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Science Forum Index » Agriculture Forum » What will the biofuel death count be?
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| calderhome@yahoo.com |
 Posted: Thu Apr 17, 2008 7:13 am |
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What will the biofuel death count be?
Biofuel production will contribute to the early, avoidable deaths of
at least between 10 and 20 million people worldwide in the year 2008.
That is my public estimate of the death toll, and is in a way a cop-
out on my part, as the 2007 global death toll due to malnutrition and
malnutrition related illness was in the 14 to 16 million range. I did
not want to stick my neck out and be accused of inflating the numbers
to support my opposition to biofuels. Privately, I fear the death
toll for 2008 will be much higher, as food prices have skyrocketed far
beyond 2007 levels. I really believe that in 2008 global deaths due
to malnutrition and related illness will be in the 20 to 30 million
range. Economists estimate that 30 million people could be going
hungry in Bangladesh alone.
To put this global tragedy in perspective, the infamous Cambodian
dictator Pol Pot only killed 1.7 million people between 1975 and 1979,
mainly by starvation due to his idiotic agricultural policies. Mao's
1958 "Great Leap Forward" 5 year plan caused the deaths of tens of
millions of Chinese, and Mao had the best of intentions just like
Barack Obama, Hillary Clinton, and John McCain, who all support
biofuels vigorously despite being repeatedly warned that biofuels are
killing people and are murder for the environment as well. An exact
body count of the Great Biofuel Famine is not possible, and usually
the more affluent sectors of society only wake up and realizes the
magnitude of the great famines years after the event is over.
4 billion humans live in poverty, and biofuel production will push
millions of the poorest families into the clutches of death, thanks to
our leaders turning mountain's of food into fuel. Unless the biofuel
bandwagon is stopped, by the year 2020 the world will be diverting 400
million tons of grain each year into ethanol production, which is
equal to the entire current global rice harvest. There have been food
riots in 22 countries, and 33 nations face political instability as
staple food prices have risen 83% in the last 3 years according to the
World Bank. Biofuel production is equivalent to a new tax on food
that starves the poor in order to feed money to rich agricultural
corporations.
German Development Minister Heidemarie Wieczorek-Zeul stated that
production of biofuels is "30 to 70% responsible for the rapid rise in
food prices." Bill Clinton stated that "What's really hurting the
food markets is America moving into ethanol." Oil price increases
have not shrunk the human food supply, but biofuel production has!
The more biofuels we produce, the less food we have to eat, because we
grow biofuel crops, even switchgrass, using the same land, water,
fertilizer, farm equipment, and labor we use to grow food. New
studies show that ethanol from cellulose (switchgrass, wood chips,
crop waste, etc.) will never been economically viable, so biofuels are
a dead-end technology.
Every year humans burn the equivalent of 400 years worth of total
planetary vegetation in the condensed form of fossil fuels. How are
we going to replace all that concentrated biomass energy by growing a
relatively small volume of biofuel crops on our overpopulated, fresh
water starved planet? How are America's homeless, the elderly, the
disabled, veterans, and all those living on low fixed incomes going to
survive 14 more years of rapid food price inflation created by the
Bush-Pelosi biofuel plan?
Ethanol blended fuels burn cleaner on a per gallon basis, but not on a
miles traveled basis, because ethanol contains 30% less energy than
gasoline and thus yields very poor gas mileage. Biofuel production
causes water pollution and water shortages, erodes topsoil, tortures
wildlife, and numerous studies have proven that biofuel farming speeds
global warming by releasing massive amounts of greenhouse gases, so
why are US and EU politicians still falsely claiming that turning our
own food into fuel is good for the environment?
Biofuels facts and better alternatives at: http://home.att.net/~meditation/bio-fuel-hoax.html
Christopher Calder |
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