People Before Profit blog

Score one for diplomacy

Fri, 16 Feb 2007 09:54:00 +0000

In a new and promising development, the United States and North Korea have reached tentative agreement on a far-reaching pact that could ultimately result in North Korea ending its nuclear program. In return, it is to receive much-needed energy aid, and the U.S. will take steps to remove its designation of North Korea as a state sponsor of terrorism. The two countries will also hold bilateral talks to normalize their relations — most significant in view of the nearly six-decade-long hostility between them.

The pact is the product of years of six-party talks in which China has played a leading role. Also participating are Russia, Japan and South Korea.

Though much remains to be done, and many pitfalls must be overcome, the agreement represents a major turnabout by the Bush administration. In the lead-up to the Iraq war, the administration included North Korea, along with Iraq and Iran, in its notorious “axis of evil.” It consistently rejected North Korean calls for bilateral talks.

The U.S. peace movement’s pressure on the Bush administration to fulfill its part of the pact will be important for several reasons.

First, of course, is the possibility to defuse a potential present-day conflict. But also significant is the precedent this agreement sets for the Bush administration to negotiate with those it perceives as opponents instead of threatening them with destruction. Now, why shouldn’t the administration hold direct talks with Iran, instead of beating the drums for a new war?

Pyongyang’s commitment to shutting and sealing its Yongbyon nuclear facilities, disclosing its nuclear programs and inviting back International Atomic Energy Agency inspectors is an important development on the road to nuclear disarmament. But it is the United States, as the world’s leading nuclear weapons power, which must take the first steps on worldwide, complete nuclear disarmament. That is the only guarantee that the scourge of nuclear arms, which could destroy humanity, will be eliminated forever from the planet.

Ethanol: Worlds grain for food or profit?

Fri, 16 Feb 2007 07:02:00 +0000

The grain to fill a 25-gallon SUV tank with ethanol could feed a person for a year. The diversion of grains for the world’s 800 million cars will increase the price and decrease the production of food to feed the 2 billion poorest people of the world who spend at least half their income on food, according to the Earth Policy Institute. Thus, endangerment of the world’s food supply is one addition to the list of serious threats to our world stemming from the growing energy crisis.

The move to develop biofuels as an oil alternative was embraced in Bush’s State of the Union speech.

In 15 of the leading 23 oil-producing nations, oil output peaked many years ago. For example, in 2004 the U.S. produced 44 percent less oil and Venezuela 31 percent less compared to their peak outputs in 1970. Firm data for Saudi Arabia, the largest producer, is not known, but output technically peaked in 1980 and is 10 percent lower today. At the same time, the world’s appetite for oil is increasing rapidly. Except for oil, China has already surpassed the U.S. in consumption of basic commodities (grain, meat, coal and steel), and by heading quickly to an automobile economy, China will likely do so with oil soon.

How is the capitalist economy meeting this challenge? One way is to try to control the world’s diminishing source of fossil fuels. This path has led to the tragic war in Iraq and increasing threat of war with Iran to control the Middle East.

The promotion of biofuel is a second response from the capitalist economy. In 2006 about 17 percent of the U.S. corn crop was converted to ethanol. This, however, only supplied about 2 percent of auto fuel. Considering the energy costs to produce ethanol and soy biofuel, it is estimated that our entire present corn and soy crops would only satisfy 5.3 percent of current gas and diesel energy use. With 10 percent of the world’s sugar going into ethanol, the price of sugar has doubled.

The Earth Policy Institute predicts ethanol production will claim 50 percent of all U.S. corn in 2008 with 79 new ethanol plants built in the next two years, almost doubling the present number at a time when world grain stocks are at their lowest level in 34 years.

Furthermore, the net energy gain is questionable. David Pimentel of Cornell University and Ted Patzek of University of California-Berkeley even concluded that making ethanol from corn requires 29 percent more energy than is recovered.

In spite of the “clean energy” hype, ethanol plants are wreaking ecological devastation. Eighty percent of Brazil’s greenhouse gas emissions come from deforestation to plant half its sugarcane crop for ethanol. Malaysian and Indonesian rainforests are being destroyed for oil palm plantations.

Archer Daniels Midland, the largest U.S. producer of ethanol, is listed as the tenth worst corporate air polluter on the “Toxic 100” list of the Political Economy Research Institute. Its Clinton, Iowa, corn processing plant generated nearly 20,000 tons of pollutants in 2004, with 100 tons per pollutant defined as a major source by the EPA. Corn production itself is especially demanding of water, fertilizers and pesticides, leading to erosion and runoff pollution of water supplies.

Alternative? Conservation!

The 3 percent to 5 percent gain in fuel supplies could be met many times over by raising auto fuel efficiency by an easily-obtainable 20 percent, or by a major investment in public transportation and bicycle paths, or by challenging the “throw-away” economy with a massive recycling industry, or by rejuvenating our urban centers and limiting the continuing destructive waste of suburban sprawl, or by major investments in renewable energy sources.

So why the push for biofuel? In a recent interview, financial entrepreneur Vinod Khosla, a leader in the ethanol for energy industry, stated ethanol can be successful because it is the first time Big Oil has a powerful competitor — the agrichemical industry. Its success depends on Wall Street, not on the government!

This blunt admission says it all. In a profit-driven economy, major challenges to our planet are met not by the best solutions to the challenges themselves, but by the “solutions” that will generate the most profit.

David Kennell, kennell@borcim.wustl.edu, is professor emeritus of molecular microbiology at Washington University School Medicine in St. Louis.

Exxon, Bush fiddle while planet burns

Fri, 09 Feb 2007 06:47:00 +0000

What’s wrong with this picture:

Top scientists from 113 countries issued a landmark report Feb. 2 declaring for the first time that global warming caused by human activity is undeniable, and forecasting potentially disastrous results if present trends continue unchecked. It singled out use of fossil fuels — meaning oil, gas and coal — as the primary source of the leading global-warming gas, carbon dioxide.

Meanwhile, on Feb. 1 the world’s largest oil corporation, Exxon Mobil, announced the largest profits ever earned by a U.S. company — $40 billion in 2006. A day later, the UK Guardian reported that the Exxon-funded Bush-connected American Enterprise Institute sent letters to scientists and economists offering them $10,000 each to write articles that undermine the UN-sponsored report.

These are “desperate and hopeless efforts to try to debunk the broad and overwhelming scientific consensus,” said Glen Brand, director of the Sierra Club “Cool Cities” campaign. He noted that Exxon has a “long history of funding junk science to confuse the public regarding the reality of global warming and its solutions.”

In addition to the oil giant’s obvious profit motive, Brand said, some critics point to Exxon’s “close connections with the extreme right-wing ideology represented by the Bush administration.” AEI ideologues, among the biggest Iraq war hawks, pushed Bush’s new Iraq escalation move. Former Exxon Mobil CEO Lee Raymond is vice-chairman of AEI’s board of trustees.

The Intergovernmental Panel on Climate Change report presents the findings of hundreds of world scientists over the past six years on the “human and natural drivers of climate change.”

The report states, “Warming of the climate system is unequivocal, as is now evident from observations of increases in global average air and ocean temperatures, widespread melting of snow and ice, and rising global average sea levels.”

The panel’s last report, in 2001, called human-caused climate change “likely” — a greater than 66 percent probability. Now, the scientists call their conclusions “very likely” — bumping up the certainty to greater than 90 percent.

And the warming is speeding up. The “warming trend over the last 50 years is nearly twice that for the last 100 years,” the report says. It is “extremely unlikely” that global climate change of the past 50 years can be explained without “external forcing” — in other words, human actions, the report concludes.

As a result of this overall warming, “numerous long-term changes in climate have been observed,” the report says. Among these are dramatic rises in Arctic temperatures, shrinking sea ice and widespread changes in rainfall, wind patterns and extreme weather including more intense and longer droughts, heat waves, heavy rains and cyclones.

Based on extensive studies of greenhouse gases carbon dioxide, methane and nitrous oxide; aerosols (particles like sulphate, carbon, nitrate and dust); and ozone-forming chemicals, as well as changes in the sun’s radiation, the world scientists report “a very high confidence” — defined as “at least a 9 out of 10 chance of being correct” — that the net effect of human activities since the beginning of the Industrial Revolution has been global warming. In particular, levels of greenhouse gases in our atmosphere have “increased markedly as a result of human activities since 1750 and now far exceed pre-industrial values.”

“Global warming poses real dangers to our economy, our environment, our public health and safety,” said Brand. “The real issue is what we’re going to do about it.”

Brand urged support for the Global Warming Pollution Reduction Act sponsored by Sens. Bernie Sanders (I-Vt.) and Barbara Boxer (D-Calif.) and its companion Safe Climate Act sponsored by Rep. Henry Waxman (D-Calif.). They would reduce greenhouse gas emissions by 80 percent by 2050. “This is where most scientists say we need to be to stabilize our climate,” Brand said.

In a “consumer’s guide” to the State of the Union address, Public Citizen charged that Bush has “rejected classifying carbon dioxide and other greenhouse gas emissions as pollutants and has resisted proposals to ‘cap’ carbon emissions.”

Public Citizen praised the House passage of HR 6, part of the Democrats’ 100-hour agenda, which would revoke $14 billion in taxpayer subsidies to oil companies and dedicate that money to investing in clean energy and energy efficiency. But Bush has threatened a veto, the group noted, “showing that he remains beholden to Big Oil and other polluters.”

Brand commented, “Inescapably we’ll need strong federal response but we can’t wait.” Initiatives at the state and local levels are necessary grassroots pressure, he emphasized.

suewebb @ pww.org

World Social Forum spotlights inequalities

Fri, 02 Feb 2007 08:08:00 +0000

NAIROBI, Kenya (IPS) — The 7th World Social Forum wound to a close here after five days of dialogue, art, poetry, dance, drama and protests led by participants from around the globe who believe “another world is possible.”

Some 50,000 delegates from about 100 countries braved the sweltering heat to discuss what they called illegitimate debt, HIV/AIDS, shelter, joblessness, poverty and unfair trade with rich nations, among other concerns. Unusual for Nairobi, described as the “Green City in the Sun,” temperatures stayed in the upper 70s or above.

Wiping beads of sweat from their faces, many participated in a 10-mile marathon for “basic rights” that snaked through the city’s teeming slums on Jan. 25, the closing day. There are 199 slums in Nairobi, most densely populated and severely lacking in basic services. The marathon route was designed to spotlight the global housing problem.

Starting at Korogocho, a slum in eastern Nairobi, the marathon’s finish line was in Uhuru Park, where a massive rally was held. The forum had opened there Jan. 20.

“The fact that the first full WSF has taken place here in Kenya on Africa’s soil is a big celebration,” said Wahu Kaara, a member of the Africa Social Forum council. “It is an acknowledgment that the world is in solidarity with Africa.”

Speaker after speaker addressed the sea of people who had gathered. Some chose to make parting remarks, others took stock of the discussions over the previous few days.

“The issues that emerged were very important — water, human rights, the question of illegitimate debt, housing and many more. I am sure we have planted the seeds of hope,” Wangari Maathai, the 2004 Nobel Peace laureate, said.

“But the challenge remains what we shall do when we go back home.”

The Nairobi WSF was the first hosted solely by an African country. Initially convened in 2001 in the Brazilian town of Porto Alegre by local civic organizations, the annual forum traveled to Mumbai, India, in 2004, and was held in several venues in 2006: the Malian capital of Bamako; Caracas, Venezuela; and the Pakistani financial hub of Karachi.

The WSF was founded in opposition to the World Economic Forum, a gathering of top business and political leaders held at the same time in the Swiss resort town of Davos.

Corporate globalization has taken a heavy toll on countries like Kenya. Debt repayments to foreign banks make up 22 percent of the Kenyan government’s total budget, and there is not enough money to improve living standards for the poor, Kenyans said. More than half the population lives on less than a dollar a day.

For some delegates at the forum from the developed world, it was their first opportunity to get close to rural poverty in the developing world.

“It is a good experience to see how slums in Africa look like,” said marathoner Alvaro Angeleri, a runner from Italy. “But I am saddened that the conditions are so inhuman. A better world must be possible for slum dwellers. Governments must put in efforts to create this world for their citizens.”

Other issues discussed during the forum included the promotion of “food sovereignty,” racial equality, the protection of natural resources, and labor and women’s rights. The forum also adopted a call for worldwide demonstrations in March against the U.S. occupation of Iraq.

All rights reserved, IPS 2007