Gore Ducks, As A Backlash Builds Against Biofuels
How many times did we tell these motherfuckers they were playing with fire, and that bad shit was going to happen?
Food Crisis Starts Eclipsing Climate Change Worries
The campaign against climate change could be set back by the global food crisis, as foreign populations turn against measures to use foodstuffs as substitutes for fossil fuels.
With prices for rice, wheat, and corn soaring, food-related unrest has broken out in places such as Haiti, Indonesia, and Afghanistan. Several countries have blocked the export of grain. There is even talk that governments could fall if they cannot bring food costs down.
One factor being blamed for the price hikes is the use of government subsidies to promote the use of corn for ethanol production. An estimated 30% of America’s corn crop now goes to fuel, not food.
“I don’t think anybody knows precisely how much ethanol contributes to the run-up in food prices, but the contribution is clearly substantial,” a professor of applied economics and law at the University of Minnesota, C. Ford Runge, said. A study by a Washington think tank, the International Food Policy Research Institute, indicated that between a quarter and a third of the recent hike in commodities prices is attributable to biofuels.
Last year, Mr. Runge and a colleague, Benjamin Senauer, wrote an article in Foreign Affairs, “How Biofuels Could Starve the Poor.”
“We were criticized for being alarmist at the time,” Mr. Runge said. “I think our views, looking back a year, were probably too conservative.”
Ethanol was initially promoted as a vehicle for America to cut back on foreign oil. In recent years, biofuels have also been touted as a way to fight climate change, but the food crisis does not augur well for ethanol’s prospects.
“It takes around 400 pounds of corn to make 25 gallons of ethanol,” Mr. Senauer, also an applied economics professor at Minnesota, said. “It’s not going to be a very good diet but that’s roughly enough to keep an adult person alive for a year.”
Mr. Senauer said climate change advocates, such as Vice President Gore, need to distance themselves from ethanol to avoid tarnishing the effort against global warming. “Crop-based biofuels are not part of the solution. They, in fact, add to the problem. Whether Al Gore has caught up with that, somebody ought to ask him,” the professor said. “There are lots of solutions, real solutions to climate change. We need to get to those.”
Mr. Gore was not available for an interview yesterday on the food crisis, according to his spokeswoman. A spokesman for Mr. Gore’s public campaign to address climate change, the Alliance for Climate Protection, declined to comment for this article.
However, the scientist who shared the Nobel Peace Prize with Mr. Gore, Rajendra Pachauri of the United Nations’s Intergovernmental Panel of Climate Change, has warned that climate campaigners are unwise to promote biofuels in a way that risks food supplies. “We should be very, very careful about coming up with biofuel solutions that have major impact on production of food grains and may have an implication for overall food security,” Mr. Pachauri told reporters last month, according to Reuters. “Questions do arise about what is being done in North America, for instance, to convert corn into sugar then into biofuels, into ethanol.”
In an interview last year, Mr. Gore expressed his support for corn-based ethanol, but endorsed moving to what he called a “third generation” of so-called cellulosic ethanol production, which is still in laboratory research. “It doesn’t compete with food crops, so it doesn’t put pressure on food prices,” the former vice president told Popular Mechanics magazine.
A Harvard professor of environmental studies who has advised Mr. Gore, Michael McElroy, warned in a November-December 2006 article in Harvard Magazine that “the production of ethanol from either corn or sugar cane presents a new dilemma: whether the feedstock should be devoted to food or fuel. With increasing use of corn and sugar cane for fuel, a rise in related food prices would seem inevitable.” The article, “The Ethanol Illusion” went so far as to praise Senator McCain for summing up the corn-ethanol energy initiative launched in the United States in 2003 as “highway robbery perpetrated on the American public by Congress.”
In Britain, some hunger-relief and environmental groups have turned sharply against biofuels. “Setting mandatory targets for biofuels before we are aware of their full impact is madness,” Philip Bloomer of Oxfam told the BBC.
Biofuel advocates say they are being made a bogeyman for a food crisis that has much more to do with record oil prices, surging demand in the developing world, and unusual weather patterns. “The people who seek to solely blame ethanol for the food crisis and the rising price of food that we see across the globe are taking a terribly simplistic look at this very complex issue,” Matthew Hartwig of the Renewable Fuels Association said.
Mr. Hartwig said oil companies and food manufacturers are behind the attempt to undercut ethanol. “There is a concerted misinformation campaign being put out there by those people who are threatened by ethanol’s growing prominence in the marketplace,” he said.
The most obvious impact the food crisis has had in America, aside from higher prices, is the imposition of rationing at some warehouse stores to deal with a spike in demand for large quantities of rice, oil, and flour. The CEO of Costco Wholesale Corp., James Sinegal, is blaming press hype for the buying limits, which were first reported Monday in The New York Sun.
“If it hadn’t been picked up and become so prominent in the news, I doubt that we would have had the problems that we’re having in trying to limit it at this point,” Mr. Sinegal told Fox News Thursday. “I mean, I can’t believe the amount of attention that is being paid to this.”
The Sun’s article, which came as food riots were reported abroad, circulated quickly on the Internet, was republished in newspapers as far away as India, and prompted local and network television stories.
Speaking in Kansas City, Mo., yesterday, the federal agriculture secretary, Edward Schafer, blamed emotion for the spurt of rice buying at warehouse stores. “We don’t see any evidence of the lack of availability of rice. There are no supply issues,” he told reporters, according to Reuters.
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“It takes around 400 pounds of corn to make 25 gallons of ethanol”
there is no way in hell we could ever sustain enough corn for food and ethanol at that rate of exchange. its a pipe dream and not to mention very few people even benefit from ethanol while EVERYONE feels the downside of it. scrap that idea and drill in our country instead. USGS says we have at least 4.3 trillion barrels of retreivable oil supplies.
April 25th, 2008 at 6:39 pmI think the sins of gore should be considered a capital crime.
The effects of using food stocks for fuel has caused deaths in food riots. His psychotic behavior has lead to deaths.
April 25th, 2008 at 6:51 pmThe Earth has been cooling for the past ten years and last winter it cooled to the lowest point in 100 years. Global changes in climate are continuous as the changes of weather on a daily basis.
He needs to pay for his crimes against humanity.
Gore lied, People died!
April 25th, 2008 at 7:04 pmStart printing up the T-shirts and bumper stickers …
April 25th, 2008 at 7:07 pmThe returns for bio-fuels are horrible. What needs to be done is to invest that money on other, cost-effective fuel sources. Face it, there are better fuel sources out there than oil, not to mention that drilling effects wildlife, and has held us to relying too heavily on the Middle East. I say open up America for drilling, while using funds to advance research to other fuel sources. If we invest and push hard enough we WILL find a fuel source more productive and efficient than oil. Think of what it would do if you can move an Army without having to refuel every few hours. Hell it’d be fucking amazing. Think about what it’d be like to drive across the country before even thinking of stopping to refuel. Unfortunately that’s not the present, and we need to deal with the present NOW and work on the FUTURE for the FUTURE.
April 25th, 2008 at 7:09 pmIn the words of Jeremiah Wright: “The chickens are comming home to roost”. Manbearpig and his minions are about to butt heads with economic reality. “Thuper therial” dude.
April 25th, 2008 at 7:09 pm
Steve in NC: Al Gore Crimes against humanity. Sounds good to me. We had the coldest weather in San Diego County in the 35 years I have been here. I know many of ya’all will laugh, but it was below freezing in our inland valleys during the night perhaps a half dozen times this past winter. It was a cold winter for us.
April 25th, 2008 at 7:15 pmShit look at the trouble this man has caused and created because he was not elected president. He has way to much time on his hands. But what do you expect from somebody who was born with a silver foot in his mouth?
Pay Al, pay!
Steve
I couldnt agree more. crimes against humanity. leading a ‘for profit’ global scam that has costed lives and lots of hardship and will cost more as the days go by until we sort this problem out.
Gore should be tried for his crimes but instead he is now a Nobel laureate. the facts are out there, the earth hasnt warmed since at least 1998 and is in fact cooling.
April 25th, 2008 at 7:17 pmCan we turn Al Gore and his followers into biofuel?
April 25th, 2008 at 8:00 pmYes the facts are out there man made GW is a hoax,(for more info check out junkscience.com) but we all know the libs and dems and MSM don’t let facts get in their way. We have to vote them out of office at the local, city, county, state and national level. The dems policies have brought us higher energy and food prices, the mortgage mess(forcing banks to lend to high credit risks) and prolonged the hostilities in Iraq by giving aid and comfort to our enemies.
April 25th, 2008 at 8:03 pmGore Lied, People Died….I like the sound of that!
April 25th, 2008 at 8:35 pm^^new bumper sticker!
April 25th, 2008 at 11:54 pmAppears thet the Nobel Peace Prize is reserved for homicidal maniacs like Gore and Arafat! Gore/Arafat/NobelPP lied and people died…book ‘em Dano!
April 26th, 2008 at 3:49 amenviromentlist have ruined this country…gore and the rest should be held accountable, but it will never happen. is a total econimic collapse on the horizon?
April 26th, 2008 at 4:07 amSee, this is going with their plan, except for one part, and that’s the burning of the Amazon rain forests for cropland to support ethanol production.
It’s like this - people are the planet’s enemy, so the more they can kill off, the better off the planet will be. THe poor countries are the biggest polluters, so it’s best that they die off first.
See? All according to plan.
*removes tinfoil hat*
April 26th, 2008 at 4:29 amGore lied people died !somebody get them made they will sell like hotcakes (pun intended)
April 26th, 2008 at 5:12 amHow much fuel does it take to cultivate, harvest, ship and process 400 pounds of corn to make that 25 gallons of ethanol?
April 26th, 2008 at 6:06 amJust so you all know…
Gore started an investment firm a few years ago that only dumps capital into “green” companies. After that he releases his book and follows up with his movie and last I heard, he’s about to take this investment firm public.
Could all this just be a way to dupe the public and make him even richer?
April 26th, 2008 at 7:17 amMike in CA, yep, it is a big profit scheme. Hence his disinformation campaign is a crime for profit.
manbearpig
April 26th, 2008 at 7:23 amIf anyone would like to write Algore and express their feelings to this snake oil salesman / asshat. Here is his business address:
Al Gore
2100 West End Ave.
Suite 620
Nashville, TN 37203
Let’s fill up his mailbox, let him know not everybody is a dimwitted drown.
April 26th, 2008 at 7:30 ammart (just another infidel) said:
“Let’s fill up his mailbox, let him know not everybody is a dimwitted drown.”
Make that…”dimwitted drone.” too many
April 26th, 2008 at 8:40 ambiodiesel is a great fuel works out to about 70cents a gallon to manufacture at home with a biodiesel plant. so really if a better way can be found to produce the ethanol.we could well be onto a good thing that could really reduce the leverage the likes of iran have on the west
but yeah i agree a lot of their stop global warming policies are ridiculous.
April 26th, 2008 at 8:51 amYah Alex, a bio distillery in every back yard. Oh, yah that’ll work….
April 26th, 2008 at 9:43 amThe bio-fuel craze is going to have a greater impact on an age old biofuel >
. Hearing about the Wal mart and Costco rationing of rice, which could lead to other grains, I am considering stockpiling some “grains” of my own.
An aquaintance told me the other day that one of the benefits the monks had in the Middle Ages with their brewing is that the ales kept well over long periods of time (winter) and the thicker ones packed plenty of calories which could pass for a good meal in lean times. Okay, they also were allowed to drink moderate amounts when they fasted becuase it was considered only a liquid.
Yeah, I just might have to get in the pick-up, salute its carbon footprint, head down to the store and increase my fridge’s carbonated footprint. (DARK)
(DARK) 
(DARK) 
April 26th, 2008 at 9:45 amThis story needs to keep getting bumped so it can stay at the top. the anti-Gore movement needs to pick up steam
April 26th, 2008 at 12:52 pmGore lied, People died! should read:
Gore is lying, people are dying! it’s present active tense, it’s going on right now while we’re reading this. people are dying because of his jumk science and those who are supporting it.
April 26th, 2008 at 4:12 pmsome federal prosecutor needs to grow a pair and bring charges of conspiracy to commit fraud against gore and his organization and a dozen or so other charges including terrorism against him. make him stand in a public court and defend his “science”. he won’t be able to defend it. and we’ll all get to see it for what it truly is, the politics of death and destruction, the cornerstone of liberal ideaology.
If beer goes up in price, there will be WAR!!
April 27th, 2008 at 8:50 amLiberals are unaware, on a 100% consistent basis, how wrong they are about EVERYTHING. Their only excuse could be…. they think it’s opposite day.
April 27th, 2008 at 9:15 amJean Ziegler with the UN has already proclaimed the use of food to make biofuels as a Crime Against Humanity. We must move in the Hague to Indict the Goracle
April 27th, 2008 at 9:27 am