THE PROGRESSIVE CONSERVATIVE, USA
An Online Journal of Political Commentary & Analysis
Volume X, Issue # 102, April 15, 2008
Dr. Almon Leroy Way, Jr., Editor
Government Committed to & Acting in Accord with Conservative Principles
Ensures a Nation's Strength, Progress, & Prosperity
CONSERVATION LOSES OUT TO GLOBAL WARMING PANIC
By Dennis T. Avery
THE GLOBAL WARMING SCARE & DIVERSION OF CROPS TO BIOFUELS & AWAY FROM FOOD PRODUCTION -- THE
CONSEQUENCES: A LOOMING GLOBAL FOOD CRISIS -- SPREADING GRAIN SHORTAGES & SOARING FOOD PRICES -- THE
UNDERMINING OF CONSERVATION PROGRAMS & THE MISUSE OF NATURAL RESOURCES
FULL STORY:
A global food crisis looms, as crops are diverted to biofuels. Food prices have soared 83 percent in three years.
Thousands of U.S. farmers are pulling their land out of the government’s biggest conservation program to plant millions
of acres back to crops and pasture. U.S. environmentalists warn that “years of conservation progress” will be lost as
America’s 35-million-acre Conservation Reserve dwindles, especially in the important bird-nesting areas of the northern
Great Plains.
Global grain shortages are spreading. The World Food Program says it must abandon some of the drought-stricken
hungry. U.S. hog farmers are quietly asking their veterinarians how to euthanize their baby pigs, since corn prices have
risen so high the hog farmers would bankrupt their families trying to feed the pigs to market weight.
Europe is buying Asian palm oil from what used to be tropical forests, to make biodiesel fuel, instead of cooking oil.
Orangutans, man’s closest DNA relative, are being captured and killed by the thousands as they are attracted by the
palm seedlings. EU biodiesel mandates exacerbate the world’s cropland scarcity, setting the stage for still-higher grain
prices and more hunger next year.
Asian countries are banning rice exports to make sure they can supply rice to their own consumers. Too much land in
Asia has been growing increasingly valuable corn and tapioca for feed, instead of rice for food, because rich-country
biofuel mandates raised feed prices worldwide. But, increased population and affluence continue to demand more rice.
Meanwhile, soil carbon lost from the replanted Midwest acres and the cleared tropical forests gases into the air,
worsening global warming risks even as governments vainly promise to cut greenhouse emissions. And gas prices
continue to rise
All of this because of the rush to biofuels — the first, big, panicked mistake of the global warming scare. The public was
sold on the now obviously foolish idea that it’s better to burn food in our fuel tanks than to feed people and raise
livestock from the world’s scarce cropland.
Economists began predicting these awful consequences two years ago when President Bush first announced his federal
biofuels mandate. We already needed to double crop yields by 2050 — to prevent the plow down of the world’s
remaining wildlands, while we supplied food and feed for the last global surge of world population growth, fast-rising
affluence, and expanding pet numbers.
U.S. corn nets only about 50 gallons worth of gasoline per acre per year, and Americans burn more than 134 billion
gallons of gasoline per year. We were already using virtually all of the country’s cropland to produce food and food.
Biodiesel is no more productive. The massive land requirements of biofuels made this disaster inevitable — but few
thought the disaster would arrive so fast.
Over the past two years, corn has soared from $1.86 per bushel to more than $6, and the U.S. spring planting intentions
confirm there won’t be enough grain — for people or pigs — again this year. If we refuse to burn coal, drill for oil, or
build nuclear power plants, this is what we must expect: hunger, deprivation, and destruction of the planet’s natural
resources.
The earth’s global warming since 1940 totals only 0.2 degree C. We’ve had no warming at all for the past 10 years and
temperatures dropped in 2007 — while CO2 in the atmosphere continued to rise.
Must we sacrifice the wildlife even before we find out if CO2 really controls the climate? As President Bush finally caves
in to the global warming alarmists, the answer is evidently “yes.”
LINKS TO RELATED TOPICS:
Agriculture, the Economy, & Human Welfare:
Policy Issues Relating to Food Production
Political Environmentalism Versus Human Progress & Prosperity:
Policy Issues Relating to Energy, Environment,
& Natural Resources
Political Economy -- Philosophies, Systems, & Public Policies:
Government, the Economy, & Economic Prosperity
The Earth's Natural History, Global Climate Changes,
& the Future of Human Life & Civilization on the Planet:
Science, Ideology, & Public Policy
Dennis T. Avery is a senior fellow at the Hudson Institute in Washington, D.C., and is the Director of the Institute's Center for
Global Food Issues (www.cgfi.org). Formerly he was a senior policy analyst for the United
States Department of State, where he won the National Intelligence Medal of Achievement. He is the co-author, with
atmospheric physicist Fred Singer, of the book, Unstoppable Global Warming: Every 1500 Years (Blue Ridge Summit,
Pennsylvania: Rowman & Littlefield, 2006). Readers may write Avery at Post Office Box 202, Churchville, Virginia, 24421. Email:
cgfi@rica.net
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THE PROGRESSIVE CONSERVATIVE, USA
An Online Journal of Political Commentary & Analysis
Dr. Almon Leroy Way, Jr., Editor
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Conservative Government Ensures a Nation's Strength, Progress, & Prosperity