Voglia di Terra

Bio non è necessariamente buono, pensa anche il contadino, e non ha una grande stima per il biodiesel, perché gli pare una bestemmia di usare cibo per andare in giro. Domani ci sta che la commissione europea decida sul piano biomassa e dal sud del mondo si alza sempre più forte il grido "cibo per la gente - non per le macchine - autodeterminazione alimentare". Se questo carburante "rinnovabile" viene prodotto da piantagioni immense di palme che sostituiscono la foresta pluviale (la quale viene bruciata prima, qualcuno forse ricorda il tappetto di fumo in Indonesia - non erano mica i piccoli contadini che hanno appiccicato il fuoco) non è certamente un affare buono in termini di ecologia. Il prezzo per l'olio di palma è salito del 30% l'anno scorso, stimolando molto gli investimenti. Cliccando qui puoi mandare una mail per chiedere alla commissione europea che le spese della nostra sete di carburante non paghino i poveri nel sud del mondo. Pagano già troppo ora, per il nostro stile di vita.

Dalla lettera aperta alla commissione, parlamento e cittadini europei:

WE WANT FOOD SOVEREIGNTY, NOT BIOFUELS

We, the undersigned organizations express before the European Parliament, the European Commission, the governments and citizens of the European Union, our deep concern over the policies that are probably to be adopted to favour the use and import of biofuel as an alternative to fossil fuels, whose disproportionate use is one of the main causes of global warming.

The increasing use of individual automobiles and their associated oil consumption as one of the main causes of global warming, makes fossil fuels use grow day by day. In this context, the use of biofuels would appear to be a positive alternative. However, everything seems to indicate that this will generate serious negative impacts, especially on the people of the South.

In fact, it is most unlikely that Europe will ever achieve self-sufficiency in the production of biofuel from national production of energy crops and therefore it is very possible that this will be done at the expense of lands on which the food sovereignty of our countries depend.

While Europeans maintain their lifestyle based on automobile culture, the population of Southern countries will have less and less land for food crops and will loose its food sovereignty. We will have to base our diet on imported food, possibly from Europe.

In other cases, energy crops will be grown in Latin America, as well as in Asian and African countries, at the expense of our natural ecosystems. Soybeans are forecasted to be one of the principal sources of biodiesel production, but it is a fact that monoculture soybean plantations are one of the main causes of the destruction of the rainforest in Argentina, of the Amazon rainforest in Brazil and Bolivia and of the Mata Atlântica in Brazil and Paraguay.

Qui un articolo (in inglese) esauriente:

Meantime, the Malaysian government is planning to build three palm-oil biodiesel plants in the next year, and would like to export the new fuel to Europe. In August Indonesia signed an $8 billion financing deal with the China Development Bank to create the world's largest palm-oil plantation in the Indonesian part of Borneo. The proposed site covers an area half the size of the Netherlands and skirts several national parks.