How does the global warming drones feel now that...?

Question

the heretofore unforseen consequences of the rush to biofuels causing sky-rocketing food prices all over the world ;especially poor areas where they depend on cheap. rice and wheat to survive. great job guys, let's keep burning our food. now we'll see a real man-made global crisis. you were told 8 years ago that we needed to expand drilling in our own territory as a start to ward off our current crisis while looking for other viable fuels.

Answer 1

Dennis Prager had an interesting comment on Hippy child's (The Nerd) comment relating war to warming.  Alarmists almost always are against opposing Islamo-fascists but to make up for it, they fight  global warming.  This way they don't have to make any tough decisions.  They can get accolades from their fellow leftists, grants, etc.  and can still remain anti-war.  The left in this country  used to be anti-n**i, anti-communist, etc.  Now they are more properly defined as anti-war.  Sorry for the digression but I thought it was an interesting point he made.

Answer 2

wow.keep educating yourself, you are on a roll!   Here is a link to an interesting letter with more links where you can find even more info.  http://images.larslarson.com/images/book...  I do wonder myself how the drones feel.

Answer 3

woaw woaw woaw. people are just not very informed on the government of the united states. IT IS NOT THE GOVERNMENTS JOB TO RESEARCH ALTERNET FUELS,,,, ITS NOT. it is the governments job to conduct war.  the automobile was not build by the government neither was the gasoline and ethanol that powered it. the government should cut all research and just focus on the war how about that.

and yes there is a global food crisis due to people burning there food, the liberals dident think about the part of supply and demand of food but there starting to relize it now.

Answer 4

what what what what what what what what what what what what what what what what what what what what what what WHAT?

speak girl, please!!!

Answer 5

Too bad the ethanol craze was a republican idea to raise the price of corn and thus buy votes from corn producing states.    Gloss over that fact and blame it on global warming drones instead, right?

Answer 6

It was and always been a way to keep the masses in control.  it's called economic slavery.  Make up a need, then force it on the public instead of letting the free market sort it all out.  Instead, as so well stated by the asker, we are forced to burn our food.  

In other words, there was, is, and never has been a real attempt to develop alternative fuels that actually work, start out expensive because that's how developing technologies work.  But this growing food for fuel is complete nonsense and even though it has shown to be a complete failure, we're still supposed to support it.  

Oil, yes, oil is a bio fuel, is it not?  It's made of plants and comes from the Earth,  same with coal, it's a bio fuel, it too is made from decayed plant matter.  

Here's where carbon credits fail, it is often cheaper for an industry to pay a carbon tax, than it is to install pollution control devices on their boilers.  Unfortunately, any extra costs figured into producing goods is passed on to the customer.  

Truckers, whose truck move most of the goods through out our country are paying up to $1,000 per fill up, and we get to pay for it in higher prices for food, goods and services.

What a great idea!  :c(

Answer 7

Nerd, what the heck does the war have to do with Global Warming!?  Wow.  Grow up, hippy child.

Yeah, Ethanol is pathetic, and if you accidentally put it into a regular car, it can cost thousands of dollars in damage.  It's less efficient, it costs more to make, and is harder to store and transport.  Plus it is driving up the cost of food.

Whoever told you you're wrong on this, is a complete unknowledgable idiot.

Also, the guy that called you a drone is so unoriginal and unclever that he had to use your word in his own pathetic lame attempt to insult you.  woo!

Answer 8

There is some truth to this.

But, biofuels are a minor part of the problem.  Far larger is drought (which may be related to global warming, and countries getting richer and eating more meat, which takes a lot of grain.

But, most important, this is a preview of what will happen if we do nothing about global warming.  Damage to agriculture caused by that will make these food shortages pale by comparison.

Answer 9

We should be prepared to admit that the technology isn't perfected right now and using the kernels of corn not ideal in this respect.

However, scientist are working on ways to make using the biomass - the waste material like the stalks and the outer leaves a viable option. In Oregon, we've endorsed the biofuels with the notion that we're simply at Stage 1 - we need to build the infrastructure and promote the research to get to the next level using the biomass waste... and it's not limited to corn - it could use "renderings" like cow carcasses! Ew, but ok better than putting that in the landfill, though the cost of Elmer's glue might go up.

The important thing I think for folks to realize is that we're in a painful transition period and it ain't going to be easy, but let's have some faith in the market system and our science geeks, shall we?

Another point - the claims of food shortage may be overblown... this is straight from the Oregon Economic and Community Development Dept's briefing to Governor Kulongoski:

Ethanol from corn is not the largest factor in food availability or price increases

•There is less corn acreage in production today than there was 100 years ago. However, corn output per acre has increased over 500% over this time due to increased productivity in agriculture. Technology and productivity increases will continue to contribute to grower’s ability to meet demand for various needs of corn production in the US and around the world.

•Price increases for food has less to do with ethanol or biodiesel production, than it does with the five fold increase in petroleum price over the past five years. Recent studies show that price increases in gasoline and diesel have affected food prices three times as much as corn or ethanol.

Biofuels unfairly singled out on land use change impacts.

Recent reports have attempted to estimate the environmental consequences of land use changes around the world. Some studies single out biofuels as a contributor to a “carbon debt.” These analyses ignore:

•Agricultural land use shifts to non-farm use from other pressures, such as urbanization;

•Ongoing improvements in agricultural yields and efficiency advancements in biofuel production;

•Increasing environmental impacts and cost of oil extraction, and

•Life cycle requirements in federal and state biofuels laws and policies.

The current first-generation biofuels (corn-based ethanol and soy-based biodiesel) are not perfect and alone will not solve all our problems. The current and future use of renewable fuels reduces harmful greenhouse gases compared to petroleum fuels. The environmental performance of biofuels continues to improve and the next generation of biofuels will provide even further greenhouse gas reductions. Neither fuel beats conservation or vehicle efficiency improvements for its economic and environmental benefits.

Haha! I love those blanket bash the government statements! You should do what I do for a living then you'd know the problem isn't your government - at least in terms of the people trying to do their jobs - politicians aside... the problem is US!!!

Answer 10

Dude you are so far off and such a pathetic whiner I won't even waste another moment other than this to tell you to grow the h**l up.

Why are you drones such consistent whiners?

Answer 11

Well i know environmentalists pointed out the dangers of biofuels years ago. I remember because i was involved with greenpeace in the campain to stop excessive use of biofuels, which began before most people knew what they were! Various alternatives were and are being suggested, but they overall involve making better use of the fuels we have now until we can move on to better alternatives.

Answer 12

"How does[sic] the global warming skeptics feel now that..." people keep ignoring science and spending way more money in a war nobody can win, rather than devote it all to accelerating the technological development of sustainable engery?  It's not that hard.  We've already developed a much cheaper way to manufacture solar cells.

Perhaps if we didn't spend so much of our money on death, we could learn to sustain life.

Answer 13

It isn't.  Our major financial houses are trying to recoup their catastrophic losses from the housing market.  Last year the neocons blamed the droughts on the farmers, this year they blame the high prices on them.  Last year the farmers said "how can growing corn in Iowa cause a drought in Australia"  this year they say "how can growing corn in Iowa cause a rice shortage in asia?"  The farmers in the grain exporting companies say its droughts, the high gasoline prices and global warming.  The USA and the EU subsidize growing grain for fuel in the developing countries, but not grain for food. Then some neocon says "look what the environmentalists did".  I don't know one environmentalist who favors these programs.  

The investment houses buy "futures" in food commodities.  That means a committment to buy in the future at a price locked in today.  Then they find ways to manipulate the price, like causing shortages or raising oil prices with the help of our pals in Saudi Arabia.  The value of the futures goes up, and they sell.  They freely admit this.  It's their job.  They manage the money for pension plans and things. The UN food advisor says that speculation in food commodities in the world financial markets should be banned, because it is causing starvation.

In the past the USA and EU have taken their surpluses and bought grain on the world market, then sold them in the grain importing countries at a price below cost.  They do this to prevent those countries from developing agricultural programs of their own.  It's pretty hard to compete that way.  50% of the grain the USA normally sells to these countries is bought on the world market, not grown in America.  Then we sell it below cost, just like the EU. This year and last, there have been no surpluses.  Without agriculture of their own, people starve and prices rise.  The people in these countries are getting real angry with us, with good reason.  Bush has them all building nuclear weapons as their only option faced with a global nuclear bully.  Can you blame them?  Read about it in some of these links, if you dare.

Answer 14

its foolish to burn corn for fuel.

stop using your car, now THAT will help everyone

and buy local so transport costs are lower.

why buy food from half a world away while your local farms go under?