TV Schedule

Global warming craze causing rise in global hunger?



  3. richjm
  4. related topics
"We drive, they starve" is the powerful opener to this article about how the rise in global hunger is partly down to an increase in desire for ethanol fuels that are traditionally seen as a more environmentally friendly option. Instead of feeding people, grain harvests are being used for fuel and the Telegraph reports that the situation is reaching its political and moral limits.

According to the UN it takes 232kg of corn to fill a 50-litre car tank with ethanol. That's enough to feed a child for a year. Unless the biofuel policy is halted, the UN warns there will be violent bloodshed, adding "People won't be sitting dying of starvation, they will react."

(In the picture above, a demonstrator eats grass in front of a UN peacekeeping soldier during a protest against high food costs. Om nom nom).
richjm

31 responses // Global warming craze causing rise in global hunger?

  • http://current.com/items/88894442_hungry_mob_attacks_ha...
    There's rising tension amongst countries who are feeling the rise in food prices much harder than some of the Western world. Riots broke out in Haiti last week and were caused by rising food prices in the area.

    Check out the link to watch Current:News's coverage of the food crisis riots in Haiti.
    mattbrawn
  • watch this comment being used here and here
    This is the final nail in ethanol's coffin. Not only does it leave a bigger carbon footprint then gas (the production of ethanol is very inefficient), as well as being a dirty fuel which makes regular internal combustion engines clog and run less efficiently, it is also increasing world hunger.
    jpoRS
  • If global warming continues there will be no one to feed
    ktriz
  • Are we seriously not smart enough to figure this kind of stuff out before we create policies and programs, which support half-assed, short-term solutions to our problems?
    ambulantic
  • People in this world are too quick to jump on the bandwagon with regards to a lot of political issues out there.

    Those fighting for a "Free Tibet" by protesting at Olympic Flame sites, have even called for a boycott of Chinese products without even stopping to consider the ramifications this would have on the global economy. Isn't China, the world's number one donor to Africa, doing more to help the world than the West is?

    Who is the fight against Global Warming really helping? Is the livelihood of shareholders in start-up ethanol companies that much more important than starving people in Africa? Well, sadly, the answer is yes.

    For someone to get rich, someone else has to suffer - it's that simple.
    colinp123
  • watch this comment being used here, here and here
    We'd rather feed our grain to cars and cattle than to hungry people.

    But hey, people like driving and people like steak. Just try telling people that they can't have their cake and eat it.
    BloxParty
  • ktris, your apocalyptic view of global warming is far from the truth. Are you saying that we should ignore the starving people affected by ethanol just so we can continue to pretend it's somehow preventing an impossible Day After Tomorrow scenario?
    AceHardchester
  • watch this comment being used here, here, here and here
    It's a shame that this sort of thing has to start happening before we see it coming, but in today's rush for an alternate means of getting fuel, I don't think scientists can fully work out any negative implications of their findings before their idea's being funded and put to commercial use. Let's hope the algea fuel works out better than this.
    Yhtomit
  • Another example of how fractured western thinking and the training of scientists to think and act amorally without regard to the effects of their actions results in death, destruction, pollution and human suffering.

    Our indigenous ancestors in North America and elsewhere faced similar issues when people lived out of balance with each other and the natural world.

    Solutions to global warming won't work unless they take into account the whole and are in harmony with natural law.

    Scientists, economists, and business people should look again to the Six Nations for wisdom as Franklin and Jefferson did when writing Declaration of Independence and the U.S. Constitution.

    Onandogan Oren Lyons is a good source to understand the immutability of natural law and how indigenous Americans understand the interconnectedness of all life and incorporate that understanding in their social and governmental structures and their relationship to other human beings, other living creatures, the plant world and the earth itself.

    Hear Oren Lyons speak on global warming and natural law - http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=hDF7ia23hVg
    TouchArt
  • Just the title of the article is wrong. Global warming is not a craze but a proven scientific reality. Ethanol may contribute some to food shortages, but drought causes more hunger than ethanol production. Drought is a direct result of global warming. The price of food in America's recession is effecting people around the globe. As we contribute less to global food aid, and the value of the dollar goes down, and food production is cut as a result, that is what causes global food shortages. I don't know what type of agenda the writer had, or who put them up to.So, I looked up the writer of this article. He British national, that is an American style conservative that believes that the Oklahoma bombings were an inside job carried out by the FBI, and that Bill Clinton had Vince Foster assassinated, and has worked for a company called Regnery Publishing that has printed several books calling global warming a myth.
    myfriendcharles
  • the point here is that ethanol is not the solution.
    stephenthomson
  • Jack Herer's Challenge:

    $100,000 Challenge to Prove Us Wrong!
    If all fossil fuels and their derivatives, as well as trees for paper and construction, were banned in order to save the planet, reverse the Greenhouse Effect and stop deforestation;
    then there is only one known annually renewable natural resource that is capable of providing the overall majority of the world's paper and textiles; meet all of the world's transportation, industrial and home energy needs, while simultaneously reducing pollution, rebuilding the soil and cleaning the atmosphere all at the same time...
    and that substance is the same one that has done it before . . .
    CANNABIS HEMP!

    This information was found at: http://www.jackherer.com/

    If these facts are true. Should the world let the earth be a casualty of the 'War on Drugs' and corporate greed?
    Conniepae
  • I think it is obvious I am by no means saying that starvation should continue . I am saying we need to find other means for fuel, but at the same time we need to keep in mind our future and what will happen if we ignore global warming
    ktriz
  • myfriendcharles:

    I'm sure you noticed the original title was "Global warming rage lets global hunger grow" which the Current UK managing editor changed.
    BlueDotProdux
  • i'm glad this sort of thing is getting some coverage, but am still a bit disheartened about the this story getting 1/3 - no actually it's at about 1/5 right now - the hits as the competing 'france's body image law' story. it's almost like you can hear someone saying in the background: "oh my god, that man is fueling his car instead of feeding his child" but so much louder is the person saying: "oh but look over there at the skinny-by-choice french fashion models." though so similar, these two 'hunger' stories hardly equate in the minds of current's clickers (and the rest of the world, i'm sure).
    recommended by  JanforGore
    ashabpatel
  • This is what happens when people try to warn others of an impending crisis thirty years hence and no one listens to them.
    JanforGore
  • I think we're missing a critical component in this story.

    Ladies and gentlemen of the jury, let me direct you attention to a KEY sentence in the article:

    "America - the world's food superpower - will divert 18pc of its grain output for ethanol this year, chiefly to break dependency on oil imports."

    Key phrase: "....chiefly to break dependency on oil imports."

    The sudden "craze" for using our grain to stretch our gas rations has more to do with OPEC raising the price of oil per barrel than it has to do with Bush's deep, deep concerns regarding climate change.

    Yes, people are starving. Blame Bush and OPEC, not Al Gore.

    Bush was the one who refused to take any serious measures whatsoever to jumpstart an oil-alternative infrastructure. He saw our dependence on foreign oil in deeply unstable Middle Eastern countries and did nothing. Now OPEC has us by the balls and are squeezing hard.

    Instead of jumpstarting an oil-alternative economy Bush spent $2 trillion dollars moderating a civil war in Iraq between 3rd world religious militas.

    One could resonably make the arguement that his obsession with being a war "hero" has led to this situation.

    Let's not blame sober-minded environmentalists for this disaster -- blame the idiot man-child in the flight suit who painted our nation into a corner (energy-wise) and left us with no other options but to start using our grain production as a means of holding off OPEC.
    crob80227
  • http://www.guardian.co.uk/commentisfree/2008/apr/15/foo...
    "Credit crunch? The real crisis is global hunger. And if you care, eat less meat.

    "A food recession is under way. Biofuels are a crime against humanity, but - take it from a flesh eater - flesh eating is worse."

    Although George Monbiot has obviously been meeting the wrong kind of vegans and hasn't understood the fact that a vegan diet needs to be well-balanced and doesn't consist only of eschewing all animal products but of eating the right combination of foods in the right proportions, the rest of his article makes a lot of sense. Read the whole interesting article at:
    Vierotchka
  • watch this comment being used here, here and here
    Anyone with scientific background has known for a while that CORN ethanol is a joke. Other types of biomass ethanol (woodchips and switch grass) have promise, but corn ethanol is just a cash cow for farmers, nothing more.
    willyb
  • though i've always felt that its a terrible idea to use food 2 make fuel, i really don't understand how its possible that the incredibly tiny percentage of vehicles that use ethanol made from corn could possibly have such an immediate & detrimental effect on the global food supply.

    it seems like some sort of huge scam cause in my mind most of the industrial trucks & shipping tankers in the world would have to be running on corn made ethanol for a few years before it would make a dent in the global food supply...& the fact is that u barely see any commuter cars using this stuff.

    perhaps someone or even more likely several multi national corporations are stirring the pot? even if there isn't some sinister unseen hand involved there are definitely a lot of terrible agricultural subsidies & other food production issues that are contributing to this problem.
    blackdaylight
  • i wish i could do something but i am broke myself, i often go a day or 2 without eating much its a shame oil companies making billions whike people are dying
    riverdeer
  • fd
    dmfoster
  • Willy B: yes, and its an even bigger cash cow for agribusiness which I am sure screws the farmers every chance it gets. Which is why I can't understand why certain people in this Congress would vote to give agribusiness even more money if they say they "care" about American workers and this planet.
    JanforGore
  • Another example of environmental hysteria leading to real consequences for real people (who happen to be brown and poor and far way) which they justify on the grounds of [put on stupid caring voice at this point] 'caring for the planet'. In evidence I cite:

    (1) the effective banning of DDT in Africa, leading to around 15-20 million deaths in addition to untold misery from malaria. (Environmentalists genocide).

    (2) the effective banning of GMOs like Golden Rice as a result of excessive legislation pandering to green self-indulgence, leading to around quarter of a million people being born blind each year.

    I could go on, but frankly doubt it's worth it: greens are blind to brown. Of course, if it was their own comfortable lives being decimated by malaria and blindness they might, eventually, change their tune...
    UnknownSupremo
  • Environmental hysteria?

    I'm guessing you skipped over the part in the article (and in the comments) wherein Bush specifically said he was only doing this to loosen OPEC's grip on the US?

    Bush is not a bleeding heart environmentalist.

    His decision had nothing to do with "saving the planet"

    Those brown people are dying because Bush allowed OPEC to tighten its grip on the US for another decade -- and his only go-to- move was the cut our gas rations with grain products in a desperate attempt to keep them at bay.

    Blame where blame is due -- BUSH!
    crob80227
  • Well, then stop using ethanol, it's that simple! If there is a problem fix it.
    iknew
  • *ethenol subsidises large factory farms.
    *large agro buisness has big lobby
    *mono-cropping kills soil
    *GMO corn pollutes water
    *ethenol is more harmful to enviro than gas
    *things that make dollars make sense
    = ethenol

    my father said the other day: "you environmentalists sure screwed the pooch on the biofuels thing."
    that is the problem with "green" lableing being profitable. its just a way to make cash, there is no planning, there is no moral, there is only money... it wasn't envoronmetalist, it was big buisness under the green guise.

    WAKE UP!!!
    phillyphil
  • http://current.com/items/88882713_garbage_warrior_homes...
    iknew says: "Well, then stop using ethanol, it's that simple! If there is a problem fix it."

    What I found so great about this documentary about Earthships was getting a look at why the above quote "if there is a problem fix it" does not work so well in our modern society. But we get to see how that concept is treasured in a society devastated by a natural disaster. This says so much about who we are as humans on this planet. Just watch Reynolds' journey trying to write and pass a bill that deals with real world problems while the policy makers kill it over and over because it does not fit into their dusty old broken vision of government. We have governed out all creativity and the industrious nature of being a thriving global community.

    Global warming, Poverty, Cancer, Starvation, War. All of these are human conditions that we have designed into our way of being on the planet. We can design our way out of all of this. These problems are solved already. Many of the great problem solvers, thinkers and doers are all around us every day. The problem is that we have also invented ways to continually divide and subdivide nature and our relationship to it and each other. The biggest wedges are religion, government and currency. As long as we continue to place value in these wedges we will keep our human struggle perpetually healthy. I would guess we are as fragile as the thin line drawn with an Etch-A Sketch. Turn the world upside down and "puff" we are gone. We are almost there.
    twodee
  • Once we realize that we are all brothers and sisters, we will stop this nonsense.

    If we look at the big picture we will see that nature affects all of us not just one. If we do have a day after tommorrow sequence here on earth, you will see how we become one. 911 effected everyone on earth not just NY, Washington, DC and the pentagon. And for some reason when Sadaam said that Afghan didn't do 911, I believed him because he had no reason to lie.

    Back to the subject, Brazil uses corn to run their cars, we uses gasoline. We are digging in the North and South Pole as well as Alaska for oil. We are digging underground and trying to build pipes from Iraq to the USA. I believe that once we hit one of the faults underground, we are going to change the weather and alot of the volcanoes are going to begin erupting. Maybe the volcanoe under the Yellow Stone Park will become active. No matter what, we are chipping away at the Earth and before we destroy the Earth, it will destroy us all. Because the Earth will replenish itself whether we like it or not.

    You Heard me.
    cheche_201
  • http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=0VAXWrNojlw
    I don't think perverting nature was ever the answer. There's always some unintended consequence.

    The idea that we need to wait for some technological breakthrough in biofuel to greatly decrease oil dependence in the USA is plain nonsense. We've neglected & actually banned existing technologies that could have made a big impact now.

    High speed electric railways seriously reduce jet fuel dependency yet, our country has built hardly any.

    The 70mpg(real world) Smart fortwo CDI is banned because, our misguided emissions laws completely ignore CO2 emissions. Many other small, efficient cars are banned for not being 'safe' enough.

    Check out the link & ask yourself: is this little diesel 'really' so dirty that we should deny the country cheap, 70mpg cars?
    kendog29
  • According to the United Nations, about 25,000 people die each day from hunger or hunger-related causes, most of them children.

    Now, a web site allows anyone to help end hunger by playing an online game. The game is designed to improve your vocabulary and for every word you answer correctly the web site donates 20 grains of rice to the United National World Food Program.

    http://www.freerice.com

    Freerice.com is your chance to feed the hungry without dipping into your wallet or calling a pledge into a telethon.

    Check out a video http://documents.wfp.org/stellent/groups/public/documen...

    Play and see how many bowls of rice you can donate in 5 minutes.
    TheRedOne