There is no doubt in my mind that carbon dioxide is innocent of any crimes against nature. The same natural world constructed from the chemical ability of carbon dioxide and water to link atoms into complex molecules. There is also no doubt that history will ultimately record Al Gore as a minor political heir with no accomplishments, other than a slavish devotion to the money and fame he receives as an advocate for a false science.
Even as the political elitists and one world government seekers are trading complements and award checks, there are realists in both the UN and social justice movements beginning to be concerned about the harm biofuel dependence will impose on the multitudes living outside the fancy mansion grounds.
UN rapporteur calls for biofuel production moratorium: GENEVA, Oct. 11 (Xinhua) -- The United Nations special rapporteur on the right to food Jean Ziegler demanded on Thursday an international five-year ban on producing biofuels to combat soaring food prices.
Ziegler, a Swiss national, said the conversion of arable land for plants used for green fuel had led to an explosion of agricultural prices which was punishing poor countries forced to import their food at a greater cost. "232 kg of corn is needed to make 50 liters of bioethanol," Ziegler was quoted by the Swissinfo website as saying. "A child could live on that amount of corn for a year."
Agro-fooling ourselves: Deforestation diesel. A recent study in the journal Science found that existing forests could absorb nine times more CO2 than the production of agrofuels could achieve on the same area of land. According to Renton Righelato, co-author of the report, the ‘mistaken policy’ of targets and incentives is fuelling deforestation.
Sugar-cane and soybean farming in Latin America and the growth of palm oil plantations in south east Asia are among the major culprits, with the demand for these crops now accelerated by their cultivation for fuel use. ... ‘The palm oil prices are going through the roof because of their use as biofuel and this, one of the poorest countries in the world, is cutting down its trees to supply the market.’
This has both economic and environmental impacts. Monoculture plantations not only threaten what remains of global forest cover, reducing biodiversity, but they also subject local populations to a new wave of plantations.
