Comments on: Food, Fuel, and Finance: The Crisis of the Three Fs

By: John

John — Wed, 30 Apr 2008 12:40:16 +0000

Frivolous government mandates, such as those imposed by Henry Waxman, should slowly give way under the weight of political realities. Once Americans start to pay $6/$7 a gallon gas, coal to oil may be a matter of when, not if. The US is the Saudi Arabia of coal as well as shale oil. No other nation is blessed with so much unused energy, nor has so much productive, arable land. It is a testimony to government inefficiency that the amber waves of grain once used to fend off world starvation are now being used to top off tanks while enormous energy potentials better suited sit idle.

By: Pete

Pete — Wed, 16 Apr 2008 00:06:11 +0000

Iconoclast421: Haha thats a reference to the movie 'Idiocracy', I saw that recently

The problem you speak of is 'greed'. The rich have a desire to get richer - how much is enough money? There is never enough. Hence profit will always win in the fight of profit vs. the-good-for-humanity.

Besides, we are just so disorganised. Think of all the problems we put bandaids on instead of actually fixing them:
- poverty in africa (and developing countries)
- environmental care (renewable energy, use of fossil fuels, recycling)
- the credit crisis (*snigger* ... this includes real estate problems)

We have a U.N that is about as useful as a paper helmet when it comes to actually doing anything other than discussing things. The US doesn't listen to them, China doesn't listen to them, I don't know why anyone would listen to them unless they were so small that a convoy of peacekeepers could impose martial law on them. Look out Vatican!

I believe the market will control population through supply/demand. If the whole world has food shortages, like in some African countries, then we'll have famine and all sorts of things unless we can bring in population controls like the one child policy of China. As medicine advances, people live longer and we don't have any substantial wars right now to kill off the populations when they get too big (that's what happened in ancient times and our WWI and WWII).

By: dexter bland

dexter bland — Wed, 16 Apr 2008 00:03:09 +0000

As I look out my window I see a plume of traffic stretching for miles into the city. Most of the vehicles have a single person in them, they are traveling at barely walking pace and many are SUVs or other heavy vehicles.

While this kind of behavior goes on its difficult to believe that oil is too expensive. Clearly there's so much that can be wasted and governments are happy to encourage people to do so.

When prices hit the point that we are genuinely alarmed perhaps we should look at solutions that involve better design to avoid waste - energy efficiency, town planning etc. Hoefully we will do away with the internal combustion engine entirely and replace it with far more efficient electric motors. We will then be able to avoid burning food, or burning fuel to make fuel (as CTL would have us do). These are wasteful and environmentally damaging solutions and are worse than the problem to begin with.

By: Iconoclast421

Iconoclast421 — Tue, 15 Apr 2008 18:10:29 +0000

The earth is certainly capable of supporting well over 100 billion people. But as long as the richest 5% are completely controlled by their television sets, they will never possess the intellectual honesty and clarity required to tackle the problems facing the world today. Just look at all the people freaking out over carbon dioxide. Only via television mind control can a population become so dumbed down as to think that CO2 is a problem! Especially given the enormity of the problems we face today... problems which get no coverage on the mind-control box. It's like a dream steadily evolving into a nightmare. It is so obvious now that I dont even know what to say to the vast majority of people out there who still cannot see what's going on. I keep thinking I am going to turn on the tv one day to find that congress has mandated the use of gatorade for all irrigation, because its got electrolytes.

By: Pete

Pete — Tue, 15 Apr 2008 12:47:34 +0000

Good point Iain

Fortunately I don't eat imported seafood if I can avoid it (no, I didnt miss the point )

By: Iain

Iain — Tue, 15 Apr 2008 12:05:05 +0000

I think we will see something like I like to think of as 'deglobalisation'. Globalisation has been built on the assumption of cheap commodities and low energy input costs for transport/logistics. As input costs rise the global economy will slowly dislocate and supply chains will realign around region and national supply chains - we have passed the point where you can capture prawns in the UK ship them to Asia for processing and packing and then reship back to the UK for consumption.

By: Ademac

Ademac — Tue, 15 Apr 2008 05:24:12 +0000

A nice article but you skirted around the elephant in the room.

Population.

Famine, War they are both forms of population control. If countries have exceded they carrying limits then you can add pestilance to the mix as well.

I put it to you that this is not a crisis of three F's but a crisis of one P. Everthing else is just window dressing.

Enjoy
Ademac

By: Jerry Walker

Jerry Walker — Mon, 14 Apr 2008 15:30:49 +0000

Your three F's are inter-related and all really rest on energy cost and availability. As an American, my greatest concern is the transfer of wealth from this country to the OPEC nations. But, paradoxically, the current high cost for oil is the very impetus that will lead us back to energy independence. See America's Energy Independence Future. Ozarkcountryman

By: PG

PG — Mon, 14 Apr 2008 08:22:36 +0000

Capitalists dream egocentric dreams on poors' back. Dreams are permitted, but they don't really help.
Reduction of useless consume is the real point! And:
Facts don't tend to disappear just because you ignore them.

By: nic meredith

nic meredith — Mon, 14 Apr 2008 07:42:35 +0000

But what about alternative fuels such as HHO or Browns Gas?
Vehicles can already run on it and are doing so here and now in Australia ......Google cars running on water.........