[GJM] Biofuels: the fake climate change solution
Nick St Clare
ecotort at gn.apc.org
Thu Mar 13 08:37:24 MDT 2008
Has anyone considered the ammount of OIL BASED fertilisers, weed killers
and pesticides used to create a crop which is destined to be converted
back into OIL???
could anything be more inefficient or ridiculous???
Nick St Clare
http://www.ecotort.gn.apc.org
Dr.Muhammad Mukhtar Alam wrote:
> Dear all,
>
> Biofuel are not climate change solution and it is important to
> protection ecologically sustiananble food security mechanisms rather
> than dedicating agricultural land for bio-fuels.It is important to
> trasnform consumption habits. Lots of communication is being done for
> reducing the emissions through avoiding fossil fuel based travel. It
> is better to accelerate the reduciton throhg promotion of culture of
> prayers five times a day as part of the interfait common.
>
> Dr.Muhammad Mukhtar Alam
>
> */robert searle <dharao4 at yahoo.co.uk>/* wrote:
>
>
> --- "Ben Wikler - Avaaz.org" wrote:
>
>
> ---------------------------------
> Avaaz.org - The
> World in Action
>
>
>
> Dear friends,
>
> EU and US demand for biofuels is pushing up world
> food prices and increasing climate emissions. We
> should feed people, not cars--so join the call for
> global standards to clean up the biofuels
> industry:Click here now
>
> Each day, 820 million people in the developing world
> do not have enough food to eat1. Food prices around
> the world are shooting up, sparking food riots from
> Mexico2 to Morocco3. And the World Food Program warned
> last week that rapidly rising costs are endangering
> emergency food supplies for the world's worst-off4.
>
> How are the wealthiest countries responding? They're
> burning food.
>
> Specifically, they're using more and more
> biofuels--alcohol made from plant products, used in
> place of petrol to fuel cars. Biofuels are billed as a
> way to slow down climate change. But in reality,
> because so much land is being cleared to grow them,
> most biofuels today are causing more global warming
> emissions than they prevent5, even as they push the
> price of corn, wheat, and other foods out of reach for
> millions of people6.
>
> Not all biofuels are bad--but without tough global
> standards, the biofuels boom will further undermine
> food security and worsen global warming. Click here to
> use our simple tool to send a message to your head of
> state before this weekend's global summit on climate
> change in Chiba, Japan, and help build a global call
> for biofuels regulation:
>
> http://www.avaaz.org/en/biofuel_standards_now/9.php?cl=60535439
>
> Sometimes the trade-off is stark: filling the tank of
> an SUV with ethanol requires enough corn to feed a
> person for a year7. But not all biofuels are bad;
> making ethanol from Brazilian sugar cane is vastly
> more efficient than US-grown corn, for example, and
> green technology for making fuel from waste is
> improving rapidly.
>
> The problem is that the EU and the US have set targets
> for increasing the use of biofuels without sorting the
> good from the bad. As a result, rainforests are being
> cleared in Indonesia to grow palm oil for European
> biodiesel refineries, and global grain reserves are
> running dangerously low. Meanwhile, rich-country
> politicians can look "green" without asking their
> citizens to conserve energy, and agribusiness giants
> are cashing in. And if nothing changes, the situation
> will only get worse.
>
> What's needed are strong global standards that
> encourage better biofuels and shut down the trade in
> bad ones. Such standards are under development by a
> number of coalitions8, but they will only become
> mandatory if there's a big enough public outcry. It's
> time to move: this Friday through Saturday, the twenty
> countries with the biggest economies, responsible for
> more than 75% of the world's carbon emissions9, will
> meet in Chiba, Japan to begin the G8's climate change
> discussions. Before the summit, let's raise a global
> cry for change on biofuels:
>
> http://www.avaaz.org/en/biofuel_standards_now/9.php?cl=60535439
>
> A call for change before this week's summit won't end
> the food crisis, or stop global warming. But it's a
> critical first step. By confronting false solutions
> and demanding real ones, we can show our leaders that
> we want to do the right thing, not the easy thing.
>
> As Kate, an Avaaz member in Colorado, wrote about
> biofuels, "Turning food into oil when people are
> already starving? My car isn't more important than
> someone's hungry child."
>
> It's time to put the life of our fellow people, and
> our planet, above the politics and profits that too
> often drive international decision-making. This will
> be a long fight. But it's one that we join
> eagerly--because the stakes are too high to do
> anything else.
>
> With hope,
>
> Ben, Ricken, Iain, Galit, Paul, Graziela, Pascal,
> Esra'a, Milena -- the Avaaz.org team
>
> SOURCES:
>
> [1] World Food Programme. "Hunger Facts." Accessed 10
> March 2008.
> http://www.wfp.org/aboutwfp/facts/hunger_facts.asp
>
> [2] The Sunday Herald (Scotland). "2008: The year of
> global food crisis." 9 March 2008.
> http://www.sundayherald.com/news/heraldnews/display.var.2104849.0.2008_the_year_of_global_food_crisis.php
>
> [3] The Australian: "Biofuels threaten 'billions of
> lives'" 28 February, 2008.
> http://www.theaustralian.news.com.au/story/0,25197,23336840-11949,00.html
>
> [4] AFP: "WFP chief warns EU about biofuels." 7 March
> 2008.
> http://afp.google.com/article/ALeqM5hpCFf3spGcDQUuILK5JFV-6NL1Dg
>
> [5] New York Times: "Biofuels Deemed a Greenhouse
> Threat." 8 February 2008.
> http://www.nytimes.com/2008/02/08/science/earth/08wbiofuels.html
>
> [6] The Times: "Rush for biofuels threatens starvation
> on a global scale." 7 March 2008.
> http://www.timesonline.co.uk/tol/news/environment/article3500954.ece
> ... also see BBC: "In graphics: World warned on food
> price spiral." 10 March 2008.
> http://news.bbc.co.uk/1/hi/world/7284196.stm
>
> [7] The Economist: "The end of cheap food." 6 December
> 2007.
> http://www.economist.com/opinion/displaystory.cfm?story_id=10252015
>
> [8] See http://www.globalbioenergy.org,
> http://cgse.epfl.ch/page70341.html, and
> http://www.timesonline.co.uk/tol/news/environment/article3489640.ece.
>
> [9] Government of Japan. "Percentage of global carbon
> dioxide emissions (FY 2003) contributed by G20
> nations."
> http://www.env.go.jp/earth/g8/en/g20/index_popup.html
>
>
> ----------------------------------
>
>
>
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