Archive for 2007

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070313 – Tuesday – Cutting back

Tuesday, March 13th, 2007

I’ve decided that I need to cut back on my output here for awhile on this blog. I’m also going to change the balance a bit as well. My usual routine is to read through a pile of RSS links and pull down and post any and all stories that either bear on the Perfect Storm Hypothesis or that interest me personally (like science or psychology stories). I’ve also made the odd personal, philosophical or technical post here and there as well.

– One thing I’m going to do is post significantly less of the stories that bear on the Perfect Storm Hypothesis. In many ways, I feel I’m preaching to the choir here and while that’s useful, it is maybe not the best use of my time and energy. Instead, I’m going to only post the odd supporting story if it is a really egregious example of something.

– I might spend more time looking at stories like the one I began today about The Great Global Warming Swindle show which aired on Britain’s Channel 4 on March 8th a few days ago. What’s of interest to me here is the interplay between different entrenched points-of-view and how someone genuinely interested in getting at the truth rather than backing one horse or the other might proceed through all the claims and counter claims.

– I’d also like to write about some more philosophical subjects. I had lunch today with a friend of mine and we spent most of the time talking about books and computer programming and I enjoyed the heck out of it. We’d both read Blindsight by Peter Watts recently and loved it. We’d also both been reading A Mind of it Own by Cornelia Fine. Both books dealt with ways of looking at consciousness that are both unusual and revealing. Leonard Cohen came in for a mention because I’d read that he’d taken LSD when he was younger and credited it with breaking him out of looking at the world around him in an inflexible manner. My friends said I’d like his video, I’m Your Man, and that I could get it on NetFlix. Then we went into computer programming and how it varies across several axis where at one extreme, all the programmer does all day is look up how to use the various high-level interfaces he needs to use while at the other end, it is all about building and debugging complex logic structures. And then, along another axis, we discussed how many younger programmers have no idea how to do multi-threaded code whereas older programmers who’ve dipped their toes into the world of device drivers and interrupts, find multi-threaded programming natural. Finally, my friend offered that he disagreed with Greg Egan’s idea in Diaspora that if mankind learned effective immortality, boredom would become a critical problem. I said I didn’t agree. In my opinion, emotions are the real thing that drives us – in the same sense that a battery is the thing that makes an engine act. That over time, as the ‘been-there-done-that’ component of an immortal’s experience grew, the size of the emotional polarity (like the poles of the battery) between what they’d done and what they still yearned to do would lessen and, perhaps, eventually be completely nulled out. Without emotion to drive us, I wondered if we would act at all or if we would even care if we lived to see the next day.

I’m back now from lunch and thinking about ‘real life’ here at the nursery. Coming up in the near future, I have a big project. I’m going to replace our main (and only) irrigation pump – a three-phase pump with a single-phase with more horsepower. I’m going to replace an ancient 24 station irrigation controller which has been limping along for years with a modern one and I’m going rewire all of the electric and the associated relays that drive and control all of this. All of these are deeply interlinked so it all needs to be done in one move. I’ll have three to five days to get it all done and running before plants here at the nursery will begin to get seriously stressed from lack of water. Needless to say, I will need to have all of my proverbial ducks-in-a-row before I wade in and start tearing critical stuff apart.

Books and videos I mentioned here:

Posted in Personal | No Comments »

The Great Global Warming Swindle

Tuesday, March 13th, 2007

– I conduct a lot of discussions with friends via E-mail and one of my correspondents in these exchanges has been reluctant to accept many of the positions put forth by those who think Global Warming is caused by mankind and bodes ill for our joint futures. These exchanges among the group of us make for some interesting discussions and can test our skills at remaining open-minded, fair-minded and unemotional with each other as we interact.

– Recently, my semi-skeptical friend passed me a link to a video shown on Channel 4 in Britain on March 8th entitled, “The Great Global Warming Swindle” and asked me to watch it. Well, I did and I found it very troubling. It attacks many core assumptions of those who believe Global Warming is caused by mankind and it appears to do a credible job of it.

– Before I go any further, here’s the link to the video. I encourage you to watch it – regardless of your POV on Global Warming. The information it provides is part of the debate and deserves our attention whether we agree with it or not.

–Here it is: ➡

– When we lay people try to evaluate the information brought before us, we are at a major disadvantage. Unless we’ve been to the ends of the earth and done the physical research ourselves, unless we are college professors whose lives and livelihoods revolve around tracking every bit of information that arises in our area of expertise, unless we have the time to dip deeply in the huge river of information flowing by all of us on the shores of the Internet, and unless we have made a strong commitment to challenging and reviewing our own belief systems periodically and systematically, we are necessarily at a disadvantage in trying to discern where truth and reason actually might lie in complex debates such as the one currently going on regarding Global Warming and its causes.

– One of the points made in the film is that the idea that Global Warming is happening and that it is caused by mankind has gained great traction in the world – unreasonable traction. As someone who has thought for sometime that humanity has been very slow to react to the Global Warming Crisis, this seems like a strange POV to me – but I can see how some might think so.

– But, now they’ve made a strong counter-stroke in the debate. This film pulls many of the criticisms against Global Warming theory together and presents them articulately.

– Obviously those who are deeply ‘committed’ to anti-environmentalism or to environmentalism will have predictable reactions. If you scan the Internet for commentary on the film, now that it’s been around a few days, you’ll find tons. Conservatives feel that finally their side of the story’s been told and environmentalists feel that they’ve been done dirty by a ‘hit’ film.

– I think most folks who hold extreme views in either direction can and should be ignored. They are not going to bring much new to those who really want to deepen their understanding of where the truth lies here. They are far too entrenched in their points-of-view to do anything other than dig in and protect their intellectual turf.

– The pro-global warming folks have had a long time to build their arguments and now the anti-global warming folks have made a great foray onto the field. But regardless of how well the story is told by either side, they are both still ‘stories’ and somewhere, back behind all of the stories and points-of-view, is the actual physical truth of what’s happening and whether we as a species realize it or not, creating an accurate perception of that truth is in all of our best interests.

– Hence it is in our best interests to not become entrenched in ‘f’ixed’ view-points because that takes us off the only road that can possibly lead to more accurate perceptions – and off into the bushes of irrelevance.

– But, one of the ways to get at how much credibility one should give to something like this video is to look at who made and contributed to it. What is their history, their credentials? Do they have relationships or a history that might make you doubt their reliability?

This documentary was done for Britain’s Channel 4 by Martin Durkin. Unfortunately, Martin is not known for his even-handed reporting. Check out these links; some of which predate anything to do with his current project.

Durkin links: ➡ ➡ ➡ ➡

Martin panders to sensationalism and a great desire among a large segment of the population to believe that the Global Climate Crisis is not real, or that it isn’t our fault, or that it is natural and, in any case, there’s nothing we need do about it or change for. Denial, some folks might call it.

For an analysis of Martin Durkin and his work, see this: ➡

One of the scientists, Carl Wunsch, who appeared in the broadcast has since strongly claimed that his views were badly misrepresented by unethical editing and has written a letter about it here: ➡

– To locate related posts on this site, search for the term swindle.

Posted in CrashBlogging, The Perfect Storm | No Comments »

Is Ethanol fuel really a viable energy path?

Monday, March 12th, 2007

– I’ve written three previous posts on this subject. Two unfavorable and one favorable (➡, ➡ & ➡).

– Here, I’ll refer you to yet another article I’ve read; this one in the January 2007 Scientific American, which has an unfavorable take on the subject. If you follow the link ➡ to the on-line article, you will find it is abbreviated and I regret that. But SciAm wants to sell you a subscription rather than give their stuff away for free.

– If you can find a copy of their 2007 January magazine, I encourage you to read the full article – if you are one of those who think that Ethanol fuels are going to save us from ourselves.

– Here’s the bottom line (last paragraph of the article from the magazine):

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In the meantime, relying on ethanol from corn is an unsustainable strategy: argriculture will never be able to supply nearly enough crop, converting it does not combat global warming, and socially, it can be seen as taking food off people’s plates. Backers defend corn ethanol as a bridge technology to cellulose ethanol, but for the moment it is a bridge to nowhere.

——————————

And four references provided by the article’s author:

Ethanol Fuels: Energy Balance, Economic, and Environmental Impacts are Negative. David Pimentel in Natural Resources Research, Vol. 12, No. 2, pages 127-134; June 2003.

Updated Energy and Greenhouse Gas Emmissions: Results of Fuel Ethanol, Michael Wang in the 15th International Symposium on Alcohol Fuels, September 26-28, 2005.

Plan B 2.0: Rescuing a Planet under Stress and a Civilization in Trouble. Expanded and updated edition. Lester R. Brown. W. W. Norton, 2006.

25 X ’25 Vision on renewable energy: www.25×25.org/

—————————-

To the SciAm article: ➡

Posted in The Perfect Storm | No Comments »

Global impact of Asia’s pollution

Friday, March 9th, 2007

Industrial pollution coming from Asia is having a wider effect on global weather and climate than previously realised, research suggests.

The “Asian haze” of soot is boosting storms in the Pacific, scientists find.

It is also enhancing the growth of large clouds, which play a key role in regulating climate globally.

Writing in the journal Proceedings of the National Academy of Sciences (PNAS), the researchers say impacts may be felt as far away as the Arctic.

“It’s a complex picture,” observed study leader Renyi Zhang from Texas A&M University in College Station, US.

“But the bottom line is that the aerosols actually enhance convection and increase precipitation over a large domain,” he told the BBC News website.

More… ➡

Posted in Science | No Comments »

Australia: Government to subsidise rural broadband

Friday, March 9th, 2007

– this just in from New Zealand…

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Australia has adopted what looks to be a sensible way of ensuring that everyone can get access to broadband – the Australian broadband guarantee. It’s aimed at rural users, and includes private citizens and small businesses.

It works like this: if you can’t find a broadband supplier to a reasonable price and quality where you live, you can apply for a subsidised service. Then, one of a pool of ISPs who the government has signed up, will provide service to you at a reasonable price to you and at a quality the government has stipulated, with the government picking up the difference in cost as a subsidy. The government notes that the service may be delivered by satellite or wire depending on what is practical in each case, but the citizen or small business pays the same. The scheme gets going from this April. It sounds simple and should help Australians living in rural areas get a good standard of service, at least as good as those who live in Australian cities do.

The government has allocated A$165m to this, as part of a wider A$2billion investment in broadband. It’s a model New Zealand should be looking at hard, so that people who live outside our cities don’t miss out.

To the original post… ➡

Posted in Politics, Politics - The Right Way | No Comments »

2006 Texas State Republican Party Platform

Friday, March 9th, 2007

– I heard that there are some amazing things embedded in the Texas State GOP Platform, so I downloaded a copy over the Internet ➡ and went for a read through it. Given that our country is currently deeply influenced, if not outright controlled, by republicans from Texas, this seems like reasonable knowledge to have.

– Here are some quotes I pulled straight out of the document. For the most part, I’ll leave it to you to draw your own conclusions – though I have highlighted things here and there. If the highlight is blue, I liked it. If it is red, I have my doubts about it (or I doubt that they are thinking about it the same way I am). And, finally, if I can’t resist making a comment, it’ll be in green.

– After I copied the paragraphs that interested me, below, and highlighted them, I was surprised at how many things in the Texas GOP’s platform I agreed with. But, not withstanding that observation, there were also many with which I thoroughly disagree.

– if you find this list tantlizing, I urge you to read the full document through for yourself and add your comments here.

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Throughout the world people dare to dream of freedom, of opportunity, of a beautiful country in which to grow, to raise their family, to worship God in their own way without fear.

We believe that human life is sacred, created in the image of God. Life begins at the moment of fertilization and ends at the point of natural death.

We believe that traditional marriage is a legal and moral commitment between a natural man and a natural woman.

We further support the abolition of federal agencies involved in activities not originally intended to be delegated to the federal government under a strict interpretation of the Constitution.

Oppose the expansion of federal law-enforcement authority and the use of military personnel and equipment against American citizens.

Congress to immediately cut all foreign aid to any nation threatening our citizens and providing aid or comfort to terrorist organizations or providing arms to other nations hostile to the United States.

review and revision of those portions of the USA Patriot Act, and related executive and military orders and directives that erode constitutional rights and essential liberties of citizens.

We urge the U.S. Congress to call for a clear vote of the U.S. citizens of Puerto Rico to decide between statehood and independence, for the U.S. territory of Puerto Rico.

we oppose any attempt to introduce direct democracy (Initiative & Referendum) into our state constitution

We support a law that would require all sentences, paragraphs, sections, and any inclusion to legislation, continuing resolution, law or bill be germane to the title of the act.

We oppose passage of any international treaty that overrides United States sovereignty, including the Kyoto Agreement and the Biodiversity Treaty.

We oppose the Endangered Species Act.

We urge government management of public lands and resources be conducted based upon policies that prioritize human need over other considerations.

We oppose a mandatory national animal identification system.

We call for the Internal Revenue Code to be changed to allow a religious organization to address the vital issues of the day without fear of the organization losing its tax-exempt status.

We support legislation requiring labor unions to obtain the consent of the individual union member before that member’s dues can be used for political purposes.

We believe a candidate running for office should be required to actually reside within the geographical boundaries of the office sought.

prohibition of internet voting and any touch screen voting or other electronic voting which lacks a voter verifiable paper trail.

We support legislation to prohibit former legislators, government employees, and officials from acting as lobbyists for a foreign government and/or any business for a period of five years immediately after leaving public service.

Ten Commandments – We understand that the Ten Commandments are the basis of our basic freedoms and the cornerstone of our Western legal tradition. We therefore oppose any governmental action to restrict, prohibit, or remove public display of the Decalogue or other religious symbols.

We decry any unconstitutional act of judicial tyranny that would demand removal of the words “One Nation under God” from the Pledge of Allegiance.

We oppose the recognition of and granting of benefits to people who represent themselves as domestic partners without being legally married.

We support legislation that would make it a felony to issue a marriage license to a same-sex couple and for any civil official to perform a marriage ceremony for a same-sex couple.

We oppose the use of public revenues and/or facilities for abortion or abortion–related services. We support the elimination of public funding for organizations that advocate or support abortion. We urge the reversal of Roe v. Wade. We affirm our support for the appointment and election of judges at all levels of the judiciary who respect traditional family values and the sanctity of innocent human life.

We oppose legislation allowing the withholding of nutrition and hydration to the terminally ill or handicapped.

We oppose the sale, use, and dispensing of the “Morning After Pill”

We unequivocally oppose the United States Senate ratification of the United Nations Convention on the Rights of the Child, which would transfer jurisdiction over parental rights and responsibilities to international bureaucracies.

We support welfare reforms designed to break the cycle of dependency by requiring welfare recipients to work, learn, or train in exchange for their benefits.

We strongly favor legislation recognizing legitimate alternative health care choices.

The Federal Government has no constitutional jurisdiction over education. We call for the abolition of the U. S. Department of Education and the prohibition of the transfer of any of its functions to any other federal agency.

To build strong and lasting relationships, we support the requirement that schools teaching sex education must teach directive abstinence until heterosexual marriage with an uninfected person as the only safe and healthy means of preventing sexually transmitted diseases and pregnancies among unwed students.

We support school subjects with emphasis on the Judeo-Christian principles upon which America was founded and which form the basis of America’s legal and its political and economic systems.

We demand the abolition of bilingual education as it currently exists in Texas.

We encourage legislation that prohibits the enrollment and education of children whose parents are unlawful residents in the United States. We do not believe there is any entitlement for these children to receive pre-school, elementary, secondary, or post-secondary educational services paid for by American taxpayers.

We support the objective teaching and equal treatment of scientific strengths and weaknesses of scientific theories, including Intelligent Design. We believe theories of life origins and environmental theories should be taught as scientific theory not scientific law; that social studies and other curriculum should not be based on any one theory.

We call upon Texas legislators to prohibit reproductive health care services, including counseling, referrals, and distribution of condoms and contraception through public schools.

We support the mandatory installation and use of seat belts and safety glass on school buses and any and all vehicles which transport children.

America is a Christian nation, founded on Judeo-Christian principles. We affirm the constitutional right of all individuals to worship in the religion of their choice. (I’m confused – what exactly does this say?)

We pledge to exert our influence toward a return to the original intent of the First Amendment and dispel the myth of the separation of church and state.

We call on Congress to sanction any foreign government that persecutes its citizens for their religion.

We believe all law-abiding citizens should be free from government surveillance of their electronic communications except in cases directly involving national security. This includes any government mandate of trap door encryption standards.

We deplore all discrimination based on religion, race, color, national origin, gender, age or physical disablement.

We urge the immediate repeal of the Hate Crimes Law, which is unnecessary and unconstitutionally creates a special victims class.

We support imprisonment for life without parole for habitual felons.

No convicted criminal should be allowed to profit from the sale of rights to their story for books, movies, etc. while incarcerated, on parole, or on probation.

We believe that properly applied capital punishment is legitimate, is an effective deterrent, and should be swift and unencumbered.

We support full disclosure of all “on” and “off” budget spending. We demand that our federal legislators vote only for balanced budgets, and that the Social Security Fund never be used to balance the budget.

We also believe that all government contracts should be awarded by competitive bids.

We urge that the IRS be abolished and the Sixteenth Amendment to the U.S. Constitution be repealed.

The Republican Party of Texas is in favor of abolishing property taxes.

We oppose any taxation of the internet or internet services.

the foundation of our National Energy Strategy must be a competitive domestic oil and gas industry.

support technological development of environmentally safe uses of nuclear, coal and biomass for our national energy needs

promote all forms of domestic energy production including ANWAR, offshore California, and the East Coast, while minimizing environmental impact.

An individual should have the freedom to work in the job he/she desires without being forced to join or pay dues to any organization.

We believe the Minimum Wage Law should be repealed and that wages should be determined by the free market conditions prevalent in each individual market.

build a physical barrier along the entire length of our country’s border with Mexico, beginning with urban interface locations and appropriate monitoring

deploy the Immigration and Customs Enforcement Agency (I.C.E.) within the U.S. to locate and secure all illegal aliens who have previously entered our country and expedite their return to their source country

We oppose the federalization and militarization of local police forces.

use random selection and terrorist profiling as a criteria for determining persons to be searched at U.S. airports

thoroughly inspect the contents of vehicles and containers coming across our borders using rapid and accurate technology.

not entering into any new arms control agreements with any nation that is not currently complying with previous agreements

systematic assimilation of legal immigrants into the American culture; baseline requirements for citizenship to include proficiency in the English language, study of American history and of the American form of government

development of a practical, limited, and temporary worker program that does not serve as an automatic path to citizenship

the cessation of the issuance of visas to individuals from foreign countries that sponsor terrorism

requiring naturalized citizens to renounce their native citizenship and surrender their foreign passport

We oppose illegal immigration, amnesty in any form, or legal status for illegal immigrants.

suspending automatic U.S. citizenship to children born to illegal immigrant parents

elimination of all laws requiring hospitals to give non-emergency medical care to illegal immigrants

the withholding of federal highway funds from any state that issues drivers licenses to illegal aliens

the disqualification of homosexuals from military service

health and disability benefits equal to active military for national guard and military reserves if injured while on active duty

the continuation of the all volunteer armed forces

We believe that the United States and Israel share a special long-standing relationship based on shared values, a mutual commitment to a republican form of government, and a strategic alliance that benefits both nations. … In summary, our policy is based on God’s biblical promise to bless those who bless Israel and curse those who curse Israel and we further invite other nations and organizations to enjoy the benefits of that promise.

we encourage the President to do whatever is necessary to prevent Iran from acquiring or developing atomic weapons.

We urge Congress to authorize fund expenditures and audit measures on research and development of alternative fuels to reduce the United States dependency on foreign oil producers and ensure no financial support of terrorist sponsoring nations.

We believe it is in the best interest of the citizens of the United States that we immediately rescind our membership in, as well as all financial and military contributions to, the United Nations.

unalterably oppose any agreement or treaty that seeks to establish an International Criminal Court (ICC)

We oppose … payment of any debt allegedly owed to the UN

We oppose … Ratification of the Law of the Sea Treaty

We urge Congress to evict the United Nations from the United States and eliminate any further participation.

Posted in Politics | No Comments »

Out-of-body Experiences May Be Caused By Arousal System Disturbances In Brain

Friday, March 9th, 2007

Science Daily — Having an out-of-body experience may seem far-fetched to some, but for those with arousal system disturbances in their brains, it may not be a far off idea that they could sense they were really outside their own body watching themselves. In previous studies of more than 13,000 Europeans, almost 6 percent said they have had such an out-of-body experience.

Dr. Kevin Nelson and a research team at the University of Kentucky have studied the link between out-of-body experiences, the sleep-wake transition and near death experiences, and published their findings today in the March 6 issue of the journal Neurology in their case report, “Out-of-body experience and arousal.”

The results are intriguing, and show that some people’s brains already may be predisposed to these sorts of experiences. They found that an out-of-body experience is statistically as likely to occur during a near death experience as it is to occur during the transition between wakefulness and sleep. Nelson suggests that phenomena in the brain’s arousal system, which regulates different states of consciousness including REM sleep and wakefulness, may be the cause for these types of out-of-body displays.

“We found it surprising that out-of-body experience with sleep transition seemed very much like out-of-body experience during near death,” Nelson said.

More… ➡

Posted in Science | 1 Comment »

France bans citizen journalists from reporting violence

Friday, March 9th, 2007

– This one I definitely put under Culture – how not to do it and Politics – the wrong way.

– This sounds like some thing out of China.

– Something like this ➡ perhaps?

– I’ve placed the next post after this one intentionally. It is about a beating a policeman administered to a woman as he was arresting her. It was captured on a camera and is creating quite a row in Britain.

– Now, I have no idea what actually happened with this woman and I am sure that there are good and reasonable circumstances under which a policeman’s use of force like this would be justified. We’ll just have to wait and see how it comes out in the wash. But, the fact that there was a film means that if the beating was inappropriate, it will be dealt with. Without films like this, who knows what might happen and never come to the light of day.

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The French Constitutional Council has approved a law that criminalizes the filming or broadcasting of acts of violence by people other than professional journalists. The law could lead to the imprisonment of eyewitnesses who film acts of police violence, or operators of Web sites publishing the images, one French civil liberties group warned on Tuesday.

The council chose an unfortunate anniversary to publish its decision approving the law, which came exactly 16 years after Los Angeles police officers beating Rodney King were filmed by amateur videographer George Holliday on the night of March 3, 1991. The officers’ acquittal at the end on April 29, 1992 sparked riots in Los Angeles.

More… ➡

Posted in Culture - How not to do it, Politics - The Wrong Way | No Comments »

CCTV shows officer punching woman

Friday, March 9th, 2007

– This item was posted as a follow on to the previous article ➡

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Police are facing calls for an independent inquiry after CCTV footage showed a police officer repeatedly punching a woman during an arrest.

Toni Comer, 20, was being arrested last July for damaging a car in Sheffield – an offence she has since admitted.

Her lawyer called for an Independent Police Complaints Commission inquiry.

Police said they would investigate a complaint by Ms Comer but they were “happy” with the officer’s conduct. He said he had been trying to subdue her.

The footage, obtained by the Guardian newspaper and shown on BBC Two’s Newsnight, shows Ms Comer and a police officer falling down a flight of stairs outside Sheffield’s Niche nightclub.

At the bottom, she is restrained by a group of officers, with the officer she fell with punching her five times – although it is not clear on what part of her body.

More… ➡

Posted in General | No Comments »

Biofuels: An Advisable Strategy?

Friday, March 9th, 2007

– I’ve been reading about Biofuels for some time now and I’ve seen that they are creating a lot of hope and optimism that they may ‘save’ us from, or at least help alleviate some of, our coming energy problems.

– I’ve had my doubts. Back behind the glowing articles have been a few darker ones which don’t seem to be getting the same degree of ‘play’ as the optimistic ones.

– These ‘other’ points of view have been pointing out that most of the world’s arable land is already in use and that to grow biofuels to cut our dependence on Oil and Gas, we cannot help but begin to cut into the land we’re using now to grow the food we eat. So, in the end, if we grow significant quantities of biofuel, we will grow less food – and this will drive food prices up strongly.

– It is true that to grow food or to grow biofuels is to use renewable resources but the renewability concept has its limits. You cannot use trees from the forests or fish from the seas faster than they can replenish themselves and you cannot grow more than a certain amount of crops on the earth – given that the total amount of arable land is limited (and will continue to diminish as global warming and desertification continue).

– The European Union has, up until now, been sanguine about integrating biofuels into their crop mix. But, now they’ve done a careful full-cost analysis of how effective biofuels really are and they are beginning to have their doubts.

– The summary from the end of this article is especially interesting:

Summing up, biodiesel cannot contribute to the solution of the problems related to the high dependency of our economy on fossil fuels. The idea that biodiesel could be a solution for the energy crisis is not only false, but also dangerous. In fact, it might favour an attitude of technological optimism and faith in a technological fix of the energy problem. We should never forget that if we want to reduce the use of fossil fuels there is no magic wand: the only possible solution is to modify consumption patterns.

– Read on, dear reader.

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Science Daily — Biofuels have been an increasingly hot topic on the discussion table in the last few years. The main argument behind the policies in favour of biofuels is based on the idea that biofuels would not increase the concentration of greenhouse gases in the atmosphere. However, a more careful analysis of the life cycle of biodiesel reveals that the energy (and CO2) savings is not so high as expected. It might even be negative.

In 2003 the European Union introduced a Directive suggesting that Member states should increase the share of biofuels in the energy used for transport to 2% by 2005 and 5.75% by 2010.

In 2005 the target was not reached and it will probably not be reached in 2010 either (we are in 2006 at approximately 0.8%), but in any case, the Directive showed the great interest that the European Commission places on biofuels as a way to solve many problems at once. The new European energy strategy, presented on 10th January 2007, establishes that biofuels should represent at least 10% of the energy used for transport .

Biofuels are not competitive with fossil fuel-derived products if left to the market. In order to make their price similar to those of petrol and diesel, they need to be subsidized. In Europe, biofuels are subsidized in three ways:

1) agricultural subsidies, mainly granted within the framework of the Common Agricultural Policy

2) total or partial de-taxation, which is indispensable, because energy taxes account for approximately half of the final price of petrol and diesel

3) biofuels obligations, which establish that the fuels sold at the pump must contain a given percentage of biofuels

These three political measures need financial means, which are paid for by the European Commission (agricultural subsidies), by the governments (reduced energy revenues), and by car drivers (increase in the final fuel price). For this reason, an integrated analysis is needed in order to discuss whether investing public resources in biofuels and employing a large extension of agricultural land is the most advisable strategy to solve the problems associated with fossil fuels.

More… ➡

Posted in Biodiversity Loss, Desertification, Food Shortages, Peak Oil, The Perfect Storm | No Comments »

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