July 04, 2008
Starving an indictment
From a confidential World Bank report obtained by the Guardian:

Biofuels have forced global food prices up by 75% - far more than previously estimated.
The damning unpublished assessment is based on the most detailed analysis of the crisis so far, carried out by an internationally-respected economist at global financial body.

The figure emphatically contradicts the US government's claims that plant-derived fuels contribute less than 3% to food-price rises.
Typical of the rolling intimidation practiced by Bush:
Senior development sources believe the report, completed in April, has not been published to avoid embarrassing President George Bush.

"It would put the World Bank in a political hot-spot with the White House."
And from a related article at the Guardian:
If politicians want to reduce emissions and stop global warming, biofuels are not the solution. Recent research suggests that biofuels may increase greenhouse gas emissions rather than reduce them. And by pushing up demand for agricultural land, they're causing farming to expand into other areas that store carbon – such as wetlands and forests – releasing way more carbon than is saved through biofuels.

Nor will biofuels offer the holy grail of fuel security and stop us from having to curb our insatiable demand for oil or oil alternatives. Oxfam estimates that if the entire corn harvest of the USA were diverted to ethanol, it would only be able to replace about one gallon in every six sold in the USA. And if the entire world supply of oilseed were converted to biodiesel, this would only be able to replace, at most, 10% of global diesel consumption.
...inconvenient facts that Bush will ignore... ahhh, this Administration leaves me stunned... ...the price of lives... the bully ideology... our impotent reply...

Comments on "Starving an indictment"

 

Blogger Pauline said ... (7/05/2008) : 

"ahhh, this Administration leaves me stunned"

and that may be a large part of the reason why we don't do anything about it...

 

Blogger Brian Hayes said ... (7/05/2008) : 

ahhh, Pauline, you so easily distill the matter - like your observant poetry!

They say there's a see-saw in us between credulity and suspicion. One turns to other but not always easily. To believe America is brutish is difficult.

 

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