When it comes to climate change the foresight of our leaders is about as good as the models they use to predict the future of the climate in 2100. In their infinite wisdom they agreed to mandate that 10% of our gasoline be made of ethanol. Ethanol is made from crops such as corn, sugar cane and potato. We are burning food to power our motor vehicles. In a world with over 7 billion people it is estimated that about 1.4 billion live in poverty. Will these people be thrilled to learn that while they find it hard to get enough food to eat developed nations are growing food not to sustain their bodies but to sustain their transportation? Biofuels deflect crop production from food to fuel. This means that food prices will rise as the supply of food is decreased. Pop goes the corn price. This affects poor people disproportionately to their income. Gas prices will also be adversely affected.
This inane policy came about because the world incorrectly came to believe that the burning of fossil fuels was causing the globe to warm up because of extra CO2 put in the atmosphere. CO2 is believed to be a heat trapping gas that causes the world to warm irrevocably and that if we do not stop we will become human fricassee. Global warming was expected to lead to higher temperatures and more severe droughts. Neither is the case but that does not mean that droughts will vanish as summer 2012 in North America shows. They are a recurring phenomenon. And when they do occur crops will be affected and food prices will rise. So poor people are whacked again by more expensive food: first by the diversion of crops for biofuel and then by drought.
:
So, while biofuel policy was enacted to save the world from global warming it has instead harmed the poor by diverting crop production from food to transportation. Rising temperatures have not materialized and while droughts still occur in the world the trend is not toward more severe events. Biofuels have turned out to be a misanthropic policy. Biofuels are a subsidized industry which forces different branches of the government to spend unnecessarily for their transportation. Higher taxes and higher debt for our descendants.
The production processes used in biofuel generation also produce harmful emissions that counteract their questionable benefits.
The war on CO2, a trace gas essential for life on earth, is a misinformed attack on the fossil fuel industry by those who are more interested in world government than in the health of their fellow humans.
"In searching for a new enemy to unite us, we came up with the idea that pollution, the threat of global warming, water shortages, famine and the like would fit the bill....All these dangers are caused by human intervention....and thus the “real enemy, then, is humanity itself....believe humanity requires a common motivation, namely a common adversary in order to realize world government. It does not matter if this common enemy is “a real one or….one invented for the purpose." ~ Club of Rome
In short, we should be putting more CO2 into the atmosphere for our friends, the flora. More trees, more flowers, more food. All good. There already is a common enemy of humans - several of them that do not have to be invented - disease and starvation come to mind. Can we not rally around those problems? Good food makes us healthier and better able to fight off disease. More CO2 in our atmosphere would go a long way toward assisting our goal to help our fellow humans. Global governance not required. Freedom will better serve the purpose. Free countries produce a food surplus. We do not lack for food in our grocery stores. Those that starve have governments where rule of law is weak or exist where war disrupts or destroys the normal activities of everyday life. Food production can be sufficient to avoid starvation but people need strong democratic governments to provide the structure so people can prosper. The ethanol mandate should be abandoned.
No comments:
Post a Comment