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August 5, 2007

ALERT! Please Tell the EU: Don’t Sacrifice Birds and Ecosystems for Biofuel Expansion

Birds for biofuels is no dealTAKE ACTION! Europe's bird and insect populations, as well as heavily stressed terrestrial ecosystems, face decimation as the European Commissioner for Agriculture plans to scrap land set-asides for the 2008 season. This unexpected move is a response to rising grain prices – caused by the growing biofuel sector and worsening climate change impacts. Europe’s common farmland birds have declined by nearly 50% since 1980... 45% of Europe’s butterflies are at risk of extinction and a recent study found 80% declines in bee diversity and 70% declines in the diversity of wild flowers dependent on pollination on hundreds of sites in the UK and Netherlands... the future Europe's ecosystem functionality such as pollination and provisions of food supplies may be at risk as pollinators are driven into extinction. Biofuel expansion for the European market is already causing massive deforestation, biodiversity losses, displacements of local communities and loss of food sovereignty in the global South – now Europe’s wildlife and remaining terrestrial ecosystems are likely to become another victim. Please send the letter below to ask Europe’s politicians not to scrap land set-asides until they are substituted for a more sustainable EU agricultural policy based on organic agriculture and biodiverse mixed farming system. Biofuel targets and incentives must be abolished now, to protect biodiversity and food supplies worldwide.

Comments

Nothing illustrates the poverty of intellect and morals in the world better than this push for biofuels. That irreplaceable resources of agricultural land, water, soil and biodiversity should be diverted to fuel our perverted love for the internal combustion engine car is appalling, it is yet another frightening example of the carelessness with which we treat the planet and our unforgivable lack of concern for the less fortunate members of the population that live on it. The promise of biofuels is the promise of the continued destructive pillaging of our Earth's bounty and the starvation of millions. For goodness sake, stop this nonsense now, it is sickening and immoral.

TO PRODUCE BIOFUEL IS A WRONG WAY! It needs territories of habitats and agricultural lands. In a so enormous volume, what mankind needs, we cannot use these lands...

Don’t Sacrifice Birds and Ecosystems for Biofuel Expansion

While I agree that it is wrong to use precious agricultural land for biofuel, it should also be noted that far too much land is used to grow feed for the western meat heavy diet. Moving closer to a vegetarian diet would drastically reduce the impact we have on the planet.

Nothing illustrates the poverty of intellect and morals in the world better than this push for biofuels. That irreplaceable resources of agricultural land, water, soil and biodiversity should be diverted to fuel our perverted love for the internal combustion engine car is appalling, it is yet another frightening example of the carelessness with which we treat the planet and our unforgivable lack of concern for the less fortunate members of the population that live on it. The promise of biofuels is the promise of the continued destructive pillaging of our Earth's bounty and the starvation of millions. For goodness sake, stop this nonsense now, it is sickening and immoral.

This biofuels idea is a wild goose chase.

Is the idea of switching from fossil fuels to biofuels aimed at merely compensating for rising oil prices? If so, it's the answer to the wrong problem. The real problem is the threat of the end of life on this planet due to profligate creation of greenhouse gases. Longterm survival of life on Earth (assuming it is possible) is infinitely more important than business success for a few people for one generation.

If biofuels are seen as a solution to reducing greenhous gases, this won't work. We need existing agricultural land to feed the world's growing population. If you divert that land to growing biofuels, millions will starve because of a) insufficient foodstocks and b) much higher cost of the remaining foodstocks. If more agricultual land is needed, that means destruction of the ecology - in particular forests - and therefore acceleration of climate change - the opposite of the intended outcome.

I believe that humn beings have the intellegence to overcome the global warming problem. I have only the slimmest of hope that the world's politicians will use that intellengence.I am an Athiest. But I am now starting to pray for a miracle. Just in case.

The creation of biofeuls is a way that governments and automakers do not have look out for the environment and make changes to the way they do business. It is time we take a stand for the birds, the environment and all the things we take for granted. The problem that needs addressing is the reason we need to consume so much fuel per captia. Governments need to get away from the influence of the automakers and fuel companies to make improvements to the infrastructure of cities and small towns so we no longer need to drive so much and consume the amount of fuel.

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