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Dear jatropha group
here are some articles about how biofuels are being
promoted in Indonesia (1), by the EU, US (5, scroll
down), Uganda, where forest/national parks are being
cealr-felled, and Brazil (last), where an article has
appeared in the UK's Guardian saying they are no
challenge for the environment!! The G is normally a
good paper, but recently has also carried some
extremely distorting articles on India by its Delhi
correspondent, basically blaiming Maoists for holding
up India's development!
But NOTE that the article on China (5) points out
there's worry there, realising (as an article recently
by Fidel Castro pointed out), that devoting land for
biofuels when hunger's a problem for large parts of
the population is very dangerous.
Again - do people have any info about similar
promotion of jatropha etc in India?
Best wishes
Felix
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Messages In This Digest (6 Messages)
Messages
- 1.
-
Thu May 31, 2007 5:14 am (PST)
Indonesia needs to protect its own domestic Palm Oil for food/cooking - 4.5
million tons per year
http://www.bkpm.go.id/bkpm/news.php?mode=baca
< http://www.bkpm.go.id/bkpm/news.php?mode=baca&info_id=6266> &info_id=6266
Crude Palm Oil Policy to be Effective from June 1
Cheta Nilawaty, Sutarto, TEMPO Interactive
Jakarta, 30 May, 2007 (TEMPO Interactive) - Crude palm oil (CPO) producers
are to be obligated to set aside some of their products for domestic needs.
The domestic market obligation (DPO) policy will come into effect as from
June 1, 2007.
"The DPO implementation is a mandate of the State Decree on Plantations, "
said Anton Apriyantono, Agriculture Minister, after accepting bird flu
vaccine aid from Chinese government at the Agriculture Department building,
Jakarta, yesterday (29/5).
"(The implementation provision) is the Agriculture Minister Decision for a
start," he said
Anton explained that for the time being, the DMO policy was being
implemented in order to fulfil domestic cooking oil needs because cooking
oil is one of the nine staple household goods.
Therefore, CPO stocks are prioritized for domestic needs.
"It's unfortunate (for producers) if the price abroad is high, but we limit
it here," said Anton.
On the other side, in order to secure domestic stocks, the government cannot
determine the price.
"We still leave the price to the market mechanism," said Anton.
Regarding the CPO quota per producer, he went on to say it will be
determined later with the Industry and Trade Departments.
"It can't be set by us alone," said Anton
What is certain is the minimum limit being calculated based on the company's
tax payment and amount shipped abroad.
Anton said that the DMO policy is effective even for companies associated
with Malaysia.
Fahmi Idris, the Industry Minister, instead stated that the DMO policy for
fulfilling domestic palm oil need will be effective by the end of the month.
He explained domestic CPO needs reach 4.5 million tons per year.
"So the obligation (DMO) amount is between 4.5 million to 5 million tons per
year," he said, on Monday (28/5) at the Vice President's office, Jakarta.
- 2.
-
Thu May 31, 2007 10:46 am (PST)
ISIS Press Release 31/05/07
------------ ---------------
GM Eucalyptus Environmental Assessment
**************************************
Irregular USDA's environmental assessment uses confidential
business information liberally and frivolously and violates
its own regulation if not federal law Prof. Joe Cummins and
Dr. Mae-Wan Ho
Irregularities at USDA
----------------------
USDA/APHIS has prepared an
environmental assessment [1] i n response to a permit
application (APHIS Number 06-325-111r) from ArborGen LLC
(ArborGen) to "continue" a field test of genetically
engineered (transgenic) Eucalyptus trees during which the
trees may flower. These plants are clones codenamed EH1
derived from a hybrid of Eucalyptus grandis X Eucalyptus
urophylla, and have been genetically engineered with three
different constructs. The primary purpose of the test is to
examine the efficacy two of the constructs intended to
confer cold tolerance, and a gene designed to reduce flower
development.
There are serious irregularities with the USDA/APHIS
environmental risk assessment [1].
First, the genes in all three constructs are claimed as
confidential business information (CBI). In addition, the
selectable marker gene that accompanies the constructs is
also claimed as CBI.
Second, according to APHIS, the field test was originally
planted under APHIS Notification (05-256-03r) [2], but that
permit was for a different organism - Eucalyptus grandis -
not the hybrid in the current application 06-325-111r.
Third, ArborGen was charged with non-compliance on 17 July
2006 for failing to maintain the identity of trees in their
test plots and the infraction was resolved by the removal of
the offending trees from the test location [3].
Because APHIS has allowed the transgenes to be designated
CBI, the environmental assessment can have no credence
because there is no way that an independent investigator can
judge the assurances given in the APHIS report. The report
stated [1]: "The gene used as a selectable marker is claimed
as CBI. In a number of instances, plants transformed with
this gene have been deregulated by APHIS. Consequently,
APHIS has determined the presence of this gene will have no
significant environmental impacts." If the marker is a
deregulated item, allowing it to be designated CBI seems
both frivolous and irregular.
The fact that USDA/APHIS is now giving approval for a
previous charge of non-compliance is a clear violation of
its own regulation, if not federal law.
Potential misrepresentation
---------------------------
The environmental assessment
claims that the GM hybrids did not contain genes for toxins.
However, a patent application by ArborGen for regulationof
reproduction in Angiosperms and Gymnosperm plants does
employ the potent cell toxin barnase for cell ablation [4].
The well known toxicity of barnase to mammals as used in
cell ablation to control flowering has been discussed [5, 6]
( Terminator Trees , SiS 26; Chronicle of An Ecological
Disaster Foretold , SiS 18). The use of that toxin gene may
have been covered up by the CBI designation. ArborGen has a
number of patent for modification of gene expression [7-12],
all of which pose a significant threat to the environment
which has not previously been subject to regulatory
scrutiny. but CBI designation provided by APHIS will prevent
independent scrutiny and assessment. The various known
complication resulting from the use of transgenes similar to
those available for use by ArborGen were recently reviewed
[13, 14] ( View from MADS House , SiS 26); GM Food Nightmare
Unfolding in the Regulatory Sham , ISIS scientific
publication).
Federal Courts in the US have ruled against the Department
of Agriculture (USDA) in three successive cases for failing
to carry out proper environment impact assessment, making
the original approvals of GM crops illegal. In all three
cases, USDA was found to have flouted the law and
disregarded health and environmental concerns in their
approvals of the GM crops [15]. As we pointed out, the
failure to identify the locations and the exact nature of GM
crops being tested must also be addressed along with the
frivolous use of Confidential Business Information
designations to conceal crucial information for safety
evaluation and the persistent regulatory bias towards the
uncritical acceptance of GM crops.
The current application for GM eucalyptus trees must be
rejected. Furthermore, a ban on further spread of GM forest
trees should be imposed [16].
Read the rest of this article here
http://www.i-sis.org.uk/GEEAI.php
========================================================
This article can be found on the I-SIS website at
http://www.i-sis.org.uk/
If you like this original article from the Institute of
Science in Society, and would like to continue receiving
articles of this calibre, please consider making a donation
or purchase on our website
http://www.i-sis.org.uk/donations.
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dedicated to providing critical public information on
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15:03
- 3.
-
Fri Jun 1, 2007 2:14 am (PST)
The EU's agrofuel folly: policy capture by corporate interests
Despite growing public concern about the social and environmental
risks associated to agrofuels (more frequently referred to as
biofuels) and their problematic climate impacts, the European Union
is throwing its weight behind the promotion of these often very
harmful crops. In March 2007, the European Commission proposed
targets to increase the use of agrofuels in all road transport fuel
to 10 percent by 2020. The Commission is also planning to channel
large amounts of EU funds towards the research & development to boost
the use of agrofuels.
A new CEO report uncovers how the EU?s promotion of agrofuels has
been heavily influenced by corporate interests, including car
manufacturers, biotech companies and the oil industry. On the
invitation of the European Commission, these industries have steered
EU policy on agrofuels through industry-dominated advisory bodies
such as the Advisory Research Council for Biofuels (BIOFRAC) and
the European Biofuels Technology Platform (EBFTP).
Read the full report at:
http://www.corporateeurope.org/agrofuelfolly.html
For more information about EU agrofuels and climate change policies,
see:
http://www.corporateeurope.org/agrofuels.html
- 4.
-
Fri Jun 1, 2007 2:40 am (PST)
Ethiopian elephants, lions face extinction
ADDIS ABABA (Reuters) - A thousand rare black-mane lions -- an Ethiopian
national symbol -- and some 300 elephants are in danger after a swathe of
forest that was part of their sanctuary was cut down, a wildlife expert said
on Thursday.
The land was cleared from a designated conservation area at Midiga Tola,
adjacent to the Babile Elephant Sanctuary located 557 km (346 miles) east of
Addis Ababa, Ethiopian Wildlife Association President Yirmed Demeke said.
Flora EcoPower Holding AG, a German biodiesel producer, cleared the forest
after it was granted 10,000 hectares of land, Yirmed said.
"The company has continued to clear the forested land without any concern
for the wild anmials threatened by the destruction of an internationally
recognized conservation area," Yirmed said.
Munich-based Flora EcoPower's chief operations officer for Ethiopia said the
company met wildlife experts and government officials over the past few days
to solve the problem.
"We are not touching one area where there are elephants," said Alon Hovev,
adding that the area they were working in was 30 km from the elephants'
habitat.
The problem, he said, arose from a lack of communication between the company
and conservation groups, which had been solved by the meetings.
"No one can tell us we are not taking care of animals. Anything they will
tell us to do, we will do and we will contribute money," he said.
Continued... <javascript:goToPage(2);>
End: Story Text
Wildlife experts who visited the forest lodged protests with the regional
and federal governments, saying the company had not conducted the legally
required environmental impact assessment before cutting the forest down.
Tadesse Hailu, head of the Ministry of Agriculture's Wildlife Protection
Department, said local authorities must make sure that investment does not
harm conservation areas, wildlife or the environment.
The 7,000 square-kilometer (4,350 square mile) sanctuary is the only one of
its kind in Ethiopia, and is home to about 300 elephants, 1,000 black-mane
lions and 250 bird and plant species endemic to the Horn of Africa nation.
The black-mane lions are revered as a national symbol in Ethiopia, where
they are on the national currency and are often depicted in statues.
- 5.
-
Fri Jun 1, 2007 2:49 am (PST)
http://www.csmonitor.com/2007/0531/p01s04-wosc.html
As pork prices soar, Chinese put brakes on corn for ethanol
With a famine less than 50 years in its past, China remains sensitive about
using food for fuel.
By Peter
< http://www.csmonitor.com/cgi-bin/encryptmail.pl?ID=D0E5F4E5F2A0C6EFF2E4&url
=/2007/0531/ p01s04-wosc.html> Ford | Staff writer of The Christian Science
Monitor
Page 1 of 3
<http://www.csmonitor.com/2007/0531/p06s01-wogn.html> (Photograph)
Reporters on the job: Peter Ford shares the story behind the story
<http://www.csmonitor.com/2007/0531/p06s01-wogn.html> .
John Nordell - Staff
Beijing - Ethanol production has put the Chinese government in an unpleasant
bind, as fears rise that the environmentally friendly gasoline additive is
also fueling politically dangerous increases in the price of food -
particularly pork, a key staple.
With the ethanol industry gobbling up a growing share of China's corn
harvest, authorities have stomped on the brakes to slow what one official
report calls "blind" investment in distilleries.
"China cannot sacrifice food security for energy: that seems to be the
majority view in the government now," says Zhang Zhongjun, deputy head of
the Beijing bureau of the United Nations' Food and Agriculture Organization
(FAO).
Prime Minister Wen Jiabao offered the latest sign of government concern when
he made a highly publicized visit last weekend to a piggery and a meat
market in Xi'an, about 750 miles southwest of Beijing. The price of pork has
gone up by 29 percent over the past year and the price of live pigs by 71
percent, according to the Agriculture Ministry.
In a country where people eat more pork than anywhere else in the world
except Germany, that jump in the price of a staple has dominated recent
headlines and sparked grumbling.
"The government is going all out to ensure the supply of pork and keep it
affordable," Mr. Wen reassured a supermarket crowd, according to the Xinhua
state news agency.
"The Chinese government is very sensitive to this," says Hu Xingdou, a
political analyst at the Beijing Institute of Technology. "They are afraid
that rising prices will affect social stability. They have not forgotten
that inflation was an important reason for people to get involved in the
events of 1989," when students led massive protests in Tiananmen Square.
Industry analysts blame the price rises partly on a shortage of pigs in the
wake of outbreaks of "blue-ear disease" around China.
Though the authorities have publicly admitted to only 300 deaths, they have
privately reported 100,000 mortalities to international agencies, and even
that figure is not credible, say experts.
"Several million pigs may have died, we just don't know," says one
international expert familiar with the situation. Chinese farmers raised 465
million pigs last year.
At the root of the problem, though, say agriculture analysts, is the rising
cost of pig feed, which is comprised mostly of corn. Despite a bumper crop
last year, corn prices have risen by nearly 30 percent over the past nine
months on the Dalian Commodities Exchange.
That, says Luo Yunbo, head of the food-science department at China
Agriculture University, is because "corn is being sought for industrial
purposes, such as ethanol, not just agricultural use."
Pushback on ethanol
Ethanol has been trumpeted as the alternative fuel of the future, offering
cleaner energy and new opportunities for farmers in developing countries.
(Photograph)
Pricey pork: Chinese premier Wen Jiabao (c.) raised attention to China's
soaring pork prices with a visit last weekend to Xi'an, about 750 miles
southwest of Beijing.
Yao Dawei/Xinhua/Reuters
China's current Five Year Plan sets the goal of using biofuels for 15
per-cent of the country's transport needs by 2020; already gas stations in a
number of provinces mix 10 percent ethanol into the gasoline they sell.
But critics around the world have recently begun to question the
unconsidered effects of large-scale ethanol production, such as increasing
competition for human or animal food supplies. And in China, where an
estimated 30 million people died in a famine less than 50 years ago, many
have reservations about using food for fuel.
As ethanol factories large and small have sprung up in China's corn
producing regions in recent years, they have begun to compete with
animal-feed manufacturers for raw materials.
The industrial use of corn nearly doubled between 2001 and 2005, to 23
million tons, according to a study released last December by the National
Development and Reform Committee, China's chief economic planning agency.
That represented 16.5 percent of the corn harvest in 2005.
The result, said the report, is a shortage of corn. "Corn supplies to the
processing industry compete with supply for [animal] feed, which impacts the
development of stock-breeding."
The proportion of China's corn crop used for nonfood purposes is dwarfed by
the 30 percent of American corn that goes into ethanol, and Chinese ethanol
production - estimated at 3.7 million tons by the Louisiana State University
Agriculture Center in 2005 - was a quarter of US levels.
But "China is different," argues the FAO's Mr. Zhang. "America and Brazil
have huge land areas and plenty of water," he points out. "China has
shortages of water and arable land, and it is a deficit country," importing
more grain than it exports.
Debate in China picking up speed
In the ongoing debate among Chinese leaders and scholars about the value of
ethanol and biofuels, "more and more people think that China's potential is
not so big, that China cannot use food for fuel because food security is
more important than energy and because food is politically very important,"
Zhang says.
Such arguments convinced the government to slap new controls on the
corn-processing industry late last December, suspending all investment
projects still in the pipeline and insisting that all future ethanol
projects should apply for approval from state planning agencies.
The continuing rise in corn prices since the beginning of this year suggests
that the central government is having its usual difficulty in controlling
developments in China's provinces. But the crisis has not deterred the
authorities from pursuing other ethanol distilling projects and biofuel
experiments.
A state-owned grain and oils conglomerate will launch a pilot project later
this year to process cassava - a starchy tuber that is not considered a food
in China - into ethanol. Plans are also under way to plant tens of thousands
of acres of jatropha - also inedible and grown in wastelands - by the end of
the decade.
One principle must rule the development of China's alternative fuel
industry, the National Development and Reform Committee insists: "a
guarantee that foodgrains are not the main source" of its raw materials.
1 <http://www.csmonitor.com/2007/0531/p01s04-wosc.html?page=1> | 2
<http://www.csmonitor.com/2007/0531/p01s04-wosc.html?page=2> | Page 3
http://www.alertnet.org/thenews/newsdesk/N31201180.htm
Edwards launches plan to boost U.S. ethanol use
31 May 2007 20:04:04 GMT
Source: Reuters
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By Tom Doggett
WASHINGTON, May 31 (Reuters) - Democratic presidential candidate John
Edwards on Thursday unveiled an energy proposal that rivals plans by fellow
candidates in the race toward boosting the use of ethanol in the United
States.
At a campaign appearance in California, Edwards said he would force oil
companies to install ethanol pumps at a quarter of their service stations
and require automakers to build cars that can run on biofuels.
Edwards' plan to boost the use of ethanol, currently made mostly in the
United States from corn, should appeal to voting farmers in Iowa, which next
January holds the first state caucus of the 2008 U.S. presidential election.
He wants cars built after 2010 to be "flex fuel" vehicles that use either
gasoline or biofuels, like ethanol.
Edwards wants oil companies to make ethanol supplies more widely available.
About 1,200 service stations, located mainly in the Midwest, out of about
180,000 stations nationwide now sell E85 fuel that contains 85 percent
ethanol and 15 percent gasoline.
RIVAL PLANS
Presidential candidates, Democratic and Republican, are touting the benefits
of ethanol in their campaigns.
Democratic rival Sen. Barack Obama also backs more ethanol use and supported
giving service station owners tax credits to cover 30 percent of the cost of
switching traditional gasoline pumps to E85 fuel.
It can cost $20,000 to $200,000 to install an E85 pump and tank equipment,
according to the American Petroleum Institute.
Under Edwards' energy initiative, U.S. consumption of ethanol would soar to
65 billion gallons a year by 2025.
That amount of ethanol is far more than what farming experts say can be
produced solely from the U.S. corn crop. Ethanol output above about 15
billion gallons a year would require the fuel to be made from cellulosic
sources, such as corn stalks, switch grass, wood chips and other
agricultural and forest waste.
But the science is still not there yet to make cellulosic ethanol cheaper
than corn-based ethanol.
To help reach that goal, Edwards would create a $13 billion fund to develop
new energy sources. The money would come from selling greenhouse gas
pollution permits as part of his plan to cut global warming emissions by 80
percent by 2050 and repealing federal subsidies for oil companies.
Competing presidential hopeful Sen. Hillary Rodham Clinton is seeking a much
bigger $50 billion strategic energy research fund for ethanol and other
energy sources that would be paid for by requiring oil companies to invest
in renewable energy or put money in the fund. She would also end Big Oil tax
breaks.
In an effort to cut America's foreign oil addiction, Edwards wants to lower
U.S. oil imports by 7.5 million barrels a day by 2025, which would equal
almost a third of projected U.S. oil demand at that time.
Energy experts say the most efficient way to do that would be to raise
vehicle fuel economy standards, because gasoline use accounts for about 45
percent of U.S. daily oil demand.
Edwards' energy plan would require cars to get 40 miles per gallon by 2016
and provide automakers $1 billion a year to modernize their plants with the
latest technology to produce the fuel efficient vehicles.
For the short-term, the former North Carolina U.S. senator also wants the
Justice Department to investigate the impact of giant oil company mergers on
record high gasoline prices.
- 6.
-
Fri Jun 1, 2007 4:00 am (PST)
This article can be replied to for 3 days on the Guardian website – any Brazilian experts willing? (there’s a lot already …
http://commentisfree.guardian.co.uk/lula_da_silva/2007/05/the_challenge_of_sustainable_d.html
Brazil does it better
Biofuels cut emissions and offer hope to the poor, but the rich must make their contribution.
Lula da < http://commentisfree.guardian.co.uk/lula_da_silva/profile.html> Silva
< http://commentisfree.guardian.co.uk/lula_da_silva/index.xml> All Lula da Silva articles
About Webfeeds < http://commentisfree.guardian.co.uk/webfeeds.html>
May 31, 2007 11:00 PM | Printable version < http://commentisfree.guardian.co.uk/lula_da_silva/2007/05/the_challenge_of_sustainable_d.html.printer.friendly>
The findings of the Intergovernmental Panel on < http://www.ipcc.ch/> Climate Change (IPCC) underscore an enormous challenge facing the planet earth: how to reconcile the wellbeing of the world's six billion inhabitants with the growing threat to the global environment. The IPCC reports convey a clear and dramatic warning about the downside to modernity and industrialisation. Clearly, we can no longer remain indifferent to the impact of climate change on human communities and the biosphere.
Harmonising economic growth and environmental protection is particularly challenging to poor countries, which are most vulnerable to the impact of global warming. Energy conservation and, most importantly, the pressing need to reduce greenhouse gas emissions resulting from the burning of fossil fuels, are key elements in the growing international endeavour to reduce climate change.
We all have responsibilities in this global initiative, but they must be differentiated. Developing countries cannot be expected to share an equal burden in offsetting the environmental impacts mostly caused by richer countries, currently still responsible for 65% of overall greenhouse gas emissions.
Brazil does not wish to shy away from its responsibilities. Our energy matrix is 45% renewable, against a worldwide average of 14%. We are dramatically reducing the pace of deforestation - there has been a 52% decrease since 2003.
However, Brazil is determined to be even more ambitious. We have been reducing our greenhouse gases emissions for over 30 years by substituting fossil fuels with sugarcane-based ethanol < http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Ethanol_fuel> . This has led to a dramatic fall in domestic petroleum consumption and pollution. Vehicles currently topping sales in Brazil are "flex-fuel", which means that they can run on petrol, ethanol or any combination of the two.
Certain myths about biofuels must be put to rest. Ethanol use does not threaten the environment. Neither does sugarcane cause damage to rainforests, for it grows poorly in Amazonian soil. Sugarcane does, however, help to recover degraded pasture lands elsewhere in the country, which can then be brought back into agricultural use.
Brazil has 320 million hectares of arable land, of which only a fifth is under plough. Out of this fraction, less than 4% are used for sugarcane-derived ethanol production. Decades of research have made Brazilian sugarcane the most efficient raw material for producing ethanol; it is five times more productive than sugar beet and maize, its main European and American competitors. As a result, ethanol production is expected to increase from the current 18 billion litres per year to 26 billion by 2010, with only a modest increase in land usage.
Nobody need go hungry for lack of food in the world. Global supplies are more than sufficient to feed us all. It is rather the lack of income that prevents a billion men and women from having adequate access to three square meals a day. Unfortunately this is one fundamental human right still not observed universally.
Identifying renewable energy sources is only half of the global challenge. We need to generate employment opportunities and income for small farmers instead of pushing them into urban ghettos. It is worthwhile noting that the sugarcane business in Brazil earns US$ 8 billion a year and generates a million direct jobs.
Brazil's bio-diesel programme, based on oil seeds such as castor and sunflower, is equally impressive. These crops produce clean energy, absorb carbon monoxide and are highly labour intensive: for each mill worker, another thousand are required for harvesting.
The setting up of rigorous national biofuel certification systems, possibly within the framework of multilateral agreements, will ensure the necessary oversight to enforce adequate environmental and labour standards in the biofuels industry. A balance between small family farms and large-scale plantations is also within reach, as provided for by Brazilian legislation.
Brazil is open to requests for technical cooperation in biofuels production and marketing. Mozambique is launching an ethanol programme thanks to the alliance of Brazilian expertise and British funding. We can easily replicate this initiative in the whole of sub-Saharan Africa.
With a view to making biofuels a truly global energy alternative, we are bringing together major biofuel producers and consumers to set joint production goals and agree on common technical standards. Biofuels can help deal with global environmental threats as well as rising fuel prices. Above all, they offer to poor countries the hope of steady economic growth, without putting in jeopardy poverty alleviation and environmental protection policies. The global community would also stand to benefit from the ensuing reduction in political instability, social unrest and unmanageable migration in many poorer countries.
However, this revolution will only come about if ethanol and biodiesel are freely traded internationally as energy commodities. In order to make Brazil's biofuels model widely available, rich countries must open up their markets to developing countries by eliminating agricultural subsidies and other protectionist barriers to biofuels imports.
As Brazil's experience shows, biofuels offer an exciting possibility of combining energy security with social and environmental benefits. The proposal that we are putting forward offers an excellent example of how to apply fairly and effectively the principle of common but differentiated responsibilities to sustainable development.
< http://users.guardian.co.uk/register/1,12904,-1,00.html>
worried
Comment No. 612082 < http://commentisfree.guardian.co.uk/lula_da_silva/2007/05/the_challenge_of_sustainable_d.html#comment-612082>
May < http://commentisfree.guardian.co.uk/lula_da_silva/2007/05/the_challenge_of_sustainable_d.html#comment-612082> 31 23:16
I wonder if Conor Foley wrote this.
I would love to have a response here from the PM, Mr Bush, and say thehead of BP, Exxon et al plus a couple of agriculturam scientists.
For the poor idiot public of which I am a humble representative, we need a broad rage of interested inputs. Otherwise we will be forced to believe or disbelieve the media coverage of the subject without any way of formulating a proper opinion.
So bad it is.
But I like this Lula piece. A lot.
[Offensive? Unsuitable? Report this comment.]
farofa
Comment No. 612087 < http://commentisfree.guardian.co.uk/lula_da_silva/2007/05/the_challenge_of_sustainable_d.html#comment-612087>
May < http://commentisfree.guardian.co.uk/lula_da_silva/2007/05/the_challenge_of_sustainable_d.html#comment-612087> 31 23:20
BRA
Blimey
[Offensive? Unsuitable? Report <mailto: comment.is.free@guardian.co.uk?subject=A%20proble m%20with%20http://commentisfree.guardian.co.uk/lula_da_silva/2007/05/the_challenge_of_sustainable_d.html&body=Please%20tell%20us%20the%20problem.%20For%20our%20reference,%20internally%20this%20comment%20is%20known%20as%20Number%20612087,%20was%20written%20by%20farofa,%20%20at%20May%2031,%202007%2011:20%20PM,%20and%20starts%20with%20Blimey> this comment.]
brown2
Comment No. 612100 <http://commentisfree.guardian.co.uk/lula_da_silva/2007/05/the_challenge_of_sustainable_d.html#comment-612100>
May <http://commentisfree.guardian.co.uk/lula_da_silva/2007/05/the_challenge_of_sustainable_d.html#comment-612100> 31 23:30
ITA
President Lula , I was a bit disillusioned by your willingness to collaborate with multinational giants which keep on exploiting global resources while destroying the environment. I guess this is called realpolitik. But I am ready to forgive, if I see real changes in other areas.
On the home front, we need to know what has been achieved under your mandate in protecting the Amazonian rainforest from further deforestation.
I believe this could be the greatest contribution you can make to save the planet.
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Toddisgod
Comment No. 612115 <http://commentisfree.guardian.co.uk/lula_da_silva/2007/05/the_challenge_of_sustainable_d.html#comment-612115>
May <http://commentisfree.guardian.co.uk/lula_da_silva/2007/05/the_challenge_of_sustainable_d.html#comment-612115> 31 23:43
GBR
Dear Lulu when you gonna bring in socialism?
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TheNuclearOption
Comment No. 612119 <http://commentisfree.guardian.co.uk/lula_da_silva/2007/05/the_challenge_of_sustainable_d.html#comment-612119>
May <http://commentisfree.guardian.co.uk/lula_da_silva/2007/05/the_challenge_of_sustainable_d.html#comment-612119> 31 23:44
GBR
"In order to make Brazil's biofuels model widely available, rich countries must open up their markets to developing countries by eliminating agricultural subsidies and other protectionist barriers to biofuels imports."
Why just stop at biofuel imports?
Globalisation, its a wonderfull thing.
I'm surprised that we so under exploit the solar energy that falls on the 70% of the Earth's surface that is covered by water. It seems to be the one area where there is little research.
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biba100mejico
Comment No. 612135 <http://commentisfree.guardian.co.uk/lula_da_silva/2007/05/the_challenge_of_sustainable_d.html#comment-612135>
June <http://commentisfree.guardian.co.uk/lula_da_silva/2007/05/the_challenge_of_sustainable_d.html#comment-612135> 1 0:00
MEX
"As Brazil's experience shows, biofuels offer an exciting possibility......"
This possibility is not applicable to all poor countries.
Brazil has an enormous land mass to put to use but will this just make the rich richer and leave the poor, who can't afford flexifuel cars, to rot?
As President of Brazil you've still got a long way to go to improve your Gini.
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56000xp
Comment No. 612172 <http://commentisfree.guardian.co.uk/lula_da_silva/2007/05/the_challenge_of_sustainable_d.html#comment-612172>
June <http://commentisfree.guardian.co.uk/lula_da_silva/2007/05/the_challenge_of_sustainable_d.html#comment-612172> 1 0:36
IRL
"Biofuels can help deal with global environmental threats as well as rising fuel prices. Above all, they offer to poor countries the hope of steady economic growth, without putting in jeopardy poverty alleviation and environmental protection policies. "
To quote G Monbiot
"In 2003, the biologist Jeffrey Dukes calculated that the fossil fuels we burn in one year were made from organic matter �containing 44�10 to the 18 grams of carbon, which is more than 400 times the net primary productivity of the planet�s current biota.�(1) In plain English, this means that every year we use four centuries� worth of plants and animals."
Meanwhile our use of fuels for transport etc increases every year by several percent, as China and India (and Brazil for that matter) take off demand will increase further. Therefore there is no way that biofuels will ever affect fuel prices because they will never be able to significantly replace petroleum.
Also, as your biodisel industtry takes off so will deforestation and the increase in the use of land for producing the carbon, this is inevitable, if biodisel production is profitable it will expand, Malaysian biofuel production has been one of the greatest contributors to deforestation there.
Read Monbiot's article here...
http://www.monbiot.com/archives/2005/12/06/worse-than-fossil-fuel/
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JohnBMurdoch
Comment No. 612201 <http://commentisfree.guardian.co.uk/lula_da_silva/2007/05/the_challenge_of_sustainable_d.html#comment-612201>
June <http://commentisfree.guardian.co.uk/lula_da_silva/2007/05/the_challenge_of_sustainable_d.html#comment-612201> 1 1:21
USA
"In order to make Brazil's biofuels model widely available, rich countries must open up their markets to developing countries by eliminating agricultural subsidies and other protectionist barriers to biofuels imports."
There is much posturing on the left with regard to the Bush administration. To their (our) great discredit, there is a reflexive reaction by the American Right that essentially requires an instant defense of current U.S. policy. Nowhere is this so misguided as in how we regard trade policy with Latin America.
Lula is being polite: he's not naming names, but he's really talking about American farm subsidies, and American trade barriers to agricultural imports. He's being slightly disingenuous in linking biofuels with the question of agricultural subsidies--what Brazil really wants is for the U.S. to eliminate subsidies and other trade barriers that prevent the importation of farm commodities, particularly sugar, from South America.
Current farm policy in the U.S. is to talk about free trade and globalization--but to effectively block many foreign farm products. The U.S. is hardly alone in this (consider the E.U.'s problems with French farm subsidies)--but just because the French are equally bad on the subject is not a reason to declare the policy good. The Bush administration plan is not that different from the Clinton administration plan--both administrations looked at the political might of the sugar cane lobby and blinked. It was a fight they (and no other administration since Reagan's) did not want to take on.
And that's wrong. Because precisely what is so good about America--and precisely what alienates the we're-your-betters elites of Europe--is the idea of America as a moral concept, not just a set of boundaries. We should be that shining city on a hill (Reagan, and Lincoln); that bastion of freedom (Kennedy); that refuge for the huddled masses of (Europe's) fetid shores (the Statue of Liberty); that neighbor who lends a hand, without thought to the cost (Roosevelt). That means doing the right thing--even if that has some cost to it.
And the right thing to do, here, is to agree with Lula. We are harming the American consumer, we are harming our neighbors in Latin America, we are harming our place and stature in the world by holding on to trade barriers that only serve to line the pockets of a small number of the politically influential elite. We do better for the world--and ultimately, better for ourselves--by opening our markets to farm products from Latin America, whether biofuels, sugar, wheat, or anything else. (Well, perhaps not cocaine or cannibis.) A healthy, liquid, expanding economy in Brazil is the best argument against the nationalize/socialize nonsense of Hugo Chavez. Economic development in Brazil--and all across Latin America--is a good, good thing.
Years ago we faced the same issue over orange juice, and fresh flowers. Guess what? Imports of Brazilian orange juice in the early 1980s didn't destroy the Florida citrus industry. It permitted grocery stores to stock low-cost orange juice year 'round: creating a significantly larger marketplace for the product. Fresh flowers? Who would have thought that an entire industry would develop around the importation and distribution of fresh flowers from Brazil? Cheaply enough that my wife keeps fresh flowers throughout our little house throughout the year.
Alas, there's a problem: the American political process places too much emphasis on Iowa in the presidential race--and every candidate for president knows that you can only promise ever more ridiculous support for "farm support" and ethanol to Iowa voters. Back away from the vote-whoring position later in the race, and your opponents accuse you of "flip-flopping"--even if that means changing your mind when persuaded that your earlier position was really dumb.
We should agree with Lula--we should do the right thing, even if it is not politically expedient. I don't see a candidate on the horizon--not on the right (perhaps Fred Thompson, but who knows?), certainly not on the left--who has anything like the courage to do this.
And that's sad.
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icas
Comment No. 612213 <http://commentisfree.guardian.co.uk/lula_da_silva/2007/05/the_challenge_of_sustainable_d.html#comment-612213>
June <http://commentisfree.guardian.co.uk/lula_da_silva/2007/05/the_challenge_of_sustainable_d.html#comment-612213> 1 1:41
Biofuels are an environmental catastrophy.
If you really want to do something positive for the environment then protect the rain forest from deforestation.
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BrasilMercosul
Comment No. 612216 <http://commentisfree.guardian.co.uk/lula_da_silva/2007/05/the_challenge_of_sustainable_d.html#comment-612216>
June <http://commentisfree.guardian.co.uk/lula_da_silva/2007/05/the_challenge_of_sustainable_d.html#comment-612216> 1 1:47
BRA
Worried,
Lula can not write English. Portuguese is enough for us Brazilians. He is the President of BRASIL, not the USA.
-------------------------------------------------------
Presidente Lula,
Votei no senhor nas 4 �ltimas elei�oes presidenciais e compreendo os limites constitucionais em ser Presidente do Brasil, particularmente apos as piratisacoes - ou "privatizacoes" de FHC, o sociologo de Jacana nos anos 90 - ou "privatizacoes", como a media golpista do Brasil batisou a roubalheira, em ter que lidar com o congresso de 300 picaretas que os brasileiros ingenuamente elegeram e ainda mais com o nosso judiciario infestado de juizes "Lalaus".
Nao mudei meu voto. A m�dia do Brasil continua tentando aplicar seus golpes, mas nos conhecemos a nossa midia golpista de 1964.
Da-lhe Lula l� ! 60% dos brasileiros est�o ao seu lado.
Valeu Presidente Lula, isso e que e pernambucano, isso e que e brasileiro.
Faz o que da e se contenta com o que nao da para fazer, considerando as circuntancias REAIS do Brasil e do mundo.
Vai re-eleger seu sucessor, com o meu voto, Presidente Lula.
O projeto etanol tem que ser bem gerenciado, o Sr sabe o que pode fazer na vida REAL e n�o na utopia, pelos mais necessitados do Brasil e do mundo e colocar o Brasil no lugar que nos cabe: lider pac�fico no mundo em termos ambientais e sociais.
O Sr sabe, ja sofreu na propria pele a injustica da pobreza extrema e do abandono.
Manda bem, Lula!
(Paciencia com os ratos de Bras�lia, do resto do Brasil e do mundo)
------------------------------------------------
President Lula,
I voted for you on the last 4 presidential elections and understand the constitutional limits of being President of Brazil, particularly after the piratisations -or "privatisations" of FHC, the sociologist of Jacana, in the 90�s - as the "coup detat media" of Brazil baptised the robbery, when dealing with our congress of 300 thieves Brazilians ingenuosly elected, let alone our judiciary of so many "Lalau"(thief)judges.
I have not changed my vote, the "coup detat" media tries hard, but we have known them since 1964.
Right on Lula ! 60& of Brazilians back you.
Thank you Lula, thats a real "Pernambucan", thats a real Brazilian.
You do what you are able to and stop ranting about what can not be achieved, considering the worlds and Brazils REAL circumstances.
You will apoint and re-elect our next president, with my vote.
The ethanol project must be well managed, you know what can be done in REAL life and not in utopia, for those who are most in need in Brazil and overseas and place Brazil in its rightfull place: a peaceful world leader in social and environmental problems.
You have known it yourself, what it is to be confronted to the injustice of extreme poverty and exclusion.
Right on, Lula !
(Patience with the rats in Brasilia, elsewhere in Brazil and overseas...)
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farofa
Comment No. 612246 <http://commentisfree.guardian.co.uk/lula_da_silva/2007/05/the_challenge_of_sustainable_d.html#comment-612246>
June <http://commentisfree.guardian.co.uk/lula_da_silva/2007/05/the_challenge_of_sustainable_d.html#comment-612246> 1 2:29
BRA
Icas
Sugarcane ethanol has not proved an environmenal disaster in Brazil and as I am sure you know, sugarcane is grown far from the Amazon and has not even encroached on the other, Atlantic, rainforest.
Biodiesel could be another matter. The government has been promoting palm and castor as biodiesel sources, but at the moment most of it still comes from soy, albeit from small-scale farmers.
Bibamejico: I understand the concern, but a million jobs in ethanol production is more than mere flex-fuel baubles for the rich (and middle and upper working class), and it also means jobs in car assembly. There are some serious questions related to working conditions in sugarcane plantations (some cases of semi-slave labour and some deaths from overwork over the past two years), which Lula has been addressing recently.
56000xp: Monbiot is plain wrong about biofuels never being able to significantly replace oil - they already do in Brazil from a fraction of useable land. Underused land in Africa is also being set aside. Lula mentioned Mozambique, but Petrobras also has projects in the troubled Niger Delta and technology is being exported to India, Vietnam and so forth.
Oil is running out and there will have to be alternatives to stop the global economy crashing. Biofuels are very important, even if largely as an arbitrage tool to contain extreme oil price fluctuations in the medium term.
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FlyByNight
Comment No. 612247 <http://commentisfree.guardian.co.uk/lula_da_silva/2007/05/the_challenge_of_sustainable_d.html#comment-612247>
June <http://commentisfree.guardian.co.uk/lula_da_silva/2007/05/the_challenge_of_sustainable_d.html#comment-612247> 1 2:29
AUS
Just because biofuels are nominally feasible in Brazil, it doesn't follow that they make any sense whatsoever anywhere else in the world.
Brazil is able to maintain a biofuels industry because it has a huge landmass and its population is (on average) very poor. The effect of mandating the use of biofuels in the western world would be to send world food prices soaring as third world countries compete to grow fuel crops for us, resulting in more poverty and famine for the poor buggers.
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bannedbycastro
Comment No. 612258 <http://commentisfree.guardian.co.uk/lula_da_silva/2007/05/the_challenge_of_sustainable_d.html#comment-612258>
June <http://commentisfree.guardian.co.uk/lula_da_silva/2007/05/the_challenge_of_sustainable_d.html#comment-612258> 1 2:47
USA
Let us run the numbers.
Current oil usage is 82.59 million bbl/day
1 barrel of oil is approx. 6.1 GJ
Total is 506 million GJ
6.1 GJ = 0.37 Tons of sucrose
So replacing oil with sucrose requires 30 million tons of sucrose per day or 11.15 billion tons per year. Present production is 114.3 million tons, or 1% of present energy demand.
In the best laboratory conditions 200 grams of sucrose gives 95 grams of ethanol, so if sucrose is converted to ethanol, we presently produce less than 0.5% of our needs.
Total large scale food production.
Corn Acreage: 87,000,000 acres
Production: 335 million tons (87 million for ethanol)
$132 per ton
Wheat Acreage: 60,000,000 acres
Production: 60 million tons
$160 per ton
Soybean Acreage: 70,500,000 acres
Production: 78 million tons
$260 per ton
In terms of energy these all come out to about Corn is about 13 GJ per ton, this means we would need to use 11,700 million tons of food to replace oil.
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FlyByNight
Comment No. 612264 <http://commentisfree.guardian.co.uk/lula_da_silva/2007/05/the_challenge_of_sustainable_d.html#comment-612264>
June <http://commentisfree.guardian.co.uk/lula_da_silva/2007/05/the_challenge_of_sustainable_d.html#comment-612264> 1 2:55
AUS
bannedbycastro - thanks for doing the arithmetic.
I gave up after about 20 minutes, having calculated that we would need 12 more Earths to sustain the fuel requirements of this one!
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FlyByNight
Comment No. 612269 <http://commentisfree.guardian.co.uk/lula_da_silva/2007/05/the_challenge_of_sustainable_d.html#comment-612269>
June <http://commentisfree.guardian.co.uk/lula_da_silva/2007/05/the_challenge_of_sustainable_d.html#comment-612269> 1 3:02
AUS
That's 12 more UNINHABITED Earths!
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BrasilMercosul
Comment No. 612290 <http://commentisfree.guardian.co.uk/lula_da_silva/2007/05/the_challenge_of_sustainable_d.html#comment-612290>
June <http://commentisfree.guardian.co.uk/lula_da_silva/2007/05/the_challenge_of_sustainable_d.html#comment-612290> 1 3:37
BRA
Flybynight,
Biofuels are one amongst many other alternatives for energy, like solar energy, tidal force, eolic technology, for electric cars would help out Australia a lot.
What do you propose instead ? Burning coal as it is in Australia today, one of the greatest polluters per capita in the planet, due to coal ?
Lula offers one alternative amongst many others to be welcome as well.
YOu could also remember, the Australian government is side by side of Brazil , "The group of Cairns", ever heard of it ?
It�s about opening the markets of EU/USA/Japan for imports of agricultural produce of the southern countries, Africa, South America and mind you, Oz included, mate !
Fair dinkum, fair trade, mate, clean environment....
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FlyByNight
Comment No. 612303 <http://commentisfree.guardian.co.uk/lula_da_silva/2007/05/the_challenge_of_sustainable_d.html#comment-612303>
June <http://commentisfree.guardian.co.uk/lula_da_silva/2007/05/the_challenge_of_sustainable_d.html#comment-612303> 1 3:58
AUS
You won't get any arguments from me regarding free and fair trade - however, with respect to current biofuels, the numbers simply do not add up.
The growing of crops for sugars to be fermented into alcohol will never be viable as a replacement for fossil fuels in the western world (and developing countries such as India and China). The numbers will never add up as they are orders of magnitude from being feasible.
Any attempt to use human food crops to replace fossil fuels will ultimately fail and will only result in higher food prices and starvation in the mean time.
If an efficient process for converting cellulose biomass into methanol or ethanol could be developed, it would be more likely to be feasible and would have a lower chance of competing with food production. However, it would need to be very efficient to be feasible.
Personally, I've always been a fan of geothermal energy. Dig a hole deep enough anywhere on the surface of the planet and it's hot enough boil water for steam turbines. Sure, it's a lot more complicated than simply digging a hole, but common sense dictates that it's got to be easier than building nuclear fusion reactors. I'm a biologist - are there any geologists or nuclear physicists that would care to comment?
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biba100mejico
Comment No. 612325 <http://commentisfree.guardian.co.uk/lula_da_silva/2007/05/the_challenge_of_sustainable_d.html#comment-612325>
June <http://commentisfree.guardian.co.uk/lula_da_silva/2007/05/the_challenge_of_sustainable_d.html#comment-612325> 1 4:48
MEX
@farofa.. is that a million jobs at minimum wage?
@BrasilMercosu .. as you wrote biofuels are one alternative to petroleum ... but what Latin America needs are alternatives to poverty and oppression.
Sorry but I don't see Lula and his govt. focusing directly on the problems of inequality.
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BrasilMercosul
Comment No. 612398 <http://commentisfree.guardian.co.uk/lula_da_silva/2007/05/the_challenge_of_sustainable_d.html#comment-612398>
June <http://commentisfree.guardian.co.uk/lula_da_silva/2007/05/the_challenge_of_sustainable_d.html#comment-612398> 1 7:16
BRA
Flybynight,
"However, it would need to be very efficient to be feasible"
It is indeed VERY efficient, the cost of a litter of ethanol of Brazilian sugar cane is minimal compared to other alternatives. The technology developed in Brazil for such purpose is unmatched.
biba100mejico
June 1, 2007 4:48 AM
True, Lula inherited the word�s 3rd worst ditribution if income in the planet. The process has been reversed though. AS a matter of fact, Lula�s program "Bolsa Familia" which helps 11 million families mostly in the empoverished Brazilian Northeast was what got him re-elected, in addition to a purchasing buying power of a minimum wage that has grown above the inflation since the beginning of his government.
If you look carefully, Brazils minimum wage amounted to USD60.- when Lula arrived. Today it is at USD 200.-, the buying power of the poor and their share in the country�s wealth has risen for the first time as far as I can remember. Brazilians are not dyeing to crosss the border to the USA, as in Mexico. The country�s foreign reserve reserves are abovo 110 billion USD, the IMF has been paid, the country is expected to reach investment grade by agencies like Moody and Fitch before the end of this year.
The country risk was at 2400 at the beginning of lulas first mandate down to 140, an all time record low.
Brazil has reached a trillion dollar GDP, with better division of the income internally, those are facts.
That is why Lula was re-elected.
The empoverished northeast of the country is booming with new investments. The Bovespa stock index is at an all time high. The fundamentals of Brazil�s economy today are solid.
There is more to be done and he is doing it, quietly, although you might not know, but we Brazilians do.
Europeans are now abounding trying to migrate to Brazil and get their permanent visas, trying to marry Brazilians in order to stay here.
Guess who has just proposed a "strategic alliance" and wil meet Lula just before G-8 meeting soon ?
Recently elected French president Nicolas Sarkozy. Bush has just visited too. Angie Merkel is also engaging with Brazil. They surely have interests.
What is a risk to the Amazon is the logging then cattle then soy frontier booming in the south of the Amazon, the US dept of currently agriculture recommends buying land there. China will buy all the soy. US/EU all the wood but no worries about deforestation, 98% of Amazonas state, the largest in Brazil remains untouched.
It is only the highlands north of Mato grosso and Tocantins state and the south of Par� state which are affected.
True, Rondonia state, rather small has been almost devastated for agriculture, but well, how will the chinese get fed ? With mexican agricultural products ?
Brazil has got a lot coming for it. Small wonder the term BRIC... Brazil, Russia(oil and gas), India(you name it),China(you name it).
Brazil�s economy is number 10 in the world and within 5 years it will overtake Italy and France.
With a diversified economy, sophisticated finacial markets, stable institutions, a democracy with no ethnic/religious tensions like India, no sigle party rule as China and improving living conditions for a majourity which had for long been over-looked before Lula and which re-elected Lula for this reason. Their living conditions have improved considerably and the NE is booming, growing above the industrialised South of the country.
And no civil wars as in Mexico, no great regional disparities like Oaxaca and Monterey. No dependence on the USA as Mexico which has 80% of its trade with its master.
It is leading South America to a new era. Time will tell you and we hope Mexico finds a leader like Lula.
There is still a lot be done and it is getting done. 5 centuries old troubles can not be overcome in 5 years, but the country is in the right direction with a growing, stronger voice in world affairs.
BRIC was coined for no favour for the concerned countries.
In 10 years you are likely to remember this comment.
True, we have some resources which are getting scarce in the planet, like 1/3 of its fresh water reserves and abundant land, no need to destroy the entire Amazon, just develop what�s needed to put the country at its due position as a leader in the world, regardless of the lack of information about it.
Brazil is coming, whether people know it or not, get used to it. Time to learn some Portuguese.
Boa sorte ao Mexico e Australia....
Good luck to Mexico and Oz, specially to Australia, The Murray/Darling basin is suffering serious drought problems, as Mr Howard said, let�s "pray" for rain or no water for irrigation, let alone swimming pools in the North shore of Sydney or Woolahra....
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BrasilMercosul
Comment No. 612402 <http://commentisfree.guardian.co.uk/lula_da_silva/2007/05/the_challenge_of_sustainable_d.html#comment-612402>
June <http://commentisfree.guardian.co.uk/lula_da_silva/2007/05/the_challenge_of_sustainable_d.html#comment-612402> 1 7:20
BRA
Flybynight,
"However, it would need to be very efficient to be feasible"
It is indeed VERY efficient, the cost of a litter of ethanol of Brazilian sugar cane is minimal compared to other alternatives. The technology developed in Brazil for such purpose is unmatched.
biba100mejico
June 1, 2007 4:48 AM
True, Lula inherited the word�s 3rd worst ditribution if income in the planet. The process has been reversed though. AS a matter of fact, Lula�s program "Bolsa Familia" which helps 11 million families mostly in the empoverished Brazilian Northeast was what got him re-elected, in addition to a purchasing buying power of a minimum wage that has grown above the inflation since the beginning of his government.
If you look carefully, Brazils minimum wage amounted to USD60.- when Lula arrived. Today it is at USD 200.-, the buying power of the poor and their share in the country�s wealth has risen for the first time as far as I can remember. Brazilians are not dyeing to crosss the border to the USA, as in Mexico. The country�s foreign reserve reserves are abovo 110 billion USD, the IMF has been paid, the country is expected to reach investment grade by agencies like Moody and Fitch before the end of this year.
The country risk was at 2400 at the beginning of lulas first mandate down to 140, an all time record low.
Brazil has reached a trillion dollar GDP, with better division of the income internally, those are facts.
That is why Lula was re-elected.
The empoverished northeast of the country is booming with new investments. The Bovespa stock index is at an all time high. The fundamentals of Brazil�s economy today are solid.
There is more to be done and he is doing it, quietly, although you might not know, but we Brazilians do.
Europeans are now abounding trying to migrate to Brazil and get their permanent visas, trying to marry Brazilians in order to stay here.
Guess who has just proposed a "strategic alliance" and wil meet Lula just before G-8 meeting soon ?
Recently elected French president Nicolas Sarkozy. Bush has just visited too. Angie Merkel is also engaging with Brazil. They surely have interests.
What is a risk to the Amazon is the logging then cattle then soy frontier booming in the south of the Amazon, the US dept of currently agriculture recommends buying land there. China will buy all the soy. US/EU all the wood but no worries about deforestation, 98% of Amazonas state, the largest in Brazil remains untouched.
It is only the highlands north of Mato grosso and Tocantins state and the south of Par� state which are affected.
True, Rondonia state, rather small has been almost devastated for agriculture, but well, how will the chinese get fed ? With mexican agricultural products ?
Brazil has got a lot coming for it. Small wonder the term BRIC... Brazil, Russia(oil and gas), India(you name it),China(you name it).
Brazil�s economy is number 10 in the world and within 5 years it will overtake Italy and France.
With a diversified economy, sophisticated finacial markets, stable institutions, a democracy with no ethnic/religious tensions like India, no sigle party rule as China and improving living conditions for a majourity which had for long been over-looked before Lula and which re-elected Lula for this reason. Their living conditions have improved considerably and the NE is booming, growing above the industrialised South of the country.
And no civil wars as in Mexico, no great regional disparities like Oaxaca and Monterey. No dependence on the USA as Mexico which has 80% of its trade with its master.
It is leading South America to a new era. Time will tell you and we hope Mexico finds a leader like Lula.
There is still a lot be done and it is getting done. 5 centuries old troubles can not be overcome in 5 years, but the country is in the right direction with a growing, stronger voice in world affairs.
BRIC was coined for no favour for the concerned countries.
In 10 years you are likely to remember this comment.
True, we have some resources which are getting scarce in the planet, like 1/3 of its fresh water reserves and abundant land, no need to destroy the entire Amazon, just develop what�s needed to put the country at its due position as a leader in the world, regardless of the lack of information about it.
Brazil is coming, whether people know it or not, get used to it. Time to learn some Portuguese.
Boa sorte ao Mexico e Australia....
Good luck to Mexico and Oz, specially to Australia, The Murray/Darling basin is suffering serious drought problems, as Mr Howard said, let�s "pray" for rain or no water for irrigation, let alone swimming pools in the North shore of Sydney or Woolahra....
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FlyByNight
Comment No. 612426 <http://commentisfree.guardian.co.uk/lula_da_silva/2007/05/the_challenge_of_sustainable_d.html#comment-612426>
June <http://commentisfree.guardian.co.uk/lula_da_silva/2007/05/the_challenge_of_sustainable_d.html#comment-612426> 1 7:43
AUS
Brasil still currently uses nearly 10X as much crude oil as ethanol to drive its growing economy, but even this relatively small contribution won't be sustainable if Brasil's economy expands as predicted over the next 20 years.
The USA could just about meet its gasoline requirements if it diverted 100% of its agricultural capacity to corn for ethanol. Of course, if they did that, they would have to import 100% of their food from the third world, resulting in catastrophic famines.
Bioethanol from sugar will never be able to replace the 80-90 million barrels of oil used worldwide every day.
It's a fact. Sorry.
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BrasilMercosul
Comment No. 612451 <http://commentisfree.guardian.co.uk/lula_da_silva/2007/05/the_challenge_of_sustainable_d.html#comment-612451>
June <http://commentisfree.guardian.co.uk/lula_da_silva/2007/05/the_challenge_of_sustainable_d.html#comment-612451> 1 8:08
BRA
Bolivian gas pipelines are there already. Brazil plans 20 nuclear power plants in the next 20 years. Hugo Chavez has plans for a gas pipeline down from the Orinoco basin down most of Brazil until Argentina and the "Banco del Sur" will be opened next june to finance it.
Not to mention the massive hydro-electrical power plans coming in the madeira River and a few other rivers leading to the Amazon.
True, the world has got an energy problem.
South America knows it and we have our solutions coming.
We can not fix the troubles of the rest of the planet alone, sorry for that.
But we definitely have our solutions in our continent.
Banco Del Sur will be opened in Asuncion, paraguay, then a major party for the Copa America, with our friend and neighbour, Mr Hugo Chavez of Venezuela.
I can�t say much about North-american nor EU energy troubles, I guess they are loosing some wars already and Russia and China will have a strong voice in those affairs.
If our surplus can help out, so let�s trade it, countries have no friends, just "interests" as we well know, but, what has Australia got to offer Brazil, really?
Vegemite from the center of inteligent life in the universe, Wagga-Wagga ?
Let�s hope it rains in the Darling/Murrays basin, that is the "sensible" solution for Mr Howard... "praying"... or perhaps joining the USA in loosing wars for oil based on lies in the ME, how about it as a moral high ground for a self-appointed "lucky" desert with great surfing beaches?
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BrasilMercosul
Comment No. 612453 <http://commentisfree.guardian.co.uk/lula_da_silva/2007/05/the_challenge_of_sustainable_d.html#comment-612453>
June <http://commentisfree.guardian.co.uk/lula_da_silva/2007/05/the_challenge_of_sustainable_d.html#comment-612453> 1 8:11
BRA
Bolivian gas pipelines are there already. Brazil plans 20 nuclear power plants in the next 20 years. Hugo Chavez has plans for a gas pipeline down from the Orinoco basin down most of Brazil until Argentina and the "Banco del Sur" will be opened next june to finance it.
Not to mention the massive hydro-electrical power plans coming in the madeira River and a few other rivers leading to the Amazon.
True, the world has got an energy problem.
South America knows it and we have our solutions coming.
We can not fix the troubles of the rest of the planet alone, sorry for that.
But we definitely have our solutions in our continent.
Banco Del Sur will be opened in Asuncion, Paraguay, then a major party for the Copa America, hosted by our friend and neighbour, Mr Hugo Chavez of Venezuela.
I can�t say much about North-american nor EU energy troubles, I guess they are loosing some wars already and Russia and China will have a strong voice in those affairs.
Perhaps they will have to get used to less oil-hungry life-styles.
If our surplus can help out, so let�s trade it, countries have no friends, just "interests" as we all well know, but, what has Australia got to offer Brazil, really?
Vegemite from the center of inteligent life in the universe, Wagga-Wagga ?
Let�s hope it rains in the Darling/Murrays basin, that is the "sensible" solution for Mr Howard... "praying"... or perhaps joining the USA in loosing wars for oil based on lies in the ME, how about it as a moral high ground for a self-appointed "lucky" desert with great surfing beaches?
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Lacanian
Comment No. 612464 <http://commentisfree.guardian.co.uk/lula_da_silva/2007/05/the_challenge_of_sustainable_d.html#comment-612464>
June <http://commentisfree.guardian.co.uk/lula_da_silva/2007/05/the_challenge_of_sustainable_d.html#comment-612464> 1 8:26
GBR
Biofuels threaten endangered species
http://www.telegraph.co.uk/news/main.jhtml?xml=/news/2007/05/31/nape31.xml
[Offensive? Unsuitable? Report <mailto:comment.is.free@guardian.co.uk?subject=A%20problem%20with%20http://commentisfree.guardian.co.uk/lula_da_silva/2007/05/the_challenge_of_sustainable_d.html&body=Please%20tell%20us%20the%20problem.%20For%20our%20reference,%20internally%20this%20comment%20is%20known%20as%20Number%20612464,%20was%20written%20by%20Lacanian,%20%20at%20June%20%201,%202007%20%208:26%20AM,%20and%20starts%20with%20Biofuels%20threaten%20endangered%20specieshttp://www.telegraph.co.uk/news/main.jhtml?xml=/news/2007/05/3> this comment.]
ThelemaBoy
Comment No. 612568 <http://commentisfree.guardian.co.uk/lula_da_silva/2007/05/the_challenge_of_sustainable_d.html#comment-612568>
June <http://commentisfree.guardian.co.uk/lula_da_silva/2007/05/the_challenge_of_sustainable_d.html#comment-612568> 1 9:44
GBR
Mr Silva , you are in no position to lecture the rest of the planet. The Brazilian government has resided over the sickening destruction of the Amazon forest. And you have done nothing to curtail it. Also you have done nothing to hinder and stop the death squads which murder homeless children in Brazilian cites. Your government knows it is the police but you do nothing. And you allow logging companies and beer barrens to determine the future of the remaing forest. The planet would be a beter place if Brazil did not exist has a individual country. The Amazon should be place under UN protection and any logging companies who attempt to fell tress hould be prosecuted and jailed and UN rules. since the Brazilian government is a wretched entity. Mr Silve the money you have receieved from logging companies will never buy you peace.
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BrasilMercosul
Comment No. 612640 <http://commentisfree.guardian.co.uk/lula_da_silva/2007/05/the_challenge_of_sustainable_d.html#comment-612640>
June <http://commentisfree.guardian.co.uk/lula_da_silva/2007/05/the_challenge_of_sustainable_d.html#comment-612640> 1 10:12
BRA
"The planet would be a beter place if Brazil did not exist has a individual country. The Amazon should be place under UN protection and any logging companies who attempt to fell tress hould be prosecuted and jailed and UN rules. since the Brazilian government is a wretched entity"
Try Tony Blairs government and 700 k dead in Iraq based on lies, instead!
How much wildlife left in the tamed Uk as an example to set ?
When NY s placed under UN jurisdiction, or when the UK government pay compensations to the wretched lives of of the genocide of Iraqis 700 k dead and those kiled during the British Empire in India - how many dead , we�ll discuss the subject...
How about the compensation for Queens victoria glorious opium wars which changed the rice crops from india starving millions to death to addict a few more million amongst chinese in the 1800�s and finance the industrial revolution?
When the Uk stop burning more fossil fuel per person and the USA as well and compensate the rest of humanity for they have already done and carry on doing now, we�ll discuss OUR Amazon...
Bear in mind one thing: "A Amaz�nia � brasileira, como o Big Ben � ingl�s" (The Amazon is brazilian as the Big Ben is English)
When the British compensate what their empire has done to the rest of the planet, time to discuss OUR Brazilian Amazon, who�s to play the high moral ground ?
Whos to tell us what to do with OUR Amazon.
Brazil will do as it pleases with its land. Forget croodile rantings, mind your own country and millions dead from its empire.
Pay compensation for the oil burnt now in the UK, bring back its wildlife to a country fully tamed... then Brazilians will be ready to discuss OUR Amazon.
As that will not happen, get a life, THE AMAZON IS BRAZILIAN and we�ll do as we please with it as the UK has done as it pleased in the past with its land and invaded half the world to build what the UK is today.
Any compensation ?
Mind your own wildlife in the UK, is there any ? Bring it back then!
Who�s coming to lecture Brazil ?
A Amazonia e BRASILEIRA, there is no discussion.
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FlyByNight
Comment No. 612702 <http://commentisfree.guardian.co.uk/lula_da_silva/2007/05/the_challenge_of_sustainable_d.html#comment-612702>
June <http://commentisfree.guardian.co.uk/lula_da_silva/2007/05/the_challenge_of_sustainable_d.html#comment-612702> 1 10:49
AUS
BrasilMercosul - snide remarks about Vegemite, the British Empire and the Iraq war will not make biofuels feasible.
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janfrank
Comment No. 612727 <http://commentisfree.guardian.co.uk/lula_da_silva/2007/05/the_challenge_of_sustainable_d.html#comment-612727>
June <http://commentisfree.guardian.co.uk/lula_da_silva/2007/05/the_challenge_of_sustainable_d.html#comment-612727> 1 11:01
ESP
Of course, if you do the numbers, you realise that bio-fuels will hardly replace the amount of oil that is used today.
However, if you cut down the amount of oil used - better insulation, more fuel-efficient cars, less flying around for cheap holidays, low energy bulbs etc. etc - and produced more energy using wind, sun, wave and geotherm, then perhaps we can get a viable permanent energy system going.
As always, there is no ONE BIG solution, just a lot of small solutions - and this is one, a good one
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blackrock
Comment No. 612732 <http://commentisfree.guardian.co.uk/lula_da_silva/2007/05/the_challenge_of_sustainable_d.html#comment-612732>
June <http://commentisfree.guardian.co.uk/lula_da_silva/2007/05/the_challenge_of_sustainable_d.html#comment-612732> 1 11:03
GBR
The world is overpopulated and lacking enough food as it is, yet here we are trashing crops by turning them into biofuels no doubt encouraged by the agricultural lobby. The research also suggests that the production of biofuels outputs as much co2 as the fuels themselves save.
Why don't we try to develop and advance real sustainable energy sources instead of this pathetic robbing Peter to pay Paul approach to the twin problems of declining oil supplies and global warming.
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