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The looming food crisis is 'worse than climate change'

  2. abbym0308
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Climate change gets a lot of attention these days, but according to Britain's new chief scientific adviser, we should be more concerned about the future of food. He warned that in the rush to grow biofuel crops as alternative energy sources, we're putting our food security at risk. Food demands are increasing with population growth and increasing wealth in developing nations, driving the need to produce more food crops up. We've already seen the price of food staples going up.

"There is progress on climate change. But out there is another major problem. It is very hard to imagine how we can see a world growing enough crops to produce renewable energy and at the same time meet the enormous increase in the demand for food which is quite properly going to happen as we alleviate poverty."

He also said that climate change would lead to pressure on food supplies because of decreased rainfall in many areas and crop failures related to climate. "The agriculture industry needs to double its food production, using less water than today," he said. The food crisis would bite more quickly than climate change, he added.

Do you perceive the looming food crisis as being more dangerous than climate change?
abbym0308

11 responses // The looming food crisis is 'worse than climate change'

  • we're f@cked...
    jade_azul16
  • we can counter both by making the right decisions, i.e. wind and solar instead of biofuels.

    how are you going to feel, really, when you're driving your Escalade on an empty stomach?
    stephenthomson
  • don't click either link!

    http://www.plusaf.com/pix/george-will-biofuels.jpg

    or

    http://www.plusaf.com/pix/george-will-biofuels.pdf

    either one could be damaging to your point of view.


    ps... stephenthomson....
    remember when they tried to tap the tidal energy of the Bay of Fundy? check it out.... turns out that if you add dams and turbines to the system, you change the "Q" or resonance factor of the entire system and you get LOTS less energy out than would normally be expected, because adding the dams and turbines affects the height of the tides!!!

    now, extract energy from wind and ocean currents and don't try to guess what happens....

    energy which might have been moved around the planet by "normal" weather will then be extracted, turned into electricity and heat and moved to other parts of "the system."

    take too much energy out of the Gulf Stream and London may get deep snow and blizzards every year.

    put up shiny solar collectors all over the place and what happens when they reflect unconverted energy back onto the bottoms of clouds or back into space? remember, the earth isn't all that reflective now. what if we add all that reflectivity with solar collectors? would weather change? could climate change?


    enjoy the link[s]....
    plusaf
  • ahh...it'll be ok....they can either up the steroid dosage in the dairy market or simply clone more animals...
    and don't worry about the people around the world that are already starving... they chose to be poor...since we all know there's plenty of jobs everywhere in the world ...they have cubicles in other countries too...they just choose not to be in one. Just like they choose to be homeless....after all since our corporations are moving their jobs into the third world...how can anyone say they are not sharing their wealth...those people have just as much right to work for slave wages as you or me...don't they?

    that was shillalicious...
    muahahaha
    ablindeye
  • ablindeye... were you replying to ME? [plusaf]

    if so, i'll bet you didn't read or understand the .pdf at http://www.plusaf.com/pix/george-will-biofuels.pdf

    did you?
    didn't think so... try reading all of it some time.
    plusaf
  • sorry...you must have failed to see my shillalicious sarcasm...I read the article and know its true...there have been many statements made globally to support that.

    anyways...forget food...we need energy to support consumption junction cuz my weekends would simply be ruined if I didn't have the option to use my big truck to haul all of my off road toys into the park to "tear it up". Or be forced to cancel a golf trip because we didn't have the electricity to charge my golf cart....how vehemently unamerican that would be....

    but on a side note...think the biofuel thing has anything to do with the "defense" department's steps to use biofuels in their gear? Since we very well know our military...errr sorry....global humanitarian relief organization is so very eco friendly...lol
    just another tricky little way to starve the planet...Just google military biofuels to see the many articles on it and all the big corporate players....
    ablindeye
  • a-b-e... thanks for the clarification :) hard to see a wry grin sometimes...

    sidenote is just as valid... some Iowa congressnut probably pushed the military to do that so they can get some votes.

    as usual, follow the money....

    thanks!
    plusaf
  • I am doing a school report on Human Over population. if you have any good websites with truthful information i would thank you. Or if you would even give your oppinion on what you think about Human Overpopulation it would be helpful for what the public thinks! thank you for your time -SCS student
    mzbugalot
  • mzbugalot.... if you want to have a balanced report, it should include information about a guy named Malthus who claimed that the human population would exceed its own ability to feed itself......and he predicted that "end" would occur MANY decades AGO. hasn't happened yet.

    http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Malthus

    my opinion today is that i find it very interesting that so many people oppose "genetic manipulation" of crops, since 1) we've been doing it for hundreds of years already through natural selection of seeds for creating better crop yields and characteristics of produce... and 2) if GM crops were widely available, they'd probably make a BIG dent in starvation levels AND poverty levels around the world. the risks are much lower than people fear, and the damage is so great; i can't understand why such "compassionate" people are so unwilling to help feed so many.


    mz--- you're welcome... hope it helps.
    plusaf
  • Thank you plusaf!!
    mzbugalot
  • feeding people..or compassion in general does not equal profitable...
    Keeping them sick and hooked on drugs DOES equal profitable....
    http://current.com/items/88863956_ex_dea_head_admits_ci...
    ablindeye

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