Most Popular
1. Banking Crisis is Stocks Bull Market Buying Opportunity - Nadeem_Walayat
2.The Crypto Signal for the Precious Metals Market - P_Radomski_CFA
3. One Possible Outcome to a New World Order - Raymond_Matison
4.Nvidia Blow Off Top - Flying High like the Phoenix too Close to the Sun - Nadeem_Walayat
5. Apple AAPL Stock Trend and Earnings Analysis - Nadeem_Walayat
6.AI, Stocks, and Gold Stocks – Connected After All - P_Radomski_CFA
7.Stock Market CHEAT SHEET - - Nadeem_Walayat
8.US Debt Ceiling Crisis Smoke and Mirrors Circus - Nadeem_Walayat
9.Silver Price May Explode - Avi_Gilburt
10.More US Banks Could Collapse -- A Lot More- EWI
Last 7 days
Stock Market Volatility (VIX) - 25th Mar 24
Stock Market Investor Sentiment - 25th Mar 24
The Federal Reserve Didn't Do Anything But It Had Plenty to Say - 25th Mar 24
Stock Market Breadth - 24th Mar 24
Stock Market Margin Debt Indicator - 24th Mar 24
It’s Easy to Scream Stocks Bubble! - 24th Mar 24
Stocks: What to Make of All This Insider Selling- 24th Mar 24
Money Supply Continues To Fall, Economy Worsens – Investors Don’t Care - 24th Mar 24
Get an Edge in the Crypto Market with Order Flow - 24th Mar 24
US Presidential Election Cycle and Recessions - 18th Mar 24
US Recession Already Happened in 2022! - 18th Mar 24
AI can now remember everything you say - 18th Mar 24
Bitcoin Crypto Mania 2024 - MicroStrategy MSTR Blow off Top! - 14th Mar 24
Bitcoin Gravy Train Trend Forecast 2024 - 11th Mar 24
Gold and the Long-Term Inflation Cycle - 11th Mar 24
Fed’s Next Intertest Rate Move might not align with popular consensus - 11th Mar 24
Two Reasons The Fed Manipulates Interest Rates - 11th Mar 24
US Dollar Trend 2024 - 9th Mar 2024
The Bond Trade and Interest Rates - 9th Mar 2024
Investors Don’t Believe the Gold Rally, Still Prefer General Stocks - 9th Mar 2024
Paper Gold Vs. Real Gold: It's Important to Know the Difference - 9th Mar 2024
Stocks: What This "Record Extreme" Indicator May Be Signaling - 9th Mar 2024
My 3 Favorite Trade Setups - Elliott Wave Course - 9th Mar 2024
Bitcoin Crypto Bubble Mania! - 4th Mar 2024
US Interest Rates - When WIll the Fed Pivot - 1st Mar 2024
S&P Stock Market Real Earnings Yield - 29th Feb 2024
US Unemployment is a Fake Statistic - 29th Feb 2024
U.S. financial market’s “Weimar phase” impact to your fiat and digital assets - 29th Feb 2024
What a Breakdown in Silver Mining Stocks! What an Opportunity! - 29th Feb 2024
Why AI will Soon become SA - Synthetic Intelligence - The Machine Learning Megatrend - 29th Feb 2024
Keep Calm and Carry on Buying Quantum AI Tech Stocks - 19th Feb 24

Market Oracle FREE Newsletter

How to Protect your Wealth by Investing in AI Tech Stocks

Causes of Global Food Crisis- Time for Honesty!!

Commodities / Food Crisis Apr 17, 2008 - 08:37 PM GMT

By: Brian_Bloom

Commodities Causes of Global Food Crisis- Time for Honesty!!
Best Financial Markets Analysis ArticleThis 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:

Graphic: Consequences of the global food crisis

Source: http://www.spiegel.de/international/world/0,1518,547198,00.html

The other two drivers of the above were:

  1. Overpopulation
  2. 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:

  1. A blend of brains, motivation and tenacity on your part
  2. 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

www.beyondneanderthal.com

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.

Copyright © 2008 Brian Bloom - All Rights Reserved

Brian Bloom Archive

© 2005-2022 http://www.MarketOracle.co.uk - The Market Oracle is a FREE Daily Financial Markets Analysis & Forecasting online publication.


Comments

michelle
22 Apr 08, 20:02
Another Solution

I completely agree that bio-fuels are among the most ridiculous "solutions" to the global warming/oil shortage issue. The obvious solution is to use less fuel. But in regards to the food crisis, how come no one is talking about being vegetarian?

Obviously if people want bio-fuels, it's because no one wants to make a change in their lifestyle, and asking people to stop eating meat is asking for a drastic change. But the meat and dairy industry pollutes MORE than all world transportation together, and the amount of grain needed to feed ONE cow could feed hundreds of people. There's also the environmental catastrophe of animal by-products.

We could also think about reducing our consumption of alcoholic beverages. Beer is not nutritious, but the grain used to make it could be someone's meal!


fru obed
28 Sep 10, 02:27
africa

i really do think we have to start calling spades spades and an ax an ax ,cause we say one thing and we do another.being an Africa who is on the wrong half of the development coin i will like for these so called leaders to tackle their self generated problems at their own back yard rather coming to Africa to org anise some so-called conferences related to tackling issues related to global warming.where were we Africans when they were intoxicating the world that they will thing of us only now that they see us as a solution please let us stop this drama we are trying to create.the flattery of calling Africa a sleeping giant is just some disguise to blackmail us once as they did about 100years ago.but now we know our destiny.


Post Comment

Only logged in users are allowed to post comments. Register/ Log in