The Biofuel Crash
I'vebeen posting about the biofuel scam for some time now. I have pointed out the skyrocketing price of food and the real and lasting environmental damage that biofuel production entails. It seems the world is suddenly waking up to the nightmare the eco-warriors have created.
Biofuels made from food crops such as corn, sugar, soybeans and oil palm burn cleaner than fossil fuels, but experts say high demand is sending ripples through the world economy, and could be doing the environment more harm than good.
Rudy Gosal, a 36-year-old courier who queued with hundreds of others in Indonesia's capital in March to buy government-subsidised cooking oil, is one of millions feeling the pinch of the push towards biofuels.
After the latest rise earlier this year, the cost of cooking oil in Jakarta jumped a massive 70 percent, to around 12,000 rupiah (1.31 dollars) a litre……
……A study published in the journal Science in February found it would take around 86 years for biodiesel made from palm oil grown on cleared tropical lowland forest to repay the "carbon debt" generated from clearing the land.
For biodiesel from cleared peatlands, the study found, the debt would take more than 840 years to repay.
"Certainly the carbon debt from converting peatlands is far and away larger than in any of the other ecosystems we considered," said Jason Hill, an economist at the University of Minnesota and study co-author.
But Indonesia appears intent on running up that debt. Already at least 10 million of its 22.5 million hectares (55.6 million acres) of peatland have been cleared, according to the Centre for International Forestry Research, and the clearing shows no sign of slowing.
Indonesia currently emits the world's third largest total of so-called greenhouse gas. I have said it before: there is no better time to rape the planet than right now. All you have to say is that you are fighting global warming or going "green" and you can get away with ecological murder. The laws of physics and thermodynamics are not subject to repeal by wishful thinking or kindergarten-level scientific theory. Yet that is precisely what has been influencing politicians to sign onto this fuelishness.
Bad Ideas, Energy, Environment, Junk Science | Gaius Tuesday, 1 April , 2008
By K T Cat, Tuesday, 1 April , 2008 @ 10:53 pm
Great post.
By syn, Wednesday, 2 April , 2008 @ 6:35 am
McCain could really shore up his base if he would publically announce Global Warming is a fraud; it wouldn’t hurt Newt GIngrich either by saying he too was foolish to jump on such a destructive bandwagon.
However, I doubt both are willing to give up their opportunity to cash in while getting away with ecological murder.
I will pray everyday that McCain and Gingrich will one day soon return to their Conservative roots. Liberals are hopeless at this point so I don’t see them ever returning to some sense of sanity.
McCain, give up Global Warming fraud and its’ murderous ways, it’s for for the children and their future.
By Sam, Wednesday, 2 April , 2008 @ 12:19 pm
Gaius,When did you sign on to the global warming carbon dioxide bandwagon? You are arguing against biofuels based on carbon balance? Maybe I have misconstrued your past skepticism on the subject.
By Gary Gulrud, Thursday, 3 April , 2008 @ 11:17 am
Sam:
No need to take the biofuel scam as simply arguing against logical inconsistency; it is that but it is environmental crime.
Big oil has not raped Gaia to the extent proposed by AGW flamers and governments to save her. Follow the money, friend.