The Starving Peasants On The Far Horizon.
Mark Steyn has rather a lot to say about Time Magazines "Iwo Tree-ma" photo that I posted about yesterday. But the only thing the tree is good for is to block the view of the starving peasants.
Heigh-ho. In the greater scheme of things, a few dead natives keeled over with distended bellies is a small price to pay for saving the planet, right? Except that turning food into fuel does nothing for the planet in the first place. That tree the U.S. Marines are raising on Iwo Jima was most-likely cut down to make way for an ethanol-producing corn field: Researchers at Princeton calculate that, to date, the "carbon debt" created by the biofuels arboricide will take 167 years to reverse.
The biofuels debacle is global warm-mongering in a nutshell: The first victims of poseur environmentalism will always be developing countries. In order for you to put biofuel in your Prius and feel good about yourself for no reason, real actual people in faraway places have to starve to death. On April 15, the Independent, the impeccably progressive British newspaper, editorialized:
"The production of biofuel is devastating huge swaths of the world's environment. So why on Earth is the government forcing us to use more of it?"
You want the short answer? Because the government made the mistake of listening to fellows like you. Here's the self-same Independent in November 2005:
"At last, some refreshing signs of intelligent thinking on climate change are coming out of Whitehall. The Environment minister, Elliot Morley, reveals today in an interview with this newspaper that the Government is drawing up plans to impose a 'biofuel obligation' on oil companies … . This has the potential to be the biggest green innovation in the British petrol market since the introduction of unleaded petrol."
Etc. It's not the environmental movement's chickenfeedhawks who'll have to reap what they demand must be sown, but we should be in no doubt about where to place the blame – on the bullying activists and their media cheerleaders and weather-vane politicians who insist that the "science" is "settled" and that those who question whether there's any crisis are (in the designation of the strikingly nonemaciated Al Gore) "denialists."
Green is the new red. As always, read the whole thing, Steyn is in rare form over this one. The media might want to rethink their biased cheer-leading. The first victim of totalitarianism is freedom of the press.
Junk Science, Left Wing, Media | Gaius Saturday, 26 April , 2008
By Mwalimu Daudi, Saturday, 26 April , 2008 @ 12:51 pm
This is similar to the DDT fraud the ecochondriacs forced on us so many years ago. Rich countries used more expensive alternatives while poor people died. Given the environmental movement’s "nature over people" mindset it would not be hyperbole in the least to call it a form of genocide.
I lived in east Africa for a number of years, and have seen first hand what malaria can do to people, especially children. We were on the cusp of eliminating malaria worldwide when the ecochondriacs chose to believe the works of a crackpot author over hard science. Not much has changed since, as we can see with the global warming "debate".
By Mockinbird, Saturday, 26 April , 2008 @ 4:31 pm
Well put:Green is the new red. Crypto-Marxism must be stamped out like we tried to do with Malaria.
By Steve Burri, Saturday, 26 April , 2008 @ 7:20 pm
The old description is ‘watermelon.’ Green on the outside and red on the inside.Mwalimu,And now mosquito-borne dengue fever is skyrocketing in urban areas of Brazil as well.
By kidrob, Sunday, 27 April , 2008 @ 6:47 am
they dont care if people die. more foot room.
By Gary Gulrud, Monday, 28 April , 2008 @ 9:44 am
Bad news for Ethanol already.
This year’s planted acreage in corn will be down 6% owing largely to soaring soya and wheat prices. Also soils need rotation due to corn’s exhaustive effect on soils requiring the largest fertilizer applications.
Corn in the midwest, e.g. Northern Iowa and Nebraska should have been planted a week ago. The season requires a minimum of Degree Days for optimal harvest.
We had snow and subfreezing temperatures this weekend immediately north of the corn belt. The fields are not yet prepared up here for planting, so on the margin of the corn belt the yields can be guaranteed to be off for the year.
Expect this to be reflected in corn futures imminently.