Bishop Hill Ellee on biofuels
Apr 3, 2008 Climate: WG3 Conservatives Via Peter Risdon, Ellee Seymour's latest venture into the world of climate science is a shocker.
Ellee links approvingly to Conservative MEP Robert Sturdy's letter extolling the (alleged) virtues of biofuels.
This is, not to put too fine a point on it, quite mad and possibly evil too. The lemming-like dash towards biofuels has driven world grain prices inexorably upwards, leading to price inflation and all the suffering that brings. The reaction of governments in many producer countries has been to slap export taxes on grain exports - for example China, Argentina - or imposing export quotas like Vietnam. This has made things even worse. Unrest is becoming widespread -
Clashes over bread in Egypt killed at least two people last week, and similar food riots broke out in Burkina Faso and Cameroon this month.
Farmers in Argentina have pledged to continue a nationwide protest after the government refused to back down on tax rises on agricultural exports.
See also Mexico, Italy (!), etc.
Everybody with the slightest bit of sense is jumping off the biofuels bandwagon post-haste:
The government's chief environmental scientist has called for a halt to their deployment.
A UN specialist on food availability says that biofuels are a crime against humanity.
Even the not-very-bright people in the government are starting to backtrack.
Everyone who gives a damn is against biofuels, so why on earth is Robert Sturdy for them? Can he really not have heard that they're a disaster. Or could it possibly be because he is a big arable farmer who will derive huge benefits from high grain prices? Tell me it ain't so.
So when I say everyone who gives a damn, what I should have said was "everyone who gives a damn about people other than themselves".
Reader Comments (1)
So there's damn-all our British "Government" can do until the Gnomes of Brussels have changed their minds on the matter.
And we all know how responsive and flexible they are!
Can we leave yet?