Environmentalists Get It Wrong Again

China is now the top greenhouse gas emitter. And that's a situation that will not change anytime soon. Scientists had predicted it would take a few more years for China to overtake the US as the largest emitter of carbon emissions, but China beat the predictions and may have been the top emitter for several years now.

The research suggests the country's greenhouse gas emissions have been underestimated, and probably passed those of the US in 2006-2007.

The University of California team will report their work in the Journal of Environment Economics and Management.

They warn that unchecked future growth will dwarf any emissions cuts made by rich nations under the Kyoto Protocol.

The team admit there is some uncertainty over the date when China may have become the biggest emitter of CO2, as their analysis is based on 2004 data.

Until now it has been generally believed that the US remains "Polluter Number One".

China would have been exempt from cutting emissions under the Kyoto Protocols, and this situation will only get worse as China continues to rely on breathtaking economic growth to maintain control over a population that is chafing at the bit politically and socially. Even if the US were to continue cutting emissions through the introduction of new technologies domestically, it would be more than offset by increased emissions from China.

Meanwhile, the notion of using biofuels (specifically ethanol from corn) is gaining new notoriety because of the increased food costs and food shortages being experienced around the world as corn production is being siphoned off from food for fuel production.

But now a reaction is building against policies in the United States and Europe to promote ethanol and similar fuels, with political leaders from poor countries contending that these fuels are driving up food prices and starving poor people. Biofuels are fast becoming a new flash point in global diplomacy, putting pressure on Western politicians to reconsider their policies, even as they argue that biofuels are only one factor in the seemingly inexorable rise in food prices.

In some countries, the higher prices are leading to riots, political instability and growing worries about feeding the poorest people. Food riots contributed to the dismissal of Haiti’s prime minister last week, and leaders in some other countries are nervously trying to calm anxious consumers.

At a weekend conference in Washington, finance ministers and central bankers of seven leading industrial nations called for urgent action to deal with the price spikes, and several of them demanded a reconsideration of biofuel policies adopted recently in the West.

Many specialists in food policy consider government mandates for biofuels to be ill advised, agreeing that the diversion of crops like corn into fuel production has contributed to the higher prices. But other factors have played big roles, including droughts that have limited output and rapid global economic growth that has created higher demand for food.

That growth, much faster over the last four years than the historical norm, is lifting millions of people out of destitution and giving them access to better diets. But farmers are having trouble keeping up with the surge in demand.

While there is agreement that the growth of biofuels has contributed to higher food prices, the amount is disputed.

Work by the International Food Policy Research Institute in Washington suggests that biofuel production accounts for a quarter to a third of the recent increase in global commodity prices. The Food and Agriculture Organization of the United Nations predicted late last year that biofuel production, assuming that current mandates continue, would increase food costs by 10 to 15 percent.

The insanity of using food products for fuel means nothing but higher food costs and starvation among those populations least likely to afford them. It is a recipe for disaster, but one that has been pushed by the environmentalists as an alternative to petroleum based fuels. Those people chose not to look at the consequences of their actions, and the fact that millions of people around the world could starve to death because of their need to go green.