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Bio-fuelling the world’s hunger
INDIA - The soaring Sensex is as adrenalin to India Inc. Not many, however, seem to be unduly concerned about the galloping food prices. Almost everyone, from the Prime Minister downwards, is making pious noises on this score, without any tangible efforts to rein in the soaring prices.
A new dimension is being added to the galloping food prices. And that is the clamour for “green fuel”, which has to come from soyabean, rapeseed, sugarcane, sorghum, oil palm or corn, in the main, and also from jatropha, now added to the list.
In 2007, as wheat prices rose record levels, corn and soybean — both increasingly used for green fuel manufacture — climbed to multi-year highs. As the US is heading into recession, commodities are outperforming stocks and bonds. Palm oil, used to extract bio-diesel at $800 plus a tonne, is outpacing crude oil.
Bio-fuels are being touted as the new panacea for global warming. But, because this fuel from plants is being introduced without much thought about wider implications; it is becoming a good idea practised badly. Let us look at some scientific facts about bio-fuels.
Clamour for “green fuel”
With the announcement of the Peace Nobel, which has brought global warming to centre-stage, the attention of the developed world has shifted to “green fuels.”
The recent meet on climate change in Bali, Indonesia, where 10,000 delegates discussed the problem for a fortnight, and in the process emitted enormous amounts of GHGs such as carbon di-oxide, lends a note of urgency to the entire question.
Ethanol-blended petrol from cassava, corn and sugarcane, bio-diesel from rapeseed, jatropha, palm-oil, etc., are being touted as the fuels that will in the future drive cars in the US and Europe. Europe has mandated that 5 per cent of transport fuel must originate in crops by 2010, just two years away. As usual, developing countries are being targeted as the regions where crops for green fuels are to be grown. Look at the unfolding scenario.
Source: The Hindu Business Line
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