Causes of Global Food Crisis- Time for Honesty!!
Commodities / Food Crisis Apr 17, 2008 - 08:37 PM GMTBy: Brian_Bloom
Causes of Global Food Crisis- Time for Honesty!!
This was one of the drivers: “Biofuels Security Act of 2007 - Amends the Clean Air Act to replace provisions prescribing the volume of renewable fuel that gasoline sold in the United States must contain with provisions that require the Administrator of the Environmental Protection Agency (EPA) to determine the applicable volume for 2010 and beyond. Requires such [renewable fuel] volume to be at least 10 billion gallons in 2010, 30 billion gallons in 2020, and 60 billion gallons in 2030.
Requires the Secretary of Energy to promulgate regulations to ensure that each major oil company that sells gasoline in the United States through wholly-owned or branded stations provides pumps that dispense E-85 fuel (a blend approximately 85% of the content of which is derived from ethanol produced in the United States) at not less than: (1) a specified percentage of all of its stations (increasing from 5% in 2008 to 50% in 2017); and (2) a minimum percentage of its stations in each state. Allows a company to earn and sell production credits when it exceeds the percentage required. Prohibits companies from using credits purchased to fulfill geographic distribution requirements.”
Source: http://www.washingtonwatch.com/bills/show/110_SN_23.html
This was the result:
Source: http://www.spiegel.de/international/world/0,1518,547198,00.html
The other two drivers of the above were:
- Overpopulation
- Global warming, which was caused by unusually high solar flare activity which, in turn, gave rise to widespread droughts across the face of the planet. (Solar flares inhibit cloud formation).
The evidence suggests that the IPCC scientists, whilst well meaning, were probably nudged by the politicians to arrive at a false conclusion that CO2 concentrations in our atmosphere “caused” global warming. When armed with the appropriate information, Blind Freddy can see that CO2 concentrations were not the ultimate cause of global warming. For example, it takes 3,512X (that's three thousand five hundred and twelve times) as much energy to heat a cubic meter of seawater by one degree as it takes to heat that same volume of air by that same one degree. Our atmosphere covers 100% of the globe's surface to a height of 10 kilometres. Our oceans cover 70% of the planet's surface to an average debt of 3 kilometres. Question: How many degrees Celsius would our atmosphere have to rise to result in a one degree Celsius rise in our ocean's temperatures?
Request: Would some mathematician out there please do the math and report back so that we can get on with our lives?
The time has come for some honesty and dignity amongst our political leaders. Private enterprise is all very well, but it cannot be allowed to ride roughshod over those who have neither the wherewithal to feed themselves nor the ability to defend themselves.
The argument that the world has too many mouths to feed is just plain garbage. The entire world's population occupies roughly 30% of the planet's dry land. We have the technology to render the remaining 70% fertile. The issue is “profits”. At face value, it's hard to make a buck out of that activity, so let's just let the other 90% of the world's population expire, shall we? Well, here's a twist: If there are some really smart entrepreneurs out there, then hear this:
The technology exists today to enable you to reclaim desert land, turn it into a fertile garden of Eden, and make a profit in the process. It needs two things:
- A blend of brains, motivation and tenacity on your part
- Honest governments who do not stand in the way of progress whilst protecting their mates.
Step 1 in our journey towards honesty, integrity and dignity will be to get our heads straight, and to stop bickering amongst ourselves about imaginary ego denting slights.
Step 2 will be to restructure the world's financial system such that it is not under the control of those who benefit most from manipulating it in the supposed interests of the economy as a whole.
If we are unable to self regulate with appropriate checks and balances, then an external discipline needs to be superimposed; and that external discipline needs to be a “Gold Standard”. But let us recognise this: A gold standard will be second prize. First prize will be a shift in attitude towards taking social responsibility for one's personal actions. If you think these words are mealy mouthed, left wing, tear jerking socialism – then take (oh, I don't know, say ten seconds) to look at the chart above and suck it up. That's where socially irresponsible private enterprise lands up. There have got to be checks and balances to protect us against rogue profiteering. It's all very well for the strong right arm of the body to argue that the body doesn't need the weak left arm. Try and live without one of your limbs. Think of it this way: Every individual human is a cell of the human race. Every cell needs to be healthy for the body to be healthy.
Step 3 will be to start seriously rolling out some sensible alternative energy technologies in a co-ordinated manner:
The most sensible, as far as this analyst can determine, are as follows: (Thanks to a concerned scientist friend who prefers to remain nameless)
Technology |
Comment |
| Solar Thermal Concentration | Converts solar energy to heat. Heat can be stored for short periods |
| Solar Cells | Converts solar energy to electricity. There is an issue with storage of this electricity – This is where we need to focus our R&D |
| Wind | New technology emerging to store the energy as compressed air |
| High lipid algae cultivation for oil extraction and food augmentation. | Unlike, corn, for example, Algae can replicate itself very rapidly. It can be cultivated anywhere there is sunlight – even deserts, provided irrigation water is pumped to site. An acre of land will produce around 30 gallons of ethanol from corn a year. An acre of land will yield at least 30,000 gallons of lipid oil from algae a year . |
| Electromagnetic scavenging technologies | There is serious concern amongst mainstream scientists that these technologies are “flaky” because they fly in the face of the laws of thermodynamics. However, these same scientists have difficulty explaining why our universe is expanding at an accelerating rate. There is an intellectual dishonesty here. If the laws of thermodynamics are bullet proof, and there are no exceptions to these rules, then why is our universe expanding at an accelerating rate? And why is there theoretically more zero point energy than dark energy? Sorry guys: Y2K was “strike 1”. Attributing the cause of global warming to CO2 was “strike 2”. Calling electromagnetic energy scavenging physically impossible is “strike 3”. We need to take these supposedly flaky technologies a lot more seriously and investigate them thoroughly rather than just dismiss them on your say-so. |
Nuclear fission, the politician's panacea, fails the integrity test. If scientists are hot under the collar about CO2 (which the plants need for their survival, by the way), how can they possibly defend a technology which has radioactive material as its by-product? Nuclear fusion may or may not be sensible. So far, Robert Bussard appears to have gotten the closest, but our politicians would rather fund a ten billion euro multinational R&D program than continue funding him. Go figure.
By Brian Bloom
Author's comment : Beyond Neanderthal is a factional novel, the edited manuscript of which is now complete and has been sent in for layout and design. The storyline essentially puts together a jigsaw puzzle of seemingly random facts and the picture which emerges places the following issues in context of more than 5000 years of history: Peak oil and alternative energy paradigms, clash of civilizations, world economy, climate change, “apparent” world overpopulation … and it also points a possible pathway forward through all these landmines.
In researching Beyond Neanderthal the author paid particular attention to society's attitudes to gold, going back 5,000 years in time. As Sir Isaac Newton apparently discovered way back in the late 1600s, there is far more to gold than meets the eye. Since June 2007, the author has been inviting people who may be interested in acquiring a copy of Beyond Neanderthal to register that interest at www.beyondneanderthal.com Within 2-3 weeks, when the layout has been checked and sent to the printers, I will be personally emailing all people who have registered their interest and inviting them to place order/s via the publisher's book distributor. (It is the largest independent book distribution company in Australia , and it has a high level of integrity). In the meantime, if you have an interest to acquire a copy, please register than interest now. Deliveries will be made on a first-come-first served basis, and it is starting to look like we might have to go to a second edition. At this stage there is still time to change the print-run order on the first edition.
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