Biofuels

Biofuels

Eliana Monteforte writing in June 2007 notes that:

"As the Bush administration continues to push its alternative fuels agenda, it has become increasingly evident that corn-based ethanol could be as much the global villain as a boon to society. Instead of improving the environment and moderating oil prices, corn-based ethanol could result in mass deforestation, strained land and water resources, increased food prices, augmented poverty and swarms of farmers uprooted from their land. While the negative effects of corn-based biofuels are obvious, Washington continues to emphasize their importance, while increasing the size and number of subventions to the ethanol industry. This is being done despite the adverse ramifications that its cultivation is having on the sites where it already is being produced, with the situation likely to further deteriorate in the near future." [1]

"A formula for environmental and humanitarian disaster"

George Monbiot, writing in the Guardian (UK) in March 2007, notes that:

"Already we know that biofuel is worse for the planet than petroleum. The UN has just published a report suggesting that 98% of the natural rainforest in Indonesia will be degraded or gone by 2022. Just five years ago, the same agencies predicted that this wouldn't happen until 2032. But they reckoned without the planting of palm oil to turn into biodiesel for the European market. This is now the main cause of deforestation there and it is likely soon to become responsible for the extinction of the orang-utan in the wild."

Critiques of Biofuel

• Ben Courtice, "Biofuels - the answer to the wrong question", Green Left Weekly, October 20, 2006.
• George Monbiot, "If we want to save the planet, we need a five-year freeze on biofuels", The Guardian (UK), March 29, 2007.
• Fidel Castro, "Foodstuff as Imperial Weapon: Biofuels and Global Hunger", CounterPunch, March 31, 2007.
• Eliana Monteforte, "Maize of Deception: How Corn-Based Ethanol Can Lead To Starvation and Environmental Disaster", Znet, June 19, 2007.
• Eric Holt-Giménez, "Biofuels: The Five Myths of the Agro-fuels Transition", Global Research, June 30, 2007.
• F. William Engdahl, "The Hidden Agenda behind the Bush Administration's Bio-Fuel Plan: Buy Feed Corn: They’re about to stop making it…", Global Research, July 25, 2007.
• Robin Mittenthal, "The Biofuels Trap: My Kingdom for a Horseless Carriage", Counterpunch, August 31, 2007.

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