Don't burn food: biofuels standards needed now
Each day, 820 million people in the developing world do not have enough food to eat1. Food prices around the world are shooting up, sparking food riots from Mexico2 to Morocco3. And the World Food Program warned last week that rapidly rising costs are endangering emergency food supplies for the world's worst-off. How are the wealthiest countries responding? They're burning food. Specifically, they're using more and more biofuels--alcohol made from plant products, used in place of petrol to fuel cars. Biofuels are billed as a way to slow down climate change. But in reality, because so much land is being cleared to grow them, most biofuels today are causing more global warming emissions than they prevent, even as they push the price of corn, wheat, and other foods out of reach for millions of people.Not all biofuels are bad--but without tough global standards, the biofuels boom will further undermine food security and worsen global warming.
It's time to move: this Friday through Saturday, the twenty countries with the biggest economies, responsible for more than 75% of the world's carbon emissions, will meet in Chiba, Japan to begin the G8's climate change discussions.
Before the summit, it is time to raise a global cry for change on biofuels: go to: http://www.avaaz.org/en/biofuel_standards_now/9.php?cl=60268287
A call for change before this week's summit won't end the food crisis, or stop global warming. But it's a critical first step. By confronting false solutions and demanding real ones, we can show our leaders that we want to do the right thing, not the easy thing.
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