And still more on biofuels
Share your Thoughts
Posted on September 25, 2006
Filed Under Justice, Global warming/Climate change, Deep ecology, Ecological overshoot, Ecological hope, Consumer culture, Fossil fuel dependency, Environmental disasters, Earth spirituality, Renewable fuels
Fsotering Ecological Hope
Today from Margaret Swedish:
Thought I’d continue the conversation on those controversial biofuels, since the theme always draws more readers to this blog. I see from BBC news that Ted Turner is promoting biofuels as a way to break the deadlock in international trade talks and as a boon for poor countries, a way to help them emerge from poverty. Well, that’s a lot of faith to put in a what is dubbed a ‘renewal’ fuel, though some of the environmental consequences of massive biofuel production are far from ‘renewable.’
As head of the United Nations Foundation, Turner has an audience for his views, one with which it may be hard to compete. The logic sounds so simple: there is growing demand for ethanol and biodiesel fuels, poor countries can grow more corn and sugar to meet that growing demand, thereby raising their export income and providing more income for farmers.
But do not miss the sentence left to the very end of this article:
“Much of the fuel would be made from plants grown in Brazil and Southeast Asia, where rainforests are being destroyed to plant crops.”
Yes, and that is just one of many problems, as we have been noting on this blog. I send along another link with another view on the problems of biofuel production and the sanity needed before we proceed, especially before allowing profit-making corporations, especially agribusines, to make these decisions on their terms, rather than the Earth’s terms and the needs of humanity.
And since we are referencing the BBC today, here’s another link to a wonderful web page, Planet under Pressure. Lots of great info here, many links on a variety of topics that are stressing our beloved Earth — as has been said so often, the only home we have. It is not here for us to bleed her dry, drain her of every source of life until all are dead. The delicate balance formed over millions of years is what holds us here alive. Destroy that balance and there will be little to distinguish us from other burned out planets in our solar system — except for the uniqueness of what once was, a cosmic memory.
I am afraid this sudden thirst for biofuel is another path towards wrecking that delicate balance, rushing headlong towards another scheme founded on human hubris and an inability to ‘get’ that we are but one life form and therefore just one part of that balance, that fabric of life. We are as dependent on it, as much from it and of it, as any other living creature.
And that balance is more important than whether or not you can drive your car when you want and as far as you want.
Comments
Leave a Reply
