Next up is a Reuters article also tackling concern over the literal land grab for biofuels. However, this article also covers some quirky changes that might occur such as a shortage of tequila as Mexican farmers get rid of agave plants to make way for corn as a biofuel [!?]:He survived decades of Colombia’s murderous guerrilla uprisings. He lived through paramilitary purges and steered well clear of the cocaine overlords who swarmed across his rural region. It was something completely different that killed Innocence Dias. He died because the world is turning green.
The global quest for alternative sources of environmentally friendly energy has attracted high-profile support from American politicians, including President George W Bush and Arnold Schwarzenegger, the governor of California. Celebrities such as Daryl Hannah, the actress, and Willie Nelson, the country singer, are leading a campaign to promote green fuels.
Yet the trend has already had disastrous consequences for tens of thousands of peasants in rural Colombia. A surge in demand for biofuels derived from agricultural products has unleashed a chaotic land grab by a new breed of gangster entrepreneurs hoping to cash in on the world’s thirst for palm oil and related bioproducts.
Vast areas of Colombia’s tropical forest are being cleared for palm tree plantations. Charities working with local peasants claim that paramilitary forces in league with biofuel conglomerates – some of them financed by US government subsidies – are forcing families off their land with death threats and bogus purchase offers.
“The paramilitaries are not subtle when it comes to taking land,” said Dominic Nutt, a British specialist with Christian Aid who recently visited Colombia. “They simply visit a community and tell landowners, ‘If you don’t sell to us, we will negotiate with your widow’.”
Dias was one of several landowners around the remote settlement of Llano Rico who decided not to abandon his property when the paramilitaries first moved into the area. “My father felt protected because he had a local government position,” said his daughter, Milvia Dias, 29.
Unless properly managed, a rush to reshape the world's economy to arrest climate change could end up trampling the lifestyles of the rich, the livelihoods of the rural poor, and the earth's most vulnerable habitats.A tequila shortage is perhaps one of the least-expected results of planting lucrative, "climate-friendly" biofuels -- as Mexican farmers set ablaze their fields of cactus-like agave to make way for corn, a feedstock for ethanol. Biofuels are also blamed for raising food prices and destroying forests.
The result of misguided climate policies could be to undermine public support for action and discourage businesses from buying in. "Definitely there'll be tradeoffs between climate change and the local environment, and with energy security," said Fatih Birol, chief economist at the International Energy Agency (IEA), which advises rich countries. "We are not in the luxury of being able to choose from hundreds of energy types." Just how mankind plans to battle climate change is still sketchy, but one buzz word is "scaling up" -- for example by boosting research into and deployment of clean energy technologies like wind and nuclear power and biofuels.
Urgency has been spurred by a series of U.N. climate reports this year confirming threats like desertification, droughts and rising seas and calling for action now to cut the long-term cost. But evidence is emerging of the repercussions. British charity Christian Aid says Colombian rebel groups are forcing poor people off their land to grow lucrative palm oil for biodiesel, likening it to diamonds financing African wars. "You could have blood biofuels in the same way as blood diamonds. It's a classic case of exploiting natural resources behind the veil of conflict," said Christian Aid climate policy analyst Andrew Pendleton. "Unscrupulous private sector operators, rebel groups, are keen to make a fast buck."
Biofuels already occupy an area equal to all of the arable land in France, says the IEA, and they are blamed for raising the cost of corn, sugar and other foods they compete with for land. But negative repercussions are hard to prove. A hike in the price of tortillas, a Mexican staple, was blamed on biofuels and sparked riots, but may have more to do with the monopoly power of dominant tortilla producers, says Annie Dufey, research associate at Britain's International Institute for Environment and Development (IIED). Such fears risk fatalism and favor the status quo, said Bert Metz, chair of a major U.N. report published last month on policy options. "Problems of land ownership and poor people are there, let's do something about it, but not blame it on climate change," he said. "There's no basis for supposing climate policies will create more problems than they solve, provided they're put in place wisely. I'd view that as another excuse for doing nothing."
The report did not weigh the cost and benefit of the recent consumer fad of boycotting air freight and travel to reduce carbon emissions, which could inadvertently hurt African exports and tourism. "It's inequitable, tokenism," said the IIED's Bill Vorley of such consumer concerns. Fresh fruit and vegetable exports from sub-Saharan Africa accounted for less than 0.1 percent of total British greenhouse gas emissions, but supported more than one million people, the IIED estimates.
