Gerry Charlotte Phelps

Forget the Poor?

                 (Image from muslimaid.org)

We talk about the poor a lot.  We arrange our politics around the poor.  Our religion points us toward the poor.  There have been revolutions about helping the poor.  But when it comes down to it, many of us are ready to throw the poor overboard.

Food prices are soaring all over the world.  Three billion people subsist mostly on rice.  Yet the price of rice has soared again, rising by 10% this time.  Corn is the basic food of much of Latin America, and also the basic feed for meat-producing animals.  Yet the price of corn keeps soaring, up to $6 a bushel this week.  Two years ago it was at about $2 a bushel.  The poor in Africa, Asia and Latin America are suffering because their groceries cost so much more now.  Their suffering will only get worse as food prices continue to rise.

Why are food prices rising?  Two main reasons.  One is biofuels.  The other is rising oil prices. 

As for the effect of biofuels, corn and soybeans are being substituted for other food crops for use as biofuels, not food. This is happening all over the world.   So not only are biofuels driving up the cost of corn and soybeans, but of other basic foods too.  Because of environmentalism, essentially we have decided to use more and more of our topsoil to produce fuel, not food.  Obviously, that will mean less food produced, and bring higher food prices to us all.  We middle-class people will struggle, but survive.  But the burden on the world's poor will be crushing.

Then higher oil prices are causing food prices to rise as well.  Farmers need petroleum-based fertilizers and fuel for their farm machinery.  Truckers and ships need fuel.  Refrigerated trucks, warehouses and grocery-store displays of cold and frozen foods take fuel too.  Rising oil prices make all these cost more, so that all food costs more, not just the basic grains.

Why are oil prices higher?  Actually, it has nothing to do with American oil giants.  The market really, truly, determines the price.  But there are two principal causes of rising oil prices.  One is rising demand, as some of the poor countries become more prosperous.  The other is the success of environmentalists in the U.S. 

Environmentalists have succeeded in suppressing oil production in the U.S., a country that was once the major producer of oil in the world.  Because of environmentalists, there have been no new refineries in the U.S. for 30 years.  Because of them, we do not drill in ANWAR, where we could access one of the largest oil deposits in the world with almost no pollution.  We do not drill offshore, when the Gulf of Mexico is filling up with foreign oil rigs, including those of China and Cuba.  So not drilling offshore does not mean there is no drilling there - only that our own offshore oil will go to other countries, not us.

The increased prices of oil, and of food, are likely to be permanent, probably going even higher.  Why?  Because environmentalism has won politically over concern about the poor.  Soaring food prices and the growing suffering of the poor, which has already begun worldwide, are happening principally because of one thing: environmentalism.

We have a choice to make.  Will we choose to help the poor? Or environmentalism?  It appears we cannot do both.

(For documentation, see: http://www.financialpost.com/story.html?id=213343.  World Food Stocks Dwindling Rapicly, UN, http://www.iht.com/articles/2007/12/17/europe/food.php.  Wheat rises to all-time high, Bloomberg, http://www.bloomberg.com/apps/news?pid=newsarchive&sid=aP6EBENKxOLk.  Rush LImbaugh Comment, http://www.rushlimbaugh.com/home/daily/site_032508/content/01125104.guest.html.  On Increased Food Prices around world, Food costs worldwide spiked 23 percent from 2006 to 2007, according to the FAO. Grains went up 42 percent, oils 50 percent and dairy 80 percent. http://www.iht.com/articles/ap/2008/03/25/business/LA-FEA-FIN-Mexico-Fighting-for-Food.php. rudge: price of rice up 10%, http://www.ft.com/cms/s/0/4813b3c4-0250-11dd-9388-000077b07658.html?.nclick_check=1  Corn up to $6 a bushel, http://biz.yahoo.com/ap/080403/corn_at_6.html?.v=6)

Global Warming: Doomsday Called Off

                               (Image from sxmprivateeye.com)

CBC, the Canadian Broadcasting Company, ran a documentary called "Global Warming: Doomsday Called Off", here.  The commentary said:

"In this eye-opening documentary viewers will discover how the most respected researchers from all over the world explode the doom and gloom of global warming.

"Humans stand accused of having set off a global climate catastrophe by increasing the amount of carbon dioxide in the atmosphere.

"The prophecy of doom is clear and media pass on the message uncritically.

"Now serious criticism has arisen from a number of heavyweight independent scientists.  They argue that most of the climate change we have seen is due to natural variations.

"They also state that if CO2 is to play a role at all - it will be miniscule and not catastrophic!

"This story presents a series of unbiased scientists as our witnesses.  We will hear their eloquent criticism of the IPCC (UN committee) conclusions illustrated by coverage of their research work."

Here, then is the program they presented: DOOMSDAY CALLED OFF.

On YouTube, in 5 parts: Part 1: Part 2: Part 3:  Part 4:  Part 5

$2000 Clean-Up For Broken "Green" Light Bulb

                 (Image from naturalselection.com)

If you break one of the new "compact flourescent lightbulbs" (CFL's), you could expect the clean-up to cost around $2000, here.  It turns out that inside those cute little spirals of glass is one of the worst of pollutanta - mercury.

Yes, mercury.  The same mercury that enviros and doctors warn us about in seafood.  The same mercury that can cause horrific brain damage.  The same mercury that caused many deaths in Japan because of the manufacture there of polyvinyl chloride.  If you break even a thermometer, an emergency is created.

If you break one of the new CFLs, however, a major environmental cleanup is required.

Steven Milloy in "Light Bulb Lunacy" recounts the ordeal of Brandy Bridges of Ellsworth, Maine, according to an April 12 article in The Ellsworth American.  She dropped a CFL on the floor of her daughter's bedroom, and it shattered on the carpet.

"Aware that CFLs contain potentially hazardous substances, Bridges called her local Home Depot for advice."  They told her to call the Poison Control Hotline, who directed her to the Maine Department of Environmental Protection.  They sent Bridges an expert, who found mercury levels in the bedroom "in excess of 6 times the state's 'safe' level for mercury." 

They recommended she call an environmental cleanup firm, which gave her a 'low-ball' estimate of $2000 to clean up the room.  Then the room was sealed off with plastic until Bridges could get enough money together to pay for the cleaning.  Her insurance company would not pay for the costs.

The CFL bulbs could have saved her $180 a year in energy costs.  So it will take her more than 11 years to recoup the cleanup costs - assuming she does not break any more of the bulbs.

"Sound crazy?" asks Malloy.  "Perhaps no more than the stampede to ban the incandescent light bulb in favor of the CFLs - a move already either adopted or being considered in California, Canada, the EU and Australia."

And by Wal-Mart, "which wants to sell 100 million CFLs at 5 times the cost of incandescent bulbs during 2007."

And by environmentalists, amazingly.  "Given that there are about 4 billion lightbulb sockets in American households, we're looking at the possibility of creating billions of hazardous waste sites such as the Bridges' bedroom."

Sellers of CFLs and environmentalists tout the energy cost savings of CFLs.  But they conveniently omit the personal and societal costs of CFL disposal.  They cause "a nightmare if they break and require special disposal procedures."  CFLs also cost much more than incandescent bulbs.  Many people regard their light as inferior to incandescents as well.

Should our government - "egged on by environmentalists and the Wal-Marts of the world" - impose such higher costs on us?  Deny us lighting choices?  Force upon us breakage risks and disposal hassles "in the name of saving a few dollars every year on the electric bill?"

What do you think?