One of the many not-so-bright ideas that entrepreneurs have come up with to combat climate change is biofuels. Of course there is some scientific basis in this – growing biomass takes carbon dioxide out of the atmosphere, and when you use the stuff you’ve grown as fuel it simply returns it, with no net increase. So, on the face of it, biofuels would appear to be carbon neutral.
But of course that’s simplistic, failing to take note of the actual inputs into the process, such as the work involved in tilling the ground, harvesting and processing the crops, producing any chemicals used in growing, pumping water, transporting materials and so on. So while it may be carbon neutral as a part of a local subsistence economy (like bonfires in my back garden) once it becomes part of a global manufacturing process it certainly isn’t.
Even more simplistic is the failure when thinking about biofuel production to take into account the effects of setting up such an industry on the ecology and communities where the industry is established. There isn’t empty land going spare anywhere on the planet that could be used.
If you want to make a fortune out of biofuels, first you convince governments in the west that they are a good thing. This isn’t as hard as it ought to be, because too many are clutching at any straw(!) that seems to be a technical fix for the climate that is better short-term than taking effective action. So we have an EU directive that says governments have to increase the amount of biofuel use.
Next you find a warm country with a corrupt government and large areas that could be suitably productive – perhaps at the moment covered by tropical rainforest, which is of course doing an important bit for the climate, but nothing for your profits. A little promise of profits to those in government for making lax laws that allow you to steal land from its traditional users with a minimum of compensation (which of course nobody is going to bother to enforce you to provide) and you are in business.
A business that means grubbing up and probably wastefully burning forests to plant your monoculture biofuel crop, destroying species and habitat, forcing the inhabitants to scraping a living in marginal areas. Taking over land that once grew crops to feed local people- but will now be dedicated to keeping the cars of the rich world running.
One country where biofuel production is having disastrous effects is Indonesia. Species such as the Sumatra tiger and the orangutan are disappearing fast and the people who used to live in areas taken over for agrofuels have lost their ancestral lands and their livelihood.
So the Climate Rush came to Mayfair, some dressed as usual as suffragettes, one as an orangutan – and quite a few smaller orangutans came as well – to protest outside the hotel where a gala dinner for delegates at the World Agri Invest Congress was taking place. The protesters brought there own jazz band to hold their own ‘Gala Dinner and Dance‘ in the street outside.
Police fail to convince Tamsin Omond that being penned in would be a good idea
For most of the evening it was a well-behaved protest and police too were on their best behaviour, even when the protesters insisted on dancing on the road rather than in the pen the police had provided. It wouldn’t have been a Climate Rush without an attempt to charge the doorway of the hotel, but although there was a little pushing and shoving, things didn’t really get greatly out of hand.
Back in the ’60s, a friend of mine was in court following a demonstration, charged with grievous bodily harm for having hit a policeman. At some point in his cross-examination he was asked about the level of violence at the time, and replied that it seemed to him rather similar to that in a game of rugby. At which the judge sat up straight, turned towards him and and said “Ah, so you play rugger do you?” and we all realised he was going to be acquitted.
But last Wednesday I took my eye off the ball for a few seconds, and when the ‘rush’ started I was ten yards behind and couldn’t quite make it in front of the rushers, although I was moving considerably faster. It had been a longish event and I’d lost concentration – and should have spotted the signs – and have set my camera to a higher ISO as the light was fading slightly. I did get some pictures, but too many were blurred, and I went home thinking I could have done better.
Oh yes, Michael Jackson came along as well – pictures and more on the event on My London Diary.