If we want to save the planet, we need a five-year freeze on biofuels

Guardian UK ^ | 3/27/2007` | George Monbiot

[Uncledave]

It used to be a matter of good intentions gone awry. Now it is plain fraud. The governments using biofuel to tackle global warming know that it causes more harm than good. But they plough on regardless.

{snip}

So what's wrong with these programmes? Only that they are a formula for environmental and humanitarian disaster. In 2004 I warned, on these pages, that biofuels would set up a competition for food between cars and people. The people would necessarily lose: those who can afford to drive are richer than those who are in danger of starvation. It would also lead to the destruction of rainforests and other important habitats.

{snip}

Since the beginning of last year, the price of maize has doubled. The price of wheat has also reached a 10-year high, while global stockpiles of both grains have reached 25-year lows. Already there have been food riots in Mexico and reports that the poor are feeling the strain all over the world. The US department of agriculture warns that "if we have a drought or a very poor harvest, we could see the sort of volatility we saw in the 1970s, and if it does not happen this year, we are also forecasting lower stockpiles next year". According to the UN food and agriculture organisation, the main reason is the demand for ethanol: the alcohol used for motor fuel, which can be made from maize and wheat.

{snip}

Farmers will respond to better prices by planting more, but it is not clear that they can overtake the booming demand for biofuel. Even if they do, they will catch up only by ploughing virgin habitat.

[Tenacious 1]

Much better. Nicely done.

I'll have a look.

[Blue Highway]

I know it's perfect for sound deadening.

If I build a recording studio, maybe I'll line the wall with old shoes, smells like a good idea.

[hedgetrimmer]

I really don't think this problem lends itself to national solutions.

Jeb Bush is forcing an international 'solution'. His plan is to create energy dependence on Brazil, therefore sealing the lynchpin of the FTAA.

Jeb founded two NGOs before leaving the governorship. The Florida FTAA + the Interamerican Ethanol Council. 2+2 = corruption and all levels of our government.

[ClaireSolt]

Get a grip. He's a private citizen now and he is entitled to pursue his fortune. He lives in Miami and that is the gateway to South America. Everyone there is involved with Latin American import and export. Compared to Miami DC is clueless when it comes to Latin America.

[steveab]

I agree with you. Electric is the way to go.
The battle cry should be independence from foreign oil not a tax CO2 to stop global warming.
but our government has to stop listening to
WIND GENERATERS..... NOT IN MY BACK YARD..TED K
HYDROELECTIC DAMS....NOT IN MY BACK YARD..NANCY P
NUCLAR POWER PLANT...NOT IN MY BACK YARD..BARBARA B
DRILLING FOR DOMETIC OIL..NIMBY....TED, NANCY, BARBARA

[hedgetrimmer]

He's a private citizen now

Pay attention now. He did this when he was GOVERNOR to maximize his influence.

He will NEVER be a private citizen, as a former governor whose brother is PRESIDENT.

Maybe you should wake up and smell the corruption.

Just like Sen. Diane Feinstein whose wealth is begotten from trade with communists and war. Jeb Bush and she are two peas in a pod, and the pod is the federal government.

[ClaireSolt]

Tripe. Pure and simple.

[hedgetrimmer]

Jeb Bush encouraged brother to pursue ethanol

It's good to see the Bush brothers -- the president and the former governor -- singing the praises of ethanol.

Blantant corruption, nothing else.

[hedgetrimmer]

Wake up, why don't you?

[ClaireSolt]

I am awake, but you appear brain dead or blinded by Bush hatred.

[hedgetrimmer]

Your support for criminality at the highest levels of government is the problem, not a citizen posting an opinion based on factual actions of politicians at the highest level of our government.

Corruption is deadly to freedom my dear.

[ClaireSolt]

I am no dear to the likes of you. You are just a vile slanderer. Your assertion that Jeb can never be a private citizen indicates that you are out of touch with reality and wallowing in your own filth.

[hedgetrimmer]

Now if you want to point out hateful, I'd say that your post is full of it.

Fact 1. Jeb Bush created the Florida FTAA. He travels to south America regularly to accumulate commitments from other countries to the FTAA. You know what the FTAA is,don't you? He participates in pseudo governmental actions by the FTAA working groups, which exercise tremendous influence over governments-- in turn disaffecting citizens and their rights.

Fact 2. In one of his trips to Brazil, he got together with Brazilian government officials and business leaders to form the Interamerican Ethanol council. Then he went to his brother the President, and asked him to dictate an ethanol energy policy. The president then signs into Ag bills, and states in public policy speeches like the State of the Union, that the US will go to ethanol,and with massive subsidies (just like the subsidies that Brazil offers to create a phony ethanol market down south) he will make America dependent on ethanol.

The other shoe will drop when they get rid of tariffs on Brazilian ethanol, (already under negotiation by the Interamerican Ethanol Council) and the bottom will fall out of ethanol as a commodity here, giving the industry over to Brazil (with vast tracts of sugar and cheap to slave prices for labor) thus sealing the 'economic integration' as well as 'energy integration' needed for the FTAA to come fully into power.

[hedgetrimmer]

Florida, Brazil, and IDB Launch Interamerican Ethanol Commission

The Honorable Jeb Bush, Governor of the State of Florida, His Excellency Roberto Rodrigues, President of the Superior Council of Agribusiness of FIESP and His Excellency Luis Alberto Moreno, President of the IDB, Launch Commission to Promote Usage of Ethanol in Gasoline Pools of the Western Hemisphere

What love do you have for the corruption of our government that makes you defend these people?

Bush, Rodrigues, and Moreno discussed the main objectives of the commission, which include: promoting increased ethanol blended fuel use throughout the region(FTAA) ; promoting the integration of technical and scientific research efforts across the hemisphere (FTAA) related to the production and distribution of ethanol; determining investment needs in both agriculture and infrastructure to enable a hemispheric wide market for ethanol(FTAA) blended fuel; determining the economic and environmental implications of carbon credits(AL GORE) produced by the project; encouraging the development of environmentally sound ethanol operations; and recommending a set of actions in order to create an international market for ethanol. (FTAA)

[eraser2005]

Do you honestly believe you would ever smell the material?

Its not like they don't clean and treat materials that get recycled.

That plastic bottle you're drinking a Coke out of might have been a garbage bag in a "previous life", but do you care?

A good chunk of the steel in a new car is recycled. Does that make it bad?

Heck, many carpets in cars are made of at least some % recycled material. Does it smell bad?

[Blue Highway]

I should have mentioned my post was partly in jest, I know about the recycling process and how everything is sterilized etc.

[eraser2005]

Sorry... my jest detector must be completely off - its pretty clear what you meant. :)

[P-40]

Tripe. Pure and simple.

But it is a fact that corn farmers blew up the World Trade Center. Remember how they got on the radio, thinking it was the intercom, and said 'we have some grains?' Surely that was Jeb Bush, President Bush, and Brazil all in a plot to promote corn ethanol! Surely! All three of them! Trilateral commission! Bohemian Grove! Just Google it! GOOGLE IT!!!

No where did I put my meds........

[ClaireSolt]

touche.