Will the use of ethanol cause some people to starve to death?

Question

And, will liberal hippies care? Or is the enviroment more important than human life?

Answer 1

Brazil runs it cars and trucks on cane ethanol. It now has ethanol  for sale.to other countries. Cane sugar produces  about 800 gallons of ethanol per acre. compared to 328 gallons  for corn .Brazil uses only 2 %of  its arable land for this production. To expand production they would use spent pasture land. Sugar cane is the answer not corn. Farm land could be used for food again. We need to import ethanol. not oil. Combustion of ethanol .produces water and neutral carbon.. Engines made to use high octane ethanol get about the same mileage as gasoline.

Answer 2

Yes, and it ironically encourages damage to the environment, too!

http://news.nationalgeographic.com/news/...

And Brazil is constatly finding new oil reserves--oil is not scarce.

http://news.bbc.co.uk/2/hi/business/7086...

Answer 3

Sounds like you already know the answer.  Corn based ethanol, as opposed to some other options being considered is not a net producer of energy.  It is a "slight of hand" that has a lot to do with US food policy and subsidies, and not about conserving energy.  

Will it cause people to starve.  By itself no, but we are talking about diverting a lot of food from human use to energy use.  It doesn't really make sense.  I think the recent food riots have a lot to do with rising demand for meat, and increased demand overall in China and India.

Answer 4

The use of Ethanol is absolutely stupid!  First you have the plants that absorb some CO2 but then one of the primary gases given off from fermentation is CO2, then you burn the stuff, so it makes absolutely no sense to use Ethanol from a global warming stance.  Plus, it burns at far less efficiency than fossil fuel.  It is kind of like burning ten clean logs to heat a house as opposed to one dirty one for the same result.  Ethanol is just plain stupid to use.

Not to mention the gas companies are making bank because they justify their increase in prices.  They require TWO sources of fuel to support the ethanol, so it is added expense on us to cater to these liberal tree huggers.  It is just plain stupid!!!!

Answer 5

Currently the gvmt has given corporations enough welfare to build 100 ethanol plants.  There are another 101 plants being built to go on line soon.

If we're having trouble with food output now, what will happen when demand for corn for fuel doubles?

Remember when corn was $1 / dozen?

Remember Mr. Galt, socialism protects the interest of the rich over the poor.  Socialism demands that some should be sacrificed for the good of others.

Answer 6

It is such a terrible idea it turns out that it was the conservatives answer to the liberal hippies. The ethanol production from corn is already ruining the environment before it causes people to starve to death, if you look into the midwest where a lot of the ethanol is made, factories are not properly disposing of the glycerin and other wastes. They have been dumping it into rivers which have cut off oxygen in certain water supplies. The liberal hippies wanted vehicles with a much better fuel efficiency while looking into alternative energy that would PROVIDE A MORE SUSTAINABLE FUTURE. But this is what we got even with arguments against it in the science community.

I did read an interesting article not too long ago, about using algae to make ethanol. This way algae could be easily grown in water tanks and it supposedly it takes a lot less energy to turn into an ethanol product. I assume that there is still a lot more research to be done on it, but at least there are some other ideas out there.

Answer 7

About as much sense, as all the trees that were harvested to print out flyer's/memorandum's for the paper work reduction act. Or the conversion to the metric system, either one work fine. But all the cost associated with retooling factories, and redundant equipment didn't justify it. The list is endless, and I wonder about who has the final say in matter's such as this.

Wheat processes Co2 more efficiently then corn, so we will have to ponder on this one for a long time.

Answer 8

For some people yes as the mandates coupled with subsidies of corn will drive prices even higher.

IMO it is greedy agribusiness in bed with big government who is are spinning GW to help them make a buck who are ultimately responsible for this tragedy.

Don't get me wrong GW is a real issue and Bio fuel can be part of the solution. You just don't use foods such as corn to make ethanol, it only increases the price of corn.

In the united states corn is subsidized more than any other crop to the tune of 16+ billion dollars. The average farmer now makes in the range of 70,000 dollars plus. They spend big money to lobby congress to keep them as rich as they already are. It is a big scam that is robbing the American taxpayer.

The solution is not to throw out bio fuel all together but to use waste fuel such as fryer grease, high efficient crops like switchgrass, and to grow in areas most food crops could not grow. Jatropha is a perfect example of a bio-fuel crop that is grown in arid like regions. On top of this it produces a whopping 40% plus oil from its fruit making it wildly more efficient than the corrupt usage of corn.

http://www.jatrophabiodiesel.org/

The blame however is not the environmentalist which have been crying out against ethanol for some time. Many charity environmental organization have been speaking out against this but to no avail. The blame needs to rest where it really belongs, corporate interest and among their commodities the politician.

http://www.energybulletin.net/25558.html

To answer your second question, yes the "liberal hippie" cares. It was not corn in the first place he or she wanted only a viable alternative to gas. I would not be surprised if this catastrophe was some how instigated by the oil companies who make more money than all the auto companies put together. With power like that it is hard to stop its corrupting influence.

I like what Jim Morrison had once said, "They've got the guns but we've got the numbers." If the masses can either stopped being duped and or at least stop being so apathetic and uses their numbers we might have a chance of turning this thing around. For the sake of the human race and all life on Planet earth I sure hope so.

Answer 9

Will the use of ethanol cause some people to starve to death? YES only its not some it is many thousands.

http://byderule.multiply.com/journal/ite...

This is my source of opinion

Don`t understand the second part of the question

And I used to be a weekend Hippy

40 years ago

And, will liberal hippies care, ABOUT WHAT ,the starvation

Yes in principle

is the environment more important than human life?

The Environment is important TO Human life

But Neither the Environment or Human life are important to Those who want Global control,you probably know more about those people I think they are the conservatives.

The Famine is orchestrated ,More than Half of the worlds food production is diverted for the production of ethanol.

Mass starvation and death is Allowed to happen ,Probably as part of the depopulation program,

An American Statesman DID say in 1998 ,in Copenhagen,that the Bilderberg Agenda demanded a cut in the world population by 60 %

And most of the destruction of the Environment is for Palm Oil and ethanol owned by Corporations ,who are behind ALL political power http://byderule.multiply.com/journal/ite...

So maybe you need reading glasses the cause of the problems may be closer than you imagine

Now where do the Hippies come in ??????????????????

Are you one of these

http://answers.yahoo.com/question/index;...

automatic, dazed, blind,misguided  ,environmentalist haters ??????????????

Answer 10

Yes it is causing a food shortage. Did you know it takes 8 to 12 gallons of water to process one gallon of ethanol?

Answer 11

This is not a political question! Both you and the "liberal hippies" will die if we destroy the environment much more! I wonder why that is so difficult to see!