(Movie Hero Torajiro [Tora-san] at Shibamata, Katsushika Ward, Tokyo)Miracle Reports Unearthed
Now the top leaders of China and India have arrived at Hokkaido, Japan, to join the G8 Summit Meeting.
Yet, American media coverage of the G8 Summit looks half-hearted while the Dow Jones Index at NYSE is going down around 11,000 dollars.
On the other hand, the oil price surge seems to have peaked around 140 dollars per barrel.
Maybe, the glory of the U.S. externally conceived has peaked in this era with President Mr. George W. Bush, though the U.S. has passed another Independence Day.
SECTION I: A Confidential World Bank Report
At the G8 Summit Meeting now proceeding in Japan, global leaders must discuss a confidential World Bank report obtained by the Guardian, since it testifies that the US policy on corn-to-ethanol conversion for vehicle fuels has triggered the recent hike of food prices.
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Biofuels have forced global food prices up by 75% - far more than previously estimated - according to a confidential World Bank report obtained by the Guardian.
The figure emphatically contradicts the US government's claims that plant-derived fuels contribute less than 3% to food-price rises.…
The basket of food prices examined in the study rose by 140% between 2002 and this February. The report estimates that higher energy and fertiliser prices accounted for an increase of only 15%, while biofuels have been responsible for a 75% jump over that period….
The report points out biofuels derived from sugarcane, which Brazil specializes in, have not had such a dramatic impact.
Supporters of biofuels argue that they are a greener alternative to relying on oil and other fossil fuels, but even that claim has been disputed by some experts, who argue that it does not apply to US production of ethanol from plants.…
http://www.guardian.co.uk/environment/2008/jul/03/biofuels.renewableenergy
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It may be not the Iraqi War but the policy on corn-to-ethanol conversion that President Mr. George W. Bush must be first evaluated in terms of leadership and responsibility to mankind.
Anyway, he has occupied Iraq with the world third largest oil reserves and paved the way for new fuel market along with accepting higher oil prices.
President Mr. George W. Bush did not succeed in oil business when he was young; but as president, he has achieved great performance in the oil-related field, very ironically.
SECTION II: A FOREIGN AFFAIRS REPORT
A year ago, a report from FOREIGN AFFAIRS discussed how to stop the surge of corn prices caused by the demand for corn-based ethanol.
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How Biofuels Could Starve the Poor
C. Ford Runge and Benjamin Senauer
May/June 2007
There were 110 ethanol refineries in operation in the United States at the end of 2006, according to the Renewable Fuels Association. Many were being expanded, and another 73 were under construction. When these projects are completed, by the end of 2008, the United States' ethanol production capacity will reach an estimated 11.4 billion gallons per year. In his latest State of the Union address, President George W. Bush called on the country to produce 35 billion gallons of renewable fuel a year by 2017, nearly five times the level currently mandated….
The push for ethanol and other biofuels has spawned an industry that depends on billions of dollars of taxpayer subsidies, and not only in the United States. In 2005, global ethanol production was 9.66 billion gallons, of which Brazil produced 45.2 percent (from sugar cane) and the United States 44.5 percent (from corn). Global production of biodiesel (most of it in Europe), made from oilseeds, was almost one billion gallons….
The enormous volume of corn required by the ethanol industry is sending shock waves through the food system. (The United States accounts for some 40 percent of the world's total corn production and over half of all corn exports.) In March 2007, corn futures rose to over $4.38 a bushel, the highest level in ten years….
In 2005, the European Union produced 890 million gallons of biodiesel, over 80 percent of the world's total. The EU's Common Agricultural Policy also promotes the production of ethanol from a combination of sugar beets and wheat with direct and indirect subsidies. Brussels aims to have 5.75 percent of motor fuel consumed in the European Union come from biofuels by 2010 and 10 percent by 2020….
The Millennium Development Goals established by the United Nations in 2000 vowed to halve the proportion of the world's chronically underfed population from 16 percent in 1990 to eight percent in 2015. Realistically, however, resorting to biofuels is likely to exacerbate world hunger. Several studies by economists at the World Bank and elsewhere suggest that caloric consumption among the world's poor declines by about half of one percent whenever the average prices of all major food staples increase by one percent….
In March, the U.S. Energy Department announced that it would invest up to $385 million in six biorefineries designed to convert cellulose into ethanol. That is a promising step in the right direction.
http://www.foreignaffairs.org/20070501faessay86305-p40/c-ford-runge-benjamin-senauer/how-biofuels-could-starve-the-poor.html
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If cellulose rather than corn becomes the major source for ethanol used as fuel for cars, situations around poor people in the world might be improved.
But, what is needed now is to stop the sale of corn to the ethanol industry.
It should be discussed today and tomorrow in the G8 Summit being held in Hokkaido.
SECTION III: AN MSNBC REPORT
Yet, the prospect of cellulose ethanol was discussed this March in the MSNBC site.
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Why your food is costing more money
By Tom Curry
National affairs writer
MSNBC
updated 4:47 p.m. ET March 14, 2008
…Minnesota Gov. Tim Pawlenty, a Republican, said, “What we have now (corn-based ethanol) is going to be viewed as early stage, and what’s coming is going to be much better. And what’s coming is cellulosic ethanol, where you’re going to be able to take not food and make it into fuel, but other sorts of products — it may be corn stalks, switchgrass, woody pulp material, or other things that are not connected to the food chain.”
Pawlenty estimates cellulosic ethanol is “probably three to seven years away” on a widely-available market basis.
“The concern about food-based ethanol is one that we’re mindful of,” he added.
Pawlenty’s fellow Minnesotan, Sen. Amy Klobuchar, a Democrat, said Thursday that ethanol is “clearly a piece of it (the food price increase) because there’s more demand for corn and soybeans. But that’s why in the farm bill we do start with some good incentives to expand into cellulosic. There’s an acknowledgment even from the best corn growers that there’s only so much corn, and that we’re going to have to start expanding into corn stover as well as switchgrass….”
Last week, in a speech to the European Parliament Development Committee, Josette Sheeran, the Executive Director of the UN World Food Program, said her agency now faces a $500 million shortfall “just due to soaring food and fuel costs — up more than 40 percent since (last) June — which will lead to ration cuts unless we receive additional help soon.”
She added that “high food prices have created an urgent situation throughout many developing countries and have directly hit WFP’s ability to respond to those needs.”
http://www.msnbc.msn.com/id/23632933/
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Indeed, even before the secret report of the World Bank was discovered, people were already talking about the need to switch to cellulose, in addition to influences on the global food market.
The White House must be therefore well aware of this disastrous effect the corn-based ethanol fuels have brought about on the global food market.
US President should explain it to the world at the G8 Summit.
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That is all for today.
You may be busy now as I predicted since this is the season of the G8 Summit and the Olympic Games in the East Asia.
But, a miracle I expect, if so intangible, would surpass these fabulous events, since I visited O-Daiba at the Tokyo Bay and a temple of Shibamata at the Tokyo downtown.
(The movie series titled “Otoko-wa Tsurai-yo” seem to be really fun for Japanese audience and good materials for foreign researchers on Japan or Japanese.
But, when I was young, I was never impressed by heroines who played a dream lover for Tora-san in each work of the title, since they looked too good to be true.
Yet, in these days, I think there can be something too divine to be categorized as being too good to be true.
http://www.fukuchan.ac/music/movie/summerplace.html )
Mar 13:28 Now learn a parable of the fig tree; When her branch is yet tender, and putteth forth leaves, ye know that summer is near:
Mar 13:29 So ye in like manner, when ye shall see these things come to pass, know that it is nigh, even at the doors.
Mar 13:30 Verily I say unto you, that this generation shall not pass, till all these things be done.