Written by = "Avaaz"
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:
https://www.avaaz.org/en/biofuel_standards_now/11.php?cl=61898213
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:
https://www.avaaz.org/en/biofuel_standards_now/11.php?cl=61898213
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. https://www.wfp.org/aboutwfp/facts/hunger_facts.asp
[2] The Sunday Herald (Scotland). "2008: The year of global food crisis." 9 March 2008. https://www.sundayherald.com/news/heraldn...food_crisis.php
[3] The Australian: "Biofuels threaten 'billions of lives'" 28 February, 2008. https://www.theaustralian.news.com.au/story/0,25197,23336840-11949,00.html
[4] AFP: "WFP chief warns EU about biofuels." 7 March 2008. https://afp.google.com/article/ALeqM5hpCFf3spGcDQUuILK5JFV-6NL1Dg
[5] New York Times: "Biofuels Deemed a Greenhouse Threat." 8 February 2008. https://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. https://www.timesonline.co.uk/tol/news/environment/article3500954.ece ... also see BBC: "In graphics: World warned on food price spiral." 10 March 20
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Help! My personality got stuck in this signature machine and I cant get it out!
-Mike
Certified Mad Doctor and HoP High Priest of Nutella
A buckuht n a hooze! -Valura
Because ActiveAngel sounds like a feminine deodorant
Like sex, I'm much more interesting in real life than online.
'Be the change you want to see in the world around you' - Ghandi
Is it the Truth?
Is it Fair to all concerned?
Will it build Goodwill and Better Friendships?
Will it be Beneficial to all concerned?
Im in a lonely battle with the world with a fish to match the chip on my shoulder. Gnu in Binnu in a cnu
If we as members of the human race practice meditation, we can transcend our fear, despair, and forgetfulness. Meditation is not an escape. It is the courage to look at reality with mindfulness and concentration. Thich Nhat Hanh
Is it the Truth?
Is it Fair to all concerned?
Will it build Goodwill and Better Friendships?
Will it be Beneficial to all concerned?
Im in a lonely battle with the world with a fish to match the chip on my shoulder. Gnu in Binnu in a cnu
If we as members of the human race practice meditation, we can transcend our fear, despair, and forgetfulness. Meditation is not an escape. It is the courage to look at reality with mindfulness and concentration. Thich Nhat Hanh
If we as members of the human race practice meditation, we can transcend our fear, despair, and forgetfulness. Meditation is not an escape. It is the courage to look at reality with mindfulness and concentration. Thich Nhat Hanh
Written by :Stone
I’d like to see an “accurate” cost benefit analysis on the efficiency of canola bio diesel compared to other fuels, which may be different to what a farmer estimates. Especially when “all” the inputs of fossil fuel (including the inputs that go into the production of herbicides and nitrogen) are taken into account.
Is it the Truth?
Is it Fair to all concerned?
Will it build Goodwill and Better Friendships?
Will it be Beneficial to all concerned?
Im in a lonely battle with the world with a fish to match the chip on my shoulder. Gnu in Binnu in a cnu
If we as members of the human race practice meditation, we can transcend our fear, despair, and forgetfulness. Meditation is not an escape. It is the courage to look at reality with mindfulness and concentration. Thich Nhat Hanh
Written by :GeoffonTour04
but overall you're not gaining an awful lot because you have to generate the power somewhere else (usually by burning fossil fuels in a power station).
-Mike
Certified Mad Doctor and HoP High Priest of Nutella
A buckuht n a hooze! -Valura
Is it the Truth?
Is it Fair to all concerned?
Will it build Goodwill and Better Friendships?
Will it be Beneficial to all concerned?
Im in a lonely battle with the world with a fish to match the chip on my shoulder. Gnu in Binnu in a cnu
If we as members of the human race practice meditation, we can transcend our fear, despair, and forgetfulness. Meditation is not an escape. It is the courage to look at reality with mindfulness and concentration. Thich Nhat Hanh
-Mike
Certified Mad Doctor and HoP High Priest of Nutella
A buckuht n a hooze! -Valura
Written by :Stone
I can understand there is a certain efficiency when bio diesel is produced from by product “fish and chip” oils, but I’m not so sure about the efficiency of producing bio diesel from canola oil.
Written by :GeoffonTour04
A good point Doc, but solar panels are very expensive, require a good amount of sunlight, and if you compare them to the algae solution, they don't absorb any co2 and don't self replicate.
-Mike
Certified Mad Doctor and HoP High Priest of Nutella
A buckuht n a hooze! -Valura
Written by :Dragon_DrafinWritten by :Stone
I can understand there is a certain efficiency when bio diesel is produced from by product “fish and chip” oils, but I’m not so sure about the efficiency of producing bio diesel from canola oil.
So what exactly do you fry your fish and chips in if not canola oil? I mean sure you can use sunflower seed oil and other stuff, but canola oil is great for frying up food.
I do love me some hot wings and deep fried turkey legs *droos*
Point being, you'd still be using canola oil, just once used canola oil.
THE MEEK WILL INHERIT THE EARTH!
If that's okay with you?
"Here kitty kitty...." - Schroedinger.
According to Heisenberg's Uncertainty Principle of Quantum Dynamics, we may already be making love right now...
Written by :jeff(fake)
FYI, modern designs of nuclear reactors are safe and efficient, pretty much the most environmentally friendly option we have at the moment. There's a pretty good review on skeptoid. https://skeptoid.com/episodes/4092
-Mike
Certified Mad Doctor and HoP High Priest of Nutella
A buckuht n a hooze! -Valura
Written by :Doc LightningWritten by :jeff(fake)
FYI, modern designs of nuclear reactors are safe and efficient, pretty much the most environmentally friendly option we have at the moment. There's a pretty good review on skeptoid. https://skeptoid.com/episodes/4092
My concern with nuclear reactors isn't accidents.
1) What do you do with the waste?
2) What happens when one gets bombed?
3) How do you keep the uranium out of the hands of terrorists? (No, reactor-grade uranium cannot make a bomb, but it can make a dirty bomb).
4) Uranium is expensive as hell and we do have a limited supply. It's not a good long-term solution.
We need to get a commercial fusion reactor on-line soon.
According to Heisenberg's Uncertainty Principle of Quantum Dynamics, we may already be making love right now...
-Mike
Certified Mad Doctor and HoP High Priest of Nutella
A buckuht n a hooze! -Valura
Using the keywords [biofuel * fake climate change solution] we found the following existing topics.