Wednesday-Night

Sahel Africans Face Hunger Despite Bumper Harvest
(Planet Ark/Reuters) DAKAR - Poor people in Africa’s arid Sahel region will go without food despite bumper harvests this year, as wild price moves on world markets put staple cereals beyond many families’ budgets, aid agencies say. Prices of imported foods have ballooned in recent years, pushing up […]

See also U.S. Presidential Campaign - Issues
John McCain on […]

Credit Crisis May Delay Biofuels Development
(Reuters/Planet Ark) LONDON - A global pull-back from bank lending may dent the commercialisation of biofuel technologies to replace conventional gasoline, said the chief executive of US cellulosic ethanol firm BlueFire Ethanol. 
A credit crisis which claimed more bank victims on Monday has raised project finance costs and made ambitious targets […]

More on oil and Wednesday-night.com Oil Notes

For several years, Wednesday Nights have witnessed often passionate discussions on the validity of M. King Hubbert’s prediction of the early depletion of (easily accessible - ‘cheap’) fossil fuels. With current rising oil prices, Hubbert’s Peak has become a familiar term far beyond the circles of energy experts. […]

Trucks are loaded with sugar cane, which will be used to produce biofuels, in Brazil. Photograph: Paulo Whitaker/Reuters
More on Biofuels
July 28
Biofuels Down, Energy Saving Up in EU Climate Plan
(Reuters/Planet Ark) BRUSSELS - Biofuels are down and energy efficiency measures are up as the European Union’s ambitious plan to fight climate change works its way towards […]

See also Inland Waters Biodiversity and The Ramsar Convention on Wetlands and the University of Guelph Canada’s Aquatic Environments

Photo of the Coorong and Lower Lakes Ramsar site, around Goolwa.
July 25
Rising demands threaten wetlands
The recent surge in demand for food and biofuel has increased the risks facing the world’s wetlands, warn scientists.
A declaration by 700 […]

More on Biofuels and Agriculture & Food - World Hunger
July 23
Uprising Against the Ethanol Mandate
Gov. Rick Perry of Texas is asking the Environmental Protection Agency to temporarily waive regulations requiring the oil industry to blend ever-increasing amounts of ethanol into gasoline.
Some biofuels better than others
“Biofuels” is a broad term that includes lots […]

June 2, 2008
The World Is Upside Down
Roger Cohen, NYT Op-Ed
See the developed world as depending on the developing world, rather than the other way round. Understand that two-thirds of global economic growth last year came from emerging countries, whose economies will expand about 6.7 percent in 2008, against 1.3 percent for the United […]

Convention on Biological Diversity (Biodiversity)
31 May 2008
Good Intentions Eclipse New Funding at Biodiversity Meet
Stephen Leahy, IPS
BONN - The world community took some ever-so-careful steps towards slowing the biodiversity crisis at a major U.N. meeting in Bonn, while emphasising the need for urgency and action.
Biofuels were the most intensely debated issue in Bonn with […]

Genetically modified oilseed rape, one of the four main commercial GM crops. Photograph: Christopher Furlong/Getty
Background: The Cartagena Protocol on Biosafety; SciDevnet GM crops and Agriculture & Environment; Monsanto vs Percy Schmeiser
Related posts and Food on Wednesday-night.com

May 24
Sowing seeds of discontent
Since the dawn of civilization, farmers have saved seeds from the harvest and […]