The disastrous cyclone Nargis, and the destruction in Burma, or if you prefer, Myanmar, which I don’t prefer, is setting in motion a crisis reaching far beyond the tens of thousands of people who have died or are missing and the tens of thousands more who are homeless or threatened by disease.
Food shortages and the rising prices of food suggest chaos and hunger around the world.
Burma was supposed to begin exporting its rice harvest this year, counted on by neighboring countries like Sri Lanka and Bangladesh, which now face an increased shortage. The price of rice is expected to sky rocket. It has just about tripled since the beginning of 2008, smashing the budgets of food-aid programs.
World Vision, the large U.S.-based disaster relief agency, told the Wall Street Journal they may be forced to cut back by a million and a half people who would benefit from their programs, out of 6-million usual beneficiaries.
Remember the environmentalists telling us that corn-based ethanol will cut back on greenhouse gas? That was totally untrue.
Just the opposite is true. The Wall St Journal reports that corn-based ethanol will nearly double greenhouse gas emissions over 30 years.
The fact is that turning crops into fuel drives up the price of food and increases atmospheric carbon dioxide.
Time magazine, on the other side for so long, in their recent cover story, “The Clean Energy Myth” said just that. Gee, said the Wall St. Journal, if Time feels that way can that other superficial and irresponsible rag Vanity Fair -so good at celebrity-sex and rich people scandal and so poor on social and political issues, be far behind? The adjectives are mine, not the WSJ’s.
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