6 replies to this topic

[stocks]

Well, Western governments listened to the ecowarriors and introduced some of the "wartime measures" they've been urging. The EU decreed that 5.75 percent of petrol and diesel must come from "biofuels" by 2010, rising to 10 percent by 2020. The United States added to its 51 cent-per-gallon ethanol subsidy by mandating a fivefold increase in "biofuels" production by 2022.

The result is that big government accomplished at a stroke what the free market could never have done: They turned the food supply into a subsidiary of the energy industry. When you divert 28 percent of U.S. grain into fuel production, and when you artificially make its value as fuel higher than its value as food, why be surprised that you've suddenly got less to eat? Or, to be more precise, it's not "you" who's got less to eat but those starving peasants in distant lands you claim to care so much about.


http://www.ocregiste...obal-government

[stocks]

Food crisis sparks violence across the globe

Across the planet, the price of basic foods are soaring. In many cases, the result has been violence. Focusing on the past few months, here’s a trip around the globe:

Across the Atlantic, demonstrators in London and across the United Kingdom on April 16 condemned a government plan for mandatory biofuel blending.

Biofuels such as ethanol–which is commonly derived from corn–were once regarded by Western governments as a partial solution to rising fuel costs. However, evidence is now showing that the use of biofuels will likely accelerate climate change, and is definitely contributing to the world’s growing food shortage.

http://www.straight....ce-across-globe

[Rogerdodger]

It freaks me out when we demand that somebody "do something" without knowing or caring what the consequences will be. The immediate consequences is that everybody feels good and politicians get re-elected. If everybody would just unplug their toaster, there would be an immediate surge in energy supply.

[stocks]

The dirty secret of the environmental movement is how indifferent it can be to the poor.

Now we see another crisis looming from the fight against global warming. Food riots are breaking out in poor countries as motorists in wealthy countries burn grains and oils in gas tanks.

We are green for one simple reason: We can afford it.

But what if that changes? What if the pain of going green creeps into America's working and middle classes?

People are not starving here. But they are paying a lot more for food out of tight family budgets, with a third of that increase blamed on biofuels. Meanwhile, more and more experts are questioning whether ethanol even reduces greenhouse gas.

Likewise, our restrictions against drilling for oil are becoming harder to justify. Many energy experts predict oil shortages when demand outpaces supply. The market rations gas by price, a system that favors the affluent.

Not only can they afford gas at $5 or more a gallon, they also can afford hybrids. They can afford to live near urban centers.

People trying to raise families on $35,000 a year cannot. They don't have the option of trading in the 1993 Ford Explorer for a 2008 Prius. They can't afford to leave the entry-level house in the suburbs for a bungalow in Delaney Park.

http://www.orlandose...olumn?track=rss

[stocks]

Biofuels have forced global food prices up by 75% - far more than previously estimated - according to a confidential World Bank report obtained by the Guardian.

The damning unpublished assessment is based on the most detailed analysis of the crisis so far, carried out by an internationally-respected economist at global financial body.

The figure emphatically contradicts the US government's claims that plant-derived fuels contribute less than 3% to food-price rises. It will add to pressure on governments in Washington and across Europe, which have turned to plant-derived fuels to reduce emissions of greenhouse gases and reduce their dependence on imported oil.

"Political leaders seem intent on suppressing and ignoring the strong evidence that biofuels are a major factor in recent food price rises," said Robert Bailey, policy adviser at Oxfam. "It is imperative that we have the full picture. While politicians concentrate on keeping industry lobbies happy, people in poor countries cannot afford enough to eat."


http://www.guardian....renewableenergy

[stocks]

Green activists 'are keeping Africa poor'

Western do-gooders are impoverishing Africa by promoting traditional farming at the expense of modern scientific agriculture, according to Britain's former chief scientist.

Anti-science attitudes among aid agencies, poverty campaigners and green activists are denying the continent access to technology that could improve millions of lives, Professor Sir David King will say today.

Non-governmental organisations (NGOs) from Europe and America are turning African countries against sophisticated farming methods, including GM crops, in favour of indigenous and organic approaches that cannot deliver the continent's much needed “green revolution”, he believes.

http://www.timesonli...icle4699096.ece

[stocks]

BLACKOUT BRITAIN WARNING

Britain is “quite simply running out of power” and blackouts are almost inevitable within the next few years.

This is the stark warning from the head of an energy think-tank who believes power cuts could be serious enough to spark civil disorder

The “retirement” of a string of nuclear and coal-fired power stations will see 37 per cent of the UK’s generation disappear by 2015, partly because of EU environmental directives.


It criticises ministers for focusing too heavily on such untried renewable energy sources as wind and tide power, rather than making sure that secure new power generation was put in place.

The report concludes: “A near fatal preoccupation with politically attractive but marginal forms of renewables seems to have caused a blindness towards the weakening of the UK’s power stations and a dangerous and helpless vulnerability to natural gas.

http://www.express.c...Britain-warning