Biofuels: danger!
September 8, 2007
Here's another thing
......
Ireceived yesterday an e-mail from a journalist-writer: Fabrice Nicolino. Instead of creating a new dossier, I copy this e-mail which speaks for itself:
I am a journalist (for Terre Sauvage and La Croix), after having worked for Politis, Géo, Le Canard Enchaîné, Télérama. I am the co-author, with François Veillerette, of the book "Pesticides, revelations about a French scandal" (Fayard, 2007). If I take the liberty to send you this message today, it is because there is an urgent, absolute urgency.
I am publishing on October 3rd a book titled "Hunger, cars, wheat and us." (Fayard). Its subtitle is clear: a denunciation of biofuels. I want to talk to you directly. You may see this as a simple commercial operation, but it is not.
The rapid expansion of biofuels is a planetary tragedy. It first leads to the sterilization of millions of hectares of agricultural land and to a tragic worsening of hunger. For the sake of running cars. Do you know that a quarter of American corn is already used to produce automobile fuel? Such a revolution has chain effects on all food grains and plants, whose prices are skyrocketing.
It also leads to the destruction of what remains of tropical forests. In Indonesia, the oil palm threatens both humans, orangutans and Asian elephants, ridiculing all the great speeches on biodiversity. In Africa, the Congo basin is under attack.
In Brazil and Latin America, sugar cane or soy is planted everywhere. To fill up tanks at the expense of the forest and the cerrado, ecosystems that are unique. Biofuels are weapons of war and death.
Who supports them? Industrial agriculture, transnational corporations and all those who are subject to them, including many journalists unfortunately. In France, I describe a complex system, one of whose centers is none other than the Ministry of Ecology of Mr. Borloo, through Ademe and an unknown organization, Agrice. A few weeks before the "Grenelle de l'Environnement," this deserves to be discussed. But I do not forget all the others, including some ecologists who are poorly inspired.
Because biofuels, as I show, despite a few studies manipulated by lobbies, have a disastrous ecological balance, which will worsen the greenhouse effect, no matter what the propaganda says. And in France, their development marks the end of fallow land, the refuge of common wildlife, birds and small mammals.
By the way, do you know that a factory in Le Havre will transform animals into biofuels as early as 2008? And that they are trying to grow, through genetic engineering, soft trees, allowing the extraction of their cellulose, the raw material for biofuels?
This world is crazy, and without any morality. I did what I could, that is, my job. To try to stop this unbearable machine, I solemnly appeal to you. Act! Let's act together.
Fabrice Nicolino, September 1, 2007
http://www.liberterre.fr/actualiterres/nicolino.html
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September 9, 2007
An e-mail from Marie-José MORTIN who points out some links:
Dear Mr. Petit
Well done, but you are a bit slow to react... ; -)))
http://www.solidariteetprogres.org/spip/sp_article.php3?id_article=2648&var_recherche=biocarburants
http://www.solidariteetprogres.org/spip/sp_article.php3?id_article=2682&var_recherche=biocarburants
http://www.solidariteetprogres.org/spip/sp_article.php3?id_article=3210&var_recherche=biocarburants
http://www.solidariteetprogres.org/spip/sp_article.php3?id_article=3010&var_recherche=biocarburants
MORTIN Marie-José
Fidel Castro's opinion (Granma, March 29, 2007)
Here is the full text of Fidel Castro's article
(translation Granma International / Latin Reporters):
More than three billion people condemned to die prematurely of hunger or thirst in the world
This estimate is not exaggerated, it is rather conservative. I have thought a lot about it after the meeting that President Bush had with the North American car manufacturers.
The sinister idea of turning food into fuel has become a major economic line of US foreign policy on Monday, March 26.
A dispatch from AP, an agency whose information circulates everywhere in the world, states literally:
"WASHINGTON, March 26 (AP) - President George W. Bush praised the benefits offered by ethanol or biodiesel-powered cars during a meeting with representatives of the auto industry organized to study and implement his plans for alternative fuel production.
Bush said that if auto industry leaders committed to doubling the production of alternative fuel vehicles, it would encourage drivers to abandon gasoline engines and, as a result, the country's dependence on oil imports would be reduced.
"This constitutes an important technological advancement for the country," Bush said after inspecting three alternative fuel vehicles. If the nation aims to reduce its gasoline consumption, it is necessary to enable the consumer to make a rational decision.
The president invited Congress to quickly examine a recently proposed executive law to order the consumption of 132 billion liters (35 billion gallons) of alternative fuel for 2017 and to impose more demanding fuel economy standards for cars.
Bush met with the chairman and CEO of General Motors Corp, Rich Wagoner; the CEO of Ford Motor Co., Alan Mulally, and the CEO of the Chrysler group of Daimler Chrysler AG, Tom LaSorda.
The participants discussed measures to support the production of alternative fuel vehicles, develop the production of ethanol from grass or sawdust, and study a proposal to reduce gasoline consumption by 20% within ten years.
The conversations took place at a time when gasoline prices were rising. The latest study by the Lundberg Survey indicated that the average price of gasoline had increased by 6 cents per gallon (3.78 liters) over the last two weeks on the national market, reaching $2.61.
I believe that the reduction and recycling of all engines that consume...