Der er altid en regning der skal betales
Sådan sagde den store spanske filosof Miguel Indurain om Riis Tour-chancer efter Amstel-Gold Race succesen. Det er heller ikke gratis at råbe “BRAND!” i et overfyldt teater, som klimahysterikerne gør, mens de angler efter anerkendelse for at redde menneskeheden. Tag et eksempel som biobrændsel, som C. Ford Runge skriver om på Yale Enviroment 360
The rapid increase in grain and oilseed prices due to biofuels expansion has been a shock to consumers worldwide, especially during 2008 and early 2009. From 2005 to January 2008, the global price of wheat increased 143 percent, corn by 105 percent, rice by 154 percent, sugar by 118 percent, and oilseeds by 197 percent. In 2006-2007, this rate of increase accelerated, according to the U.S. Department of Agriculture, “due to continued demand for biofuels and drought in major producing countries.” The price increases have since moderated, but many believe only temporarily, given tight stocks-to-use ratios.
It is in poor countries that these price increases pose direct threats to disposable income and food security. There, the run-up in food prices has been ominous for the more than one billion of the world’s poor who are chronically food-insecure. Poor farmers in countries such as Bangladesh can barely support a household on a subsistence basis, and have little if any surplus production to sell, which means they do not benefit from higher prices for corn or wheat. And poor slum-dwellers in Lagos, Calcutta, Manila, or Mexico City produce no food at all, and spend as much as 90 percent of their meager household incomes just to eat.
But the most worrisome of recent criticisms of biofuels relate to their impacts on the natural environment. In the U.S., water shortages due to the huge volumes necessary to process grains or sugar into ethanol are not uncommon, and are amplified if these crops are irrigated. Growing corn to produce ethanol, according to a 2007 study by the U.S. National Academy of Sciences, consumes 200 times more water than the water used to process corn into ethanol.
Og artiklen konkluderer ironisk at “biofuels made the slow fade from green to brown“. Det kan jo være lige meget for de selvgode, som hellere ser folke sulte ihjel end at lide druknedøden, men der er et andet problem ifølge American Institute of Biological Science
In the March 2010 issue of BioScience, researchers present a sophisticated new analysis of the effects of boosting use of maize-derived ethanol on greenhouse gas emissions. The study, conducted by Thomas W. Hertel of Purdue University and five co-authors, focuses on how mandated increases in production of the biofuel in the United States will trigger land-use changes domestically and elsewhere. In response to the increased demand for maize, farmers convert additional land to crops, and this conversion can boost carbon dioxide emissions.
Så kan de fattige 3. verdensborgere ovenkøbet komme til at opleve at drukne på tom mave. Artiklen er set via Watts Up With That, som ganske sobert henlægger den til afdelingen for “damned if you do, damned if you don’t”.
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Før man får menneskene i den 3. verden til at ophøre med at parre sig med en astronomisk reproduktionsrate, så henhører hysteriet om såkaldte “klimaforandringer” fortsat i afdelingen for ligegyldige småting.
Men det er naturligvis altid af selvstændig værdi, at iværksætte ændringer, der gør afhængigheden af tanketomme stamme- og klansamfund i mellemøsten, mindre.
Bedst ville det selvfølgelig være, hvis disse primitive samfund, hvor man stadigvæk - i lighed med Krarup & Langballe - infantilt overtror på nisser og trolde i skyerne, blev helt irrelevante.
Det har en totalt håbløs amerikansk energipolitik siden 1. energikrise desværre umuliggjort.