BIOFUELS-BOON OR BANE

CARBON EMISSIONS have been the talking point of most of the so called developed worlds' leaders at innumerable environment conferences.

BIOFUEL-The so called MIRACLE SOLUTION that is expected to solve most of the carbon emission problems from the developed countries since they hope to use it to run their automobiles,which is a major emitter of carbon.

Thus biofuels are being made out to be the miracle solution to our Earth's environmental issues which might not be the case afterall.

But a hard look at the ground reality does present a not so rosy picture of the very BLING BIOFUELS.The primary concern is that of the poorest of the poor subsidising the grave environmental mistakes of the world's rich.Ofcourse RICH is a relative term.

Consider the people of Ethiopia,one of Africa's poorest country, grappling with various issues of which poverty and malnutrition are at the forefront.

the dictator who sold his peoples hunger to the we

The impoverished Ethiopian people cultivate CASSAVA,their chief food crop to fill their stomach's.Their current Dictator Meles Zenawi has conveniently exported the Ethiopian people's food crop,millions of tonnes of cassava,to developed nations like the United kingdom to name one,enriching his coffers while leaving millions of very hungry ethiopian people starving and in worse cases causing hunger death's.The United Kingdom for it's part has imposed tougher legislation to prevent such imports.But what happens to the million's of hungry ethiopian's?. Nobody Knows.

Now the impact on the U.S economy.

corn for biofuelwe used to grow food to eat itnow

Another case worth examining is the Plan of the United States to replace 15% of gasoline consumption with biofuels.Corn,being a major crop used to make ethanol,one of the constituents of biofuel is being sold to biofuel manufacturing companies instead of ending up as food for people or even as food for farm animals.This has led to food companies like tyson foods,Kraft foods,etc downsize their workforce leaving thousands unemployed.The price of corn also has rapidly shot up leading to higher inflation since food comprises about 20% to the US inflation costs.Thus the already reeling U.S economy is being pushed closer to a possible recession.

Now a few startling facts exposed by Princeton university's researchers led by Timothy Searchinger reveal that greenhouse gases will actually rise with ethanol demand.The study has predicted that the U.S farmers will use more land for ethanol production thus forcing poorer countries to cut down on rainforests to produce food crops for the U.S market thus increasing the Greenhouse emissions rather than reducing it which defeats the very purpose of biofuels.Although,a few have said that the study has used a flawed model and overestimated how much land

is needed.

Critics apart, the time has come to seriously reconsider the Benefits of BioFuels vis-a-vis it's serious drawbacks and a stricter legislation for cultivation and export of biofuel before any major damage is done to our already very fragile Earth.