Recession is on the run at large and the prices of inputs are surging to sky rocketing levels. The driving economy of the world the US is under siege with the mortgage crisis and overall economic meltdown. US greater interdependence on Chinese credit is fast going to diminish in case China itself is overcome by the inflationary trends and decline in the purchase power of the consumers. The massive chunk of dollars Chinese foreign reserves of dollars, shall after all prove decisive and perhaps fatal if in case China is pushed hard to revise the International trade to its own favor.
Having said that the staple commodities are following the suit as well. The denovo utility of food staples as the organic fuel is redirecting the demand and supply trends. Speculations have got involved due to greater demand and hence investments are subject to increase. This in turn is further galvanizing the inflationary trends in to a nightmare of famine for the developing countries.
The resolve of the OPEC to increase or bring the oil prices to a stable level, shall by and large be a news very perplexing for the world leading economies. Added agony is the Russian resurgence and will to levy its share out of the oil pipelines and command its mastership to a regional balance in its favor. With this confidence Russia has been able to intimidate the otherwise "sheepish" and "acquiesced" American with the favorable regime changes and rope in more nations to its vested interests and supremacy.
Having said that the staple commodities are following the suit as well. The denovo utility of food staples as the organic fuel is redirecting the demand and supply trends. Speculations have got involved due to greater demand and hence investments are subject to increase. This in turn is further galvanizing the inflationary trends in to a nightmare of famine for the developing countries.
The resolve of the OPEC to increase or bring the oil prices to a stable level, shall by and large be a news very perplexing for the world leading economies. Added agony is the Russian resurgence and will to levy its share out of the oil pipelines and command its mastership to a regional balance in its favor. With this confidence Russia has been able to intimidate the otherwise "sheepish" and "acquiesced" American with the favorable regime changes and rope in more nations to its vested interests and supremacy.
Green schemes for biofuel crops set to fail
ReplyDeleteDocument Actions Green schemes for biofuel crops set to fail
by Dan Billingham — last modified 2008-04-23 11:36
MEDIA ADVISORY
Friends of the Earth International
April 22, 2008
GREEN SCHEMES FOR BIOFUEL CROPS SET TO FAIL
New research reveals food prices, environment and people left unprotected
BUENOS AIRES (ARGENTINA) / BRUSSELS (BELGIUM), April 22, 2008 - Attempts to
use certification schemes to reduce the widespread environmental and social
problems caused by growing crops for fuels and animal feeds are bound to
fail, states a new report released today by Friends of the Earth groups. [1]
The report is released on the eve of a controversial April 23-24 meeting in
Buenos Aires set to discuss the certification of growing soy, a crop
expanding rapidly to meet the increasing demand for fuel and the world's
most-used animal feed.
The report from Friends of the Earth groups comes amid global worries about
the increasingly tragic impacts of rising food prices. Biofuels - plants
grown to make fuel not food - have been blamed as one factor driving this
trend.
Where they are grown in intensive agricultural systems, such as
environmentally-damaging large-scale monoculture plantations, biofuels are
called agrofuels. Their spread is creating even more pressure on land and
further exacerbates existing problems. [2]
"The expansion of massive monocultures leads to the destruction of our
forests, savannahs and wildlife, raises land and food prices and directly
impacts on rural communities who are forced off their land to make way for
the plantations. Unfortunately certifying large monocultures as sustainable
would mislead international consumers and not improve production methods.
Increasing production for export, and increasing consumption in the North,
are destructive trends that must be reversed," said Lucia Ortiz of Friends
of the Earth Brazil.
"Whilst we feed cars and factory farms with cheap crops from the South, food
prices rocket, forests are destroyed and people suffer. Certifying these
crops as green, even if well intentioned, is a smokescreen that will fool
the public and let the problems continue. The really green answer is to
reduce the demand for these crops in the first place," said Adrian Bebb of
Friends of the Earth Europe.
The report investigates all the major certification schemes being introduced
to minimise the environmental and social problems from growing soy and sugar
cane in Latin America and concludes that:
* the rapid expansion of soy and sugar cane plantations pushes out other
farming elsewhere causing deforestation, loss of wildlife and huge social
problems, including violent conflicts and forced land evictions. All
certification schemes fail to solve this major problem.
* knock-on effects such as rising food prices fall outside of all proposed
certification schemes.
* it is highly unlikely that any of the certification schemes will be fully
implemented and effectively monitored, thereby introducing considerable risk
that schemes will be open to fraud and consumers will be deceived.
* many certification schemes are heavily dominated by large international
companies that make their business from selling more and more commodity
crops and have little interest in reducing the demand. This has led to
widespread rejection from civil society groups in Latin America.
* genetically modified crops are accepted in some schemes as 'responsible'
or as a mark of sustainability even where their use has led to a massive
increase in chemical herbicides, environmental degradation and health
problems for rural communities.
Friends of the Earth International also released a separate statement
coinciding with the Buenos Aires meeting of the so-called Roundtable on
Responsible Soy due to take place on April 23-24 in Buenos Aires. The
Roundtable was widely criticised in the statement. [3]
"The companies involved in the Roundtable on Responsible Soy are in a unique
position: they control both demand and supply of cheap soy for feed and
fuel. But the only solution to the massive problems caused by industrial soy
production is to decrease soy production and consumption, which is exactly
the opposite of what the companies involved aim at," said Roque Pedace from
Friends of the Earth Argentina.
Recent studies including Friends of the Earth reports show that there are
also grave environmental and social problems with palm oil, which is widely
used in food, feed and agrofuels. The bulk of its production originates in
unsustainable oil palm plantations in Malaysia and Indonesia. [4]
***
FOR MORE INFORMATION:
Adrian Bebb, Agrofuels Campaign Coordinator for Friends of the Earth Europe:
Tel: +49 160 9490 1163 (German mobile)
Lucia Ortiz, Friends of the Earth Brazil in Porto Alegre:
Tel: + 55-51 91 15 03 34 (Brazilian mobile)
Roque Pedace, Friends of the Earth Argentina in Buenos Aires: Tel: + 54-11
46 29 03 86 (Ask for Eduardo Sanchez)
***
NOTES TO EDITORS:
[1] The Friends of the Earth Europe report 'Sustainability as a Smokescreen'
was published on April 22, 2008 by Friends of the Earth Europe and is
available online in ENGLISH and SPANISH at:
http://www.foeeurope.org/agrofuels/sustainabilitysmokescreen.html
[2] Friends of the Earth International believes that agrofuels are a false
solution to the current energy and climate crisis and campaigns against
their development, production and trade. More information at:
http://www.foei.org/en/campaigns/climate/energy/agrofuels-declaration
[3] The Friends of the Earth International statement 'The only responsible
soy is less soy' was published on April 22, 2008 by Friends of the Earth
International and is available online at:
http://www.foei.org/en/publications/pdfs/FoEI-RTRS.pdf/
[4] A Friends of the Earth Netherlands study on palm oil in Indonesia is
available online at:
http://www.foeeurope.org/press/2007/July3_PDC_Wilmar_PalmOil.htm
World Bank Hands off Forests by Debra Broughton — 2008-01-22 15:06
ReplyDeleteEnvironmental groups at the United Nations climate talks in Bali today urged governments to reject a new World Bank initiative promoting the inclusion of forests in carbon markets. The World Bank initiative, known as the Forest Carbon Partnership Facility (FCPF) is set to be launched on Tuesday 11th December in Bali as part of the discussions on ‘Reducing Emissions through Deforestation in Developing countries’ (REDD).
climate justice for all
ReplyDeletePeoples from all over the globe took part in the Solidarity Village for a Cool Planet, an initiative from different social organizations and movements fighting against ecological and social injustice and working for alternatives to the policies and practices that destroy livelihoods and the environment.