Why burn the poor man's lunch?

According to the Nobel laureate Joseph Stiglitz the war in Iraq will cost 3 trillion dollars. That's enough to buy over 130 million hybrid cars like a fuel efficient Toyota Prius.There are about 17 million vehicles sold in the US every year so in theory the American government could give away hybrids for over 7 years. By that time more than half of the cars on the roads would be fuel efficient and demand for oil in the USA would fall by over 20 %. That's the amount this country imports from the Persian Gulf. Giving a hybrid to every American family is not possible of course but it shows how dear our mistakes can be. The war has cost the lives of 4000 US soldiers so far.The estimates for Iraqis vary and death toll might have reached one million (Guardian: What is the real death toll in Iraq? )
So you would think that 1 million dead later we should have learnt something. But when you look at the energy policy of the USA and European Union one thing becomes clear. The trouble is far from over.
We are in for more price hikes, food shortages, political unrest and probably more dead. The high cost of oil (partly the result of invasion) is raising the price of fertilisers. In addition, the drought in Australia and floods in Argentina certainly affected two major food exporters but there is a worse plague on the horizon. It's our apetite for biofuels. In 2005 12% of American corn was diverted to ethanol production. In 2006 it was over 16% and last year 20%. The US government wants to see 7.5 billion of gallons of biofuels at the pumps by 2012 - up from 4 billion in 2005. By 2017 it is to reach ... 35 billion gallons.
EU leaders agreed to get 10 % of fuels from ethanol & biodiesel to ... fight the climate change. This noble goal ignores the studies which prove that biofuels, in fact, increase the emissions of CO2. When EU declared that it would not buy biofuels grown on land recently cleared from the rainforest Indonesians found a simple solution. They grow energy plants in places used earlier for food production and then clear the rainforest to make room for rice.

If we do care about the poor and the environment we can find other solutions. Here are some of them:

As suggested by Gordon Brown and Nicolas Sarkozy EU should lower VAT on hybrids and small, fuel efficient cars to just 5%.

Invest in research to make biofuels from algea & waste.

Support the development of plug-in hybrids and fully electric vehicles.

Stop subsidising dirty coal & oil and support renewable energy instead as this would not only benefit the environment but would also create hundreds of thousands of green collar jobs.

I strongly recommend:

How Biofuels Could Starve the Poor


See also

Biofuels & food:


The Guardian:
Poor go hungry while rich fill their tanks

The Independent:
The other global crisis: rush to biofuels is driving up price of food

Der Spiegel:

Will Biofuels Starve the Developing World?


New York Times:

A New, Global Oil Quandary: Costly Fuel Means Costly Calories

International Heral Tribune

From rice in Peru to miso in Japan, food prices are rising

Biofuels & Environment:

Time:
The Clean Energy Scam

Another Problem with Biofuels?

New York Times:
Pollution Is Called a Byproduct of a ‘Clean’ Fuel

Solutions:

New York Times:
Millions of Jobs of a Different Collar


Guardian:
Brown gets EU backing for green VAT plan

Treehugger:
Here's What Happens to a Tesla Electric Car Battery at the End of its Life

Wired:
Solar Company Says Its Tech Can Power 90 Percent of Grid and Cars

Popular Mechanics:

GM's Chevy Volt Plug-in Concept: How It Works