Why does it seem, especially when things are done poorly, that the harder you try to do something, to believe in something, to effect change for that belief, the more things come unraveled?
The world's rush to embrace biofuels is causing a spike in the price of corn and other crops and could worsen water shortages and force poor communities off their land, a U.N. official said Wednesday.
So, in an effort to fix one thing we are in the process of creating a new set of problems. From clear cutting timber, (trees take CO2 out of the air, remember?), kicking poor people off of their land, to converting a crop that was a subsistence crop to a biofuel crop, all of these are effects that were not all that well analyzed beforehand it would seem.
"Particularly in the Asia-Pacific region, land availability is a critical issue," Suzuki said. "There are clear comparative advantages for tropical and subtropical countries in growing biofuel feed stocks but it is often these same countries in which resource and land rights of vulnerable groups and protected forests are weakest."
Poorer countries have long used corn as a staple, now this staple is becoming more and more expensive because the market is shifting.
Additionally, farmers are planting different crops to take advantage of the new profits. Converting fields from lower paying crops, (areas of interest to me, barley and hops) to what they feel will be the more profitable crop, corn.
Aside from displacing the poor, taking food out of people's mouths, killing off trees that remove CO2, are there any other potential problems? As I opined in the opening, it seems as you stumble down a path of ill conceived plans, yes, you will stumble across other pitfalls;
India is facing criticism that its plans to plant 30 million acres of jatropha trees by 2012 for biofuel could force communities from their land and worsen deforestation. There are also concerns that it will be unable to find the 100 million acres of vacant land it needs to grow the shrub-like plants.
Varghese Paul, a forest and biodiversity expert with the Energy and Resources Institute in India, said dependence on a single species is dangerous.
"An outbreak of pests and diseases could wipe out entire plantations in one stroke," Paul said.
So, now we are taking food and land, cutting down the trees, and forming a dependence all of which could come crashing down "in one stroke". This plan is getting better and better by the minute. And all for what? to add a percentage of an alcohol to existing fuel? What of the water needed to make this work? What of the land and food? What of the energy required to farm, ship and convert? All of these things again seem like a distraction from the ultimate goal, finding an energy/heating/transportation solution that is better than what we have now. This lunacy seems to me something akin to taking your rusty Chevy Nova and spray painting it with a can or two of Rustolium. It's the same thing but different. Oh, and what's MPB you ask? Miles Per Bushel.
