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Dream fuel or eco-nightmare?

dublin | environment | event notice

Wednesday May 28, 2008 11:18

by Progressio - LASC

emmet at progressioireland dot com

01- 6144966

3 countries’ experience of biofuels

Once thought of as a dream fuel, many ecologists and scientists now consider biofuels as an eco-nightmare. Advocates of biofuels argue that they have the potential to slow or even stop climate change.

Dream fuel or eco-nightmare?

3 countries’ experience of biofuels

A Progressio Ireland/LASC Event

7 pm – 9 pm, 11th June – Irish Aid Centre, O’Connell Street, Dublin 1

Speakers:

Xiomara Ventura, Progressio Country Director in Honduras

Camilla Moreno, Spokesperson and lawyer for Terra de Direitos

Fionuala Cregan, Writer and activist recently returned from Paraguay

Once thought of as a dream fuel, many ecologists and scientists now consider biofuels as an eco-nightmare. Advocates of biofuels argue that they have the potential to slow or even stop climate change. Others counter that million people are currently at risk due to food price increases linked to the growth of biofuels and that they cause deforestation, soil erosion and water shortages.

Latin American Solidarity Centre and Progressio Ireland invite you to a public talk to hear three experts recount their first hand experience of biofuel cultivation in Brazil, Honduras and Paraguay.

-Camilla Moreno recently represented Terra de Direitos at the UN conference on biodiversity. Terra de Direitos is a non-profit association that promotes and defends the rights and liberties of Latin American social movements, particularly those that address social and environmental issues.

-Fionuala Cregan is a LASC supporter who has recently returned from Paraguay, where she visited a number of rural communities impacted by soya production. Fionuala will discuss what happens to rural communities when biofuels are introduced, especially the impacts on livelihoods and food security, on health and human rights.

-Xiomara Ventura is Progressio’s Country Director in Honduras. Previously professor at the Catholic University, Honduras, Xiomara also worked for the Netherlands Development Organisation. She was a founder of the Party of Democratic Unification, today an important political party in Honduras.

To reserve a place, email [email protected] or call 01- 6144966.

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Comments (3 of 3)

acknowledgment

by JAG - LASC

Wed Jun 04, 2008 13:29

We want to acknowledge the Cork based organisation Ethical Development Action for making it possible to count on the day with the presence of Camila, the Brazilian speaker.

she will be also doing some presentations in Cork. If you want any further information on her Cork programme you can contact them at

[email protected]

Very much an eco-nightmare

by billy idle

Wed Jun 04, 2008 17:56

As amply demonstrated by the impending total destruction of what is left of the Indonesian rainforests which were already in big trouble having been ruthlessly exploited by foreign multinationals who gained access to these precious irreplaceable natural resources by propping up the American supported corrupt military regime of Suharto from the late sixties to 1998. Various ethnic groups also suffered when the attempted to stop the rape and pillage of their lands in Borneo, Sumantra and elswhere.
Now biofuels in the form of vast palm-oil plantations appear the final nail in the coffin of these unique rain-forests which are some of the richest in terms of biodiversity on the planet and are the only home of charismatic animals such as the Sumatran Tiger, Orang-utan, Proboscis monkey, Sumatran Rhino, Borneo Forest elephant, and countless other species of plants and animals, not to mention numerious tribes with their own unique culture particulary on the island of New Guinea. The wanton destruction of these forests is releasing huge amounts of CO2 and even worse methane(which is 17 times a more powerfull greenhouse gas compared to CO2) since many of them grow on the Indonesian equivalent of peat bogs which release these gas's when the tree cover is removed. All this flys in the face of the so-called "biofuel saving the planet " arguement.

Of course I haven't even mentioned the loss of land for food crops as huge multi-nationals move in and grab the best land to grow this stuff. Already huge amounts of land in America have now been lost to food production thanx to biofuel subsidies pushing up the price of food for everyone and of course hitting the poor and vulnereable the most.

As an illustration of how futile growing biofuels are it has been estimated that if all the land in the US was turned over to biofueles, it would only provide 12% of Americas transport needs and that before one takes into account the huge amount of energy it takes to grow these crops.

Basically biofuels do not make sense at any level

If that was

locally produced biofuel is ok...

by SUV

Wed Jun 04, 2008 20:44

It's just that the economic pressures of the world economy mean that it becomes profitable to get poorly paid slaves in the third world to chop down their forests and grow this stuff, then send it over to us in big ships so we can shove it in our big cars. Just more proof of the insane wasteful and destructive mentality of global capitalism.

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Dream fuel or eco-nightmare?

Comments (3 of 3)