Biofuel, once seemed the answer to our addiction to oil, has created an unintended consequence:  potential global famine.  In a World Bank Report, leaked to The Guardian, crops used for biofuels increased global food prices up by 75%.

Corn ethanol and biofuels production has driven global food prices up 75%, triggering a global food crisis according to a secret World Bank report revealed by the London Guardian. The report was apparently kept secret to protect the United States which is most responsible for the diversion of food to fuel. The World Bank, released a report on Wednesday, July 2, on the jump in food prices without specifying the cause (PDF).

Food prices have accelerated sharply in 2008. Grain prices have more than doubled since January 2006, with over 60% of the rise in food prices occurring since January 2008 (Figure 1). Individual grain staple prices have increased even more, with monthly average wheat prices doubling since January 2006. Rice prices more than tripled between January and May 2008.

If we can get ethanol for $3 a gallon why are we still messing with oil?

http://news.cnet.com/...
http://earth2tech.com/...

Gee...   Maybe I'm wrong.  And maybe it will snow in hell.

If you want immediate relief for the people being hurt by high fuel prices and a little boost for the economy then here's your answer:

http://GreaterVoice.org/...

And then we have that truly wild and crazy futuristic science fiction
koolaid of 55 MPH speed limits to reduce the amount of fuel being
consumed.

But if you've just got to drill because of some fetish then drill here:

http://www.resourceinvestor.com/...

This is not much of a diary but it gets into the political economy of energy just enough for the highly political people here at Kos.  There is not much discussion here other than "he said, they said" and "So n' so is Satanic" and if you believe something other than my way is the right way then you are a Republican.

But this algae stuff is really important.  I recently published a diary about the great ANWR Rip Off.  And that diary was very political. At least it was as political as I would typically get.  In it I accused the Republicans of seeking favor with the all powerful oil companies in their never ending quest for supreme fascism.  I will not retract that position any time soon.

There has also been an attack of Obama for his support of biofuels and specifically an attempt (justified or not) to link him to corn based biofuels.  That is a bad association to have in today's red hot food shortage world.  Obama is smart enough to dodge that I think and he is also smart enough to be promoting a "Profits Tax" on the oil companies.  He has not been explicit about the use of the revenues from such a tax and I have published what I think is the absolute stone cold nuts on that issue.

Jatropha is an amazing tree - it grows with little water, yields seeds
that can be processed to produce bio-fuel, and gives all the
reforestation virtues which tree planting provides: shade, soil retention, enhanced
soil, and eventually a return of water.
It doesn't require fields, so doesn't divert resources away from food
growing, a crucial trait in this age of food vs. biofuel tensions.
Andrew Revkin featured it at dot.earth a few weeks ago.  One thing to
be clarified is that propogated jatropha is not invasive.
Starting today in Miami is a whole conference devoted to jatropha
cultivation.
Here are some of the conference highlights:

http://www.futureenergyevents.com/...

Based on the current limited amount of information concerning the ANWR drilling proposal the oil companies are getting a huge slice of the oil proceeds.  Then the Alaskans get half of what is left.  And last and least, the rest of the American people get some royalties and tax revenue out of the deal.

I have written on this subject before.  But not until today June 6, 2008, did I realize the scope of this operation and the fascism that it lives and breaths.  Not until today did I see Barack Obama tied to the deaths of millions of people by virtue of his support for biofuels.  And not until today did the little lite bulb come on about the true story of ANWR.

The Republican apologists have really put this one together well.  It is hard to imagine people that want fascism but they seem to want it badly.

Amazon deforestation in the past 9 months, the wet season, has already exceeded last year's destruction, despoiling an area larger than Delaware. With cloud cover now clearing more deforestation will be revealed and the fire season will begin. The Brazilian government has proven impotent to stop rainforest destruction in the face of spiraling food prices.

Brazil's DETER real-time monitoring system found that more than 430 square miles of forest, an area a bit smaller than the city of Los Angeles, vanished in the month of April, while about 2,300 square miles, larger than the state of Delaware, were destroyed between last August and April.

Deforestation releases massive amounts of CO2, increasing global warming, drought and climate change.

In the first two parts of this series, I examined how places like Youngstown, Ohio and several Eastern German cities, as well as Pittsburgh and other Pennsylvania cities, were deciding to revive themselves through going and growing green:  Taking the abandoned parts of their cityscapes and turning them into parks, biofuel gardens (which also serve to clean toxins from the soil) and organic food gardens, as well as repurposing old industries to new and greener functions.

Part Three will examine how urban agrarianism is working in the United Kingdom.  Follow me across the jump!

Earlier I did a diary on how the former steel town of Youngstown, Ohio, chose to take the old, vacated parts of town and turn them into parks and CSA-supported community gardens -- and how cities both in the US and elsewhere (such as in Eastern Germany) are doing similar things with their abandoned areas and brownfields.

This evening, PBS' News Hour (mp3 download here) did a segment on how Pittsburgh and the nearby city of Braddock are doing similar renewal strategies -- and reviving their industrial bases in a new, green-friendly format.  Follow me past the jump for more on this.

Biofuels Causing Food Crisis To Worsen! It's a sad, sad world.
There are many articles, news items and whatever tickles your fancy, that will give you information about how biofuels such as corn, are creating (or not creating) a hunger crisis. It's enough to make a grown man or woman cry. I know I've cried more than once on seeing hungry human beings filmed in all their emaciation ... (I could never figure out... if they can get cameras out there to these poor folks why the hell can't they get food to them??... but that's just
an idiosyncrasy of mine.)

The food crisis is not soundbite friendly, therefore it's not easy to gain a larger understanding of the issue without exploring multiple sources. Craig Mackintosh at Celsias, (which is the site that is homecourt for "The Celsias Show" which I host), did the legwork and in the process has written what I consider to be one of the most comprehensive discussions of this rapidly expanding calamity that I've encountered.

Craig has given me permission to publish his piece in full, which was originally posted at Celsias on May 5, 2008.

WASHINGTON: Prosperity in countries like India is "good" but it triggers increased demand for "better nutrition" which in turn leads to higher food prices, US President George W Bush said.  

The comments come close on the heels of US Secretary of State Condoleezza Rice's controversial statement that "apparent improvement" in the diets of people in India and China and consequent food export caps is among the causes of the current global food crisis.

the full story can be found here

*excerpt from Times of India.

Last week the St. Petersburg Times, well regarded as probably the best newspaper in the state of Florida, ran an article on the increasing price of food around the world. Frong page and above the fold, the article tried to discuss some of the underlying causes of the increase BESIDES the increase in demand for grains caused by biofuels. It was a decent article until the last section when the author totally blew a crucial fact.

I suggest you read, and then read my follow up email to the journalist. I may have been a tad harsh on him, but it seems like a journalist for a major newspaper should do a little more complete research rather than just draw conclusions from his assumptions.

I understand that we are on the cusp of a very important Primary election, and there just doesn't seem to be enough hours in the day to promote our favorite candidates and fire digital arrows at those who dare to oppose them. But I've had an issue hovering just inside my awareness for some time now, that's been yammering for me to write about it, so please bear with me.

Corn is the one thing America can produce cheaper than Mexico can.  Illegal immigration exploded in the wake of NAFTA, and corn is largely to blame for our immigration problem.  Mexicans eat a lot of corn, and they used to support a lot of maize farmers.  NAFTA changed that.  A Democratic response to NAFTA can energize unions, appeal to Latino voters concerned about loved ones across the border by promising to improve the Mexican economy.

Southwestern moderates view McCain favorably on immigration, but not his party base.  By going on the offensive with immigration in IN and NC Dems can attack the Republican base in new swing states, build bridges between unions and Latinos, and frame the immigration debate for the fall.

Cross Posted from EENRBlog

Today the NOAA or National Ocean and Atmospheric Administration released a report on the continuing rise of Carbon Dioxide and Methane in the planets Atmosphere.  Many point to these two factors as being a huge part of the earth's continued warming.

I perused the major news outlets to see how they were reporting this story and I'm also including portions of the NOAA report.  Both Reuters and the Associated Press covered it without any major embellishments.

About NOAA

NOAA is dedicated to enhancing economic security and national safety through the prediction and research of weather and climate-related events and information service delivery for transportation, and by providing environmental stewardship of our nation's coastal and marine resources. Through the emerging Global Earth Observation System of Systems (GEOSS), NOAA is working with its federal partners, more than 70 countries and the European Commission to develop a global monitoring network that is as integrated as the planet it observes, predicts and protects.

Original article, by Josh Gerstein, via the New York Sun:

Original article, sub-headed The Mandates Aren't Just Wrong, They're Immoral, by Robert Bryce via counterpunch.com.

Oh joy! Our food supply is being used, in part, to fuel our cars. And you wonder why food prices are working their way higher.