so the car HAS to be a hybrid or the water system used only as a fuel enhancer (until one of these guys comes up with a way to keep the water un-frozen).

The enhancer increases fuel efficiency by roughly 30%...in the warmer months. It also voids the warranty on your car.

[wow]

There is 3 times more oil outside of the Mideast, than there is in the Mideast, but environmentalists are committed to blocking the extraction of this oil for their own green product profiteering.

In 2000, Al Gore said Americans would be facing $5 a gallon gas during his term as President. Gore said this for a reason and now we see Gore pushing this global warming hoax.

Gore knew he and his environmentalist buddies would jack up the cost of oil to encourage people to buy their green products, carbon credits, food crop bio fuels etc.....

Too no surprise, the oil exporting nations are crying about bio fuels starving people and the environmentalists are telling people that the earth only has 5 years to live unless people quit using oil.

Consumers need to stand up to these environmentalists and Hedge Funds to end this battle of greed.


 
 

[SDML]

Global warming is not a hoax, friend.

[wow]

Global warming is not a hoax, friend.

I'm not going to post links from NASA that state the earth is cooling, because you would post links from these UN scientists showing the earth is warming, but I do know someone is lying and NASA has no incentive to lie. 
If you choose not to call it a hoax, that is fine. Maybe greed would be a better description?
Here is an example. Belmont high school in Los Angeles.
This school was renovated at a cost of $400 million. The expense was justified by saying "Methane gas was a serious problem" There is no evidence of methane gas being a problem.
A brand new school and football stadium in Houston was built that can handle the same amount of students for $30 million.
This is environmental profiteering at the taxpayer's expense.
 

[they call me MR. GRUMPY god damn it!]

Global warming is not a hoax, friend.

what is this some kind of sick mutation of algor and little mac

[spunkloaf]

There is 3 times more oil outside of the Mideast, than there is in the Mideast, but environmentalists are committed to blocking the extraction of this oil for their own green product profiteering.

In 2000, Al Gore said Americans would be facing $5 a gallon gas during his term as President. Gore said this for a reason and now we see Gore pushing this global warming hoax.

Gore knew he and his environmentalist buddies would jack up the cost of oil to encourage people to buy their green products, carbon credits, food crop bio fuels etc.....

Too no surprise, the oil exporting nations are crying about bio fuels starving people and the environmentalists are telling people that the earth only has 5 years to live unless people quit using oil.

Consumers need to stand up to these environmentalists and Hedge Funds to end this battle of greed.


 
 

LOL.

That is such bullshit.  Al Gore cannot influence the price of gas.  You are so full of yourself.

[wow]

There is 3 times more oil outside of the Mideast, than there is in the Mideast, but environmentalists are committed to blocking the extraction of this oil for their own green product profiteering.

In 2000, Al Gore said Americans would be facing $5 a gallon gas during his term as President. Gore said this for a reason and now we see Gore pushing this global warming hoax.

Gore knew he and his environmentalist buddies would jack up the cost of oil to encourage people to buy their green products, carbon credits, food crop bio fuels etc.....

Too no surprise, the oil exporting nations are crying about bio fuels starving people and the environmentalists are telling people that the earth only has 5 years to live unless people quit using oil.

Consumers need to stand up to these environmentalists and Hedge Funds to end this battle of greed.


 
 

LOL.

That is such bullshit.  Al Gore cannot influence the price of gas.  You are so full of yourself.

Hedge Funds are buying these bloated oil futures to hedge against falling interest rates. Al Gore is a Chairman of a hedge Fund, the Democrat party has deep ties to other Hedge Funds, including George Soros. You can easily connect the dots.
Environmentalists are jacking up the cost of oil to profit from their global warming hoax.
I can post links all day long to show the pieces but I can not provide anything that puts the pieces together in a definitive manner.
Even oil traders admit there is no economic reason for oil prices to be this high.

[gorknoids]

Ethanol isn't only bad for the fuel situation on every single front, the federal mandate that we burn the crap has screwed up our entire economy as wheat fields are sown with corn.  Why are we being forced to burn ethanol?  Why, it's "good for the environment".
     If you believe that, I have a Yugo to sell you. 

     The energy used to prepare the soil, plant the seeds, fertilize, treat for weeds and disease, irrigate, harvest, transport, convert to ethanol, and then either truck over-the-road or ship by train the ethanol makes it a net loss.  The environmental impact far outstrips the alleged "greenness" of it, and it burns dirty in your engine. 
     Why is oil so expensive now that it's 85% ethanol?  Simple economics.  As demand decreases, price increases.  The world doesn't have an oil shortage, we have our first taste of the Kyoto Accord.  Thanks, Al.  Ethanols is expensive because it's really goddamned EXPENSIVE!  Hell, the world is criss-crossed with oil pipelines.  There are no ethanol pipelines.  Fuel prices rocket up, transportation prices rocket up, and the price of everything which used to be grown on the land where corn is now planted rocket up. 

Happy Earth Day.