One of the dirty little secrets of the progressive agenda is population reduction in order to "save" the planet.

The "green" movement or as I like to call it "more green in pockets of the leftist elite" has pushed the poorest nations on the brink of a humanitarian catastrophe..

"The inconvenient truth is that the total human population must stop growing and then decrease, if we are to have any chance in the long run of preserving our environment, having a decent level of living in a resource-depleted world, and avoiding an uncontrolled collapse of population like that experienced by some past civilizations."

http://maryland.sierraclub.org/newsletter/archives/2008/03/a_003.asp

I added this in case anyone wants to dispute my comments..



Rush to Use Crops as Fuel Raises Food Prices and Hunger Fears

Each year, an ever larger portion of the world’s crops — cassava and corn, sugar and palm oil — is being diverted for biofuels as developed countries pass laws mandating greater use of nonfossil fuels and as emerging powerhouses like China seek new sources of energy to keep their cars and industries running. Cassava is a relatively new entrant in the biofuel stream.

But with food prices rising sharply in recent months, many experts are calling on countries to scale back their headlong rush into green fuel development, arguing that the combination of ambitious biofuel targets and mediocre harvests of some crucial crops is contributing to high prices, hunger and political instability.

This year, the United Nations Food and Agriculture Organization reported that its index of food prices was the highest in its more than 20 years of existence. Prices rose 15 percent from October to January alone, potentially “throwing an additional 44 million people in low- and middle-income countries into poverty,” the World Bank said.

Soaring food prices have caused riots or contributed to political turmoil in a host of poor countries in recent months, including Algeria, Egypt and Bangladesh, where palm oil, a common biofuel ingredient, provides crucial nutrition to a desperately poor populace. During the second half of 2010, the price of corn rose steeply — 73 percent in the United States — an increase that the United Nations World Food Program attributed in part to the greater use of American corn for bioethanol.

In the United States, Congress has mandated that biofuel use must reach 36 billion gallons annually by 2022. The European Union stipulates that 10 percent of transportation fuel must come from renewable sources like biofuel or wind power by 2020. Countries like China, India, Indonesia and Thailand have adopted biofuel targets as well.

To be sure, many factors help drive up the price of food, including bad weather that ruins crop yields and high oil prices that make transportation costly. Last year, for example, unusually severe weather destroyed wheat harvests in Russia, Australia and China, and an infestation of the mealy bug reduced Thailand’s cassava output.

http://www.nytimes.com/2011/04/07/science/earth/07cassava.html?_r=1&src=twr

We are overpopulated and over funding lower income households who breed to make larger income from welfare for their families. There are families receiving govt funds for their groceries at $800 a month, when our whole nation is practically bankrupt, and the more you have the more you get...


In addition, that whole biofuel thing sounds great but what about the weather, we were down so many fruits and vegetables this year already from unusual freezing temperatures and so many crops were ruined, is it really a good idea to rely on such unpredictable standards? If we are having a shortage on food supply and demand it would not make sense to starve the humans to lower fuel prices. We have so much oil and we are holding out from drilling on our own resources. Why is it? I was under the impression we are trying to suck the resources out of all the other countries first, then use our oil.

I think most greens would rather people take a bus than burn ethonal. I think its a big stretch to blame them for the high cost of fuel that has spurred ethonal use.

I am confused as to the green vs anti-green point of this thread.

Wouldn't the anti green-say leave the food supply alone and save it for the peeps...to save the cost of rising food prices by not cutting into our already suffering food supply vs population and demand.

However which is worse higher gas prices or higher food prices....or higher gas prices, can we just build better greenhouses anyways for the food supply...it seems like we can easily grow plenty of needed food (corn-etc) in the right bio-dome setting where weather can be easily monitored.

This is about the supply side of the equation. When foods that are staples of poor peoples sustenance are being used to produce ethanol it tightens the supply and causes the prices of the food to rise. When you add high gas prices the cost of delivery increases and the price at store has to rise.

You are seeing a tightening supply and higher at the store costs crushing people that could barely afford to survive as it was.

We haven't even begun to touch the surface of what fuel is going to cost over the next couple of years.

IMHO the biggest problem the world has is overpopulation. Unless we get it under control, the planet will die. The oceans are now overfished, the world's green areas are being burned down for pasture and cropland and every problem mankind has is made worse by having more population. The world started a decline at two billion humans and a nosedive at three billion. We are now around 7 billion and exploding rapidly. Many of the world's countries that have jungles and rainforests are the ones where the population is growing the fastest.

Exponential growth also applies to the the human population. It begins growing very slowly, but over generations the growth rate increases more and more rapidly, similar to a snowball affect. It took the human population thousands of years to reach 1 billion in 1804. However, it took only 123 years for us to double to 2 billion by 1927. The population hit 4 billion in 1974 (only 47 years), and if we continue at our current rate, the human population will reach 8 billion in 2028. Doubling from our present count of 6.8 billion to 13.6 billion will have a much greater impact than our last couple doublings combined.

Look at what science is doing, we can clone humans, no problem, what is the big deal with a few food products. There is a reason why we as a nation choose to deplete the resources of the other countries. it all boils down to POWER. What purpose is supply without demand. There would be no money in it for anyone. There are ways around it if someone actually cared about anyone or anything other than themselves and their money.

Drug addicts and welfare recipients should have their tubes tied, problem solved, you're welcome.

Don't forget what we are doing to the oceans. A lot of those expanding populations depend upon fish for their diet staple.

http://news.nationalgeographic.com/news/2003/05/0515_030515_fishdecline.html

Im well aware of that, I taught marine biology for 6 years....have you ever seen the great garbage patch in hawaii? there is two sides to arguing this point, because everyone is in protest against whaling but yet we are worried about starving people. . .people need to also be flexible in their diets. . . nothing is being monitored the way it should be.

there is a garbage patch in the atlantic the size of texas...

True, but people are not that flexible with their diet if they have a choice or can make a buck. The world population is doubling faster than we can hope to do anything about it and world's oceans are dieing ... along with the rain forests. Fish farming uses two tons of small ocean fish to make one ton of farmed seafood. Borneo is being burned down to plant palm oil.

The overall picture is grim and it is NOT getting better.

I don't think eating the whales will keep us around that much longer.

This is why i made this comment earlier, of course this would only help us, not all the other countries....Why arent there more forces when it comes to reproducing though, in china where babies are being abandoned left and right, ethiopia and africa, whew....all those starving children...i mean really people should be donating their medical services to vasectomies and hysterectomies that would solve a lot of world problems right there.

lol, and they make dogs and cats get neutered and spaded...that is solving the problem...

I read a SciFi novel many years ago by Robert Heinlein. In it, to have a child you had to get a license.
To be a citizen you had to earn it by joining the military or other such service.

Seemed like a better system.

that's what they are doing to foreigners that are in the service now...
did you even see starship troopers? that is how they had to become a citizens, by serving in the military and fighting the bugs...

Most reasonable people would never make a connection to greens and ethonal and food prices. Most informed people know ethonal isnt realy the answer as it is made now it takes about as much energy to make ethonal as it creates.

I am sure greens would rather we take a bus or ride a bike.

My mind revolts against the topic of this thread and I have to wonder does this person realy think this?

I'll trade you a bushel of corn for a barrel or oil.

InvictusV,

For this particular topic the date of your article (2007) is OLD. Only because it’s a really hot issue.

It can be difficult to find good quality source material on the open web. It’s there but it can be difficult to find. When bio-fuel was first considered an option, it was determined to be ineffective in that it cost almost as much to produce as oil fuel and as it turned out it was not as environmentally friendly as hoped.

Science has continued to refine the means and the processes. Because of school I have access to hundreds of various scientific source materials. Below are two recent articles that I pulled from the top of a very quick search list.

There are literally dozens of bio-fuel research projects going on, some of which are combining various agents, creating not only bio-fuel, but dry fuel, fuel cells, and liquid electrical fields. Much of this research is far enough advanced that we will be seeing it shortly.

Of course I included the Abstracts so you can see what is being considered in the research.