Re Big Ag and biofuels, I have this figure that one ton of nitrogen fertiliser takes 10 tons of crude oil to manufacture. Can anyone confirm that?
Thanks! Keith >Hello Julian, Mike and all > >>You really should just ignore George Mombiot. He's just a silly little >>man full of his own importance and always has been. > >Well, not really. > >>He likes to provide an opinion on everything from the environment, >>biofuels, class structure, etc and I am yet to find anyone that agrees >>with his opinions. > >You haven't looked very hard then. But indeed, yes, his opinions. It >wasn't always that way with him, poor old George is passed his >use-by date these days, young feller like him too. As Todd said >before, he's lost something over the years. He started off well >though, good work, but I guess it went to his head, these days he >just seems to pontificate. I wonder when he last got off his butt >and investigated something properly, actually did some research, >wore out a bit of shoe leather. > >Anyway, Monbiot's just being a mug, he's not a liar or a >spin-merchant, and he's not the only mug. We've had these stories >before from him, since end-2004, and from indymedia, as Kenji >pointed out, and from New Scientist, who certainly should know >better, and others, and duly debunked them all. But who's doing the >spinning? That there's spinning being done is beyond doubt, it's >even had arch-spinmeister Alex Avery of the Hudson Institute >weighing in on the same issue. But Avery's not generating it. > >At least in Pimentel's case why he keeps doing it became a little >clearer when he teamed up last year with oilman Tad Patzek and the >pair of them slagged biodiesel as well as Pimentel's usual bash at >ethanol, using the same old bent numbers he knows are bent but he >keeps on doing it anyway. Other people are also impressed with the >publicity machine that gets Pimentel's work so widely published and >commented on, and wonder just who's funding it, as we've wondered >here. It's very slick. > >One thing that's slick about it is the confusions it plays on, such >as the overpopulation myth, the myth that US grain crops feed the >world, the myth that higher yields will help feed the hungry, the >highly dangerous myth that vegetarian (or vegan) farming is >sustainable and animal husbandry isn't. It all plays on people's >emotions, and people believe what they want to believe. > >>What surprises me is that there are Editors out there willing to >>publish his drivel. > >There'll be just as many educated and intelligent people who'll say >that about reporting you think is as solid as a rock. > >I'd certainly be willing to publish this drivel - in fact I did, >it's both here and at JtF: > >"The truth, so effectively suppressed that it is now almost >impossible to believe, is that organic farming is the key to feeding >the world." -- "Biotech has bamboozled us all -- Studies suggest >that traditional farming methods are still the best", George >Monbiot, The Guardian, August 24, 2000: >http://www.guardianunlimited.co.uk/Archive/Article/0,4273,4054683,00.html > >Good piece, well worth a read. > >I've often referred to this story, where Monbiot helped expose the >dirty tricks used by Monsanto's PR company, Bivings, in spinning the >GM maize scandal in Mexico, see: "THE FAKE PERSUADERS - Corporations >are inventing people to rubbish their opponents on the internet, >says George Monbiot", The Guardian, 14 May 2002 >http://ngin.tripod.com/deceit4.html > >Monbiot did good work on the plutonium trade with Japan, on nuclear >proliferation, corporate malfeasance, climate change, the bizarre >role of America's Christian fundamentalist pre-millennial >dispensationalist nutters (Bill Moyers called Monbiot's piece >"brilliant"), foreign aid, peak oil, Iraq, more. > >This was the first anti-biofuel article Monbiot wrote, in Nov 2004 >(long discussion in the list archives): > >Fuel for nought - The adoption of biofuels would be a humanitarian >and environmental disaster, George Monbiot, Tuesday November 23, >2004, The Guardian >http://www.mindfully.org/Energy/2004/Bio-Fuel-For-Nought8dec04.htm > >Followed by the others Mike noted, all discussed here at the time. > >In the light of which, this one about global warming raised my eyebrows: > >"It Would Seem That I Was Wrong About Big Business - Corporations >are ready to act on global warming but are thwarted by ministers who >resist regulation in the name of the market", George Monbiot, >September 20, 2005,Guardian/UK >http://www.mail-archive.com/biofuel@sustainablelists.org/msg55760.html > >Huh? Some interesting stuff in there, which was mainly why I posted >it, but this is a sharp change of tack for Monbiot. It's a change of >stance not reflected by any of the other corporate watchdogs, not in >any way, corporations didn't suddenly get nicer. > >Well, who knows why he's blind-eyeing so much stuff he should know, >or does know. It's a mistake to ignore him though, as with Pimentel. >In both cases there's a danger in countering it of appearing to >defend the likes of ADM and Big Ethanol / Big Corn / Big Soy / Big >Ag, and also the foolishness of large-scale industrial monocropping >of oil palms in 3rd World countries to supply distant markets in the >West and Japan. > >These are still the basic references I'd recommend for this, and for >this discussion too (along with previous discussions, especially on >the myths I referred to): > >http://journeytoforever.org/biofuel.html#howmuch >"How much fuel can we grow? How much land will it take?" > >http://journeytoforever.org/ethanol_energy.html >Is ethanol energy-efficient? (currently being updated but what's >there now is useful) > >http://journeytoforever.org/biofuel_food.html >Biofuels - Food or Fuel? > >http://journeytoforever.org/community.html >Community development > >http://journeytoforever.org/community2.html >Community development - poverty and hunger > >In terms of effect, which is why you'd be doing it, there's no way a >member of the public can compete with a reporter by writing a letter >to the editor, which is about the only open avenue. Even if they >actually publish it. The best way is to get access to the news pages >by working through other reporters, but that takes time and it's not >easy. Maybe the way to counter Monbiot might be to attack him in the >blogosphere. > >Best > >Keith > > > >>-- >>Regards, >> >>Julian _______________________________________________ Biofuel mailing list Biofuel@sustainablelists.org http://sustainablelists.org/mailman/listinfo/biofuel_sustainablelists.org Biofuel at Journey to Forever: http://journeytoforever.org/biofuel.html Search the combined Biofuel and Biofuels-biz list archives (50,000 messages): http://www.mail-archive.com/biofuel@sustainablelists.org/
