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Poor Mr Bush hey? What about the world

Perhaps it is also a good example of why the community should be wary of any dramatic actions to cut CO2 emissions...they may actually do more harm than good.

I disagree. Dramatic solutions are needed.

What we should beware of are 'silver-bullet' solutions that claim to fix everything.

Ladies and gentlemen, the boat is going down. Have you thought about which lifeboat you will use?

the one with food in it

Oyuki, I was taking the piss just a little but the problem with bio fuels does underline one of the issues I have with the global warming movement and that is its shallow popularism. So we get people and companies trumpeting their green credentials through the use of bio fuels or other superficial actions when all they are doing is swapping one problem for another. I also love the conumdrum the green movement faces when it tries to rationalise its objection to nuclear energy with the need to find practical alternatives to fosil fuel.

Everything is fine...

If thats how you see it, then i suppose it does look ridiculous.

However, i have never read anything but criticism from environmentalists for biofuel, well before it was popularized . If your problem with global warming is due to short-sighted responses to it, then attack the green-washers and people trying to make a quick buck off the hoopla.

Most serious environmentalists are trying to find ways to make 'sustainability' a workable solution, not a branding scheme. Some have looked at nuclear power seriously, like Lovelock. However, i just see it as switching problems again.

There are lots of solutions out there, and like i said, no one is a silver bullet by itself. Another problem is that they cannot be controlled easily by large companies who wish to make a profit and control markets. They are by and large small-scale, and especially in the energy-generation sector, have possibilites to be democratized and local.

Look at Greenpeace's energy plan for the UK. Its pretty impressive.

is this gonna turn into a thread with those long posts and lots of counter long posts just to see who can post the most words?

No? Good.

Did I mention somewhere some weeks ago that Japanese rice farmers have joined a project to grow cheap high yield rice for ethanol fuel production instead of producing the consumer loved rice. What an expensive experiment that is gonna be for Japanese consumers.

As long as it is 'Japanese' rice, it'll be ok.

It may mean they start importing decent thai rice, which would be a good thing. Japanese rice is found only in Japan for good reason!

You don't like it?
Isn't it by far the best in the world?

the best rice in the world is the rice that feeds you when you're hungry.

or, koshihikari.

I much prefer Indian style rice, the rice that Japanese use is what we'd use for Rice Pudding, it goes all that sticky way.

All the better to sushi with!

haha, yeah I don't eat sushi

India would need all the rice they could produce for food.

Now basmatic rice is good. Nice and spiced up pilaf with a raging vindaloo.

Oh yes, I like that. Had one last night in fact.

Sustainability advocates like permaculturalists are big supporters of biofuels. See Mollison's own "Introduction to Permaculture", or "Alcohol Can Be a Gas", or the Journey to Forever website. The focus is of course on small-scale independent production. Turning one third of the US' corn crop into a few percent of their transportation fuel is absolute madness. Politically advantageous madness in the short term perhaps, but madness all the same.