<<another long post – but again, it’s worth it: this is important. It reveals how global warming alarmists are responsible for the rising food prices they blame on global warming>>

Sometimes you don’t know who’s worse: the global warming alarmists, banging the pan with their latest prediction of impending doom, or the mainstream media who seem to not only let them, but positively help them,

For years, for years, the warmists banged on and on about the need to switch from taking oil out of the ground to renewable sources, such as ethanol, derived from corn. They got their way. The American Congress mandated that a certain amount of fuel must come from corn ethanol, come what may.

And what happened? What do you think would happen? The mandate meant that vast quantities of perfectly good corn was diverted from the world’s food supply and turned into ethanol for what even environmentalists now admit were “very marginal” gains:

Former U.S. Vice President Al Gore has said he made a mistake promoting first generation corn ethanol during his presidential campaign in 2000. Gore says he was more concerned with garnering votes from farmers in Tennessee and Iowa than with what was best for the environment. A clean energy enthusiast, Gore says corn ethanol is not a sustainable alternative to fossil fuels. The process of converting corn into ethanol is highly energy intensive and also requires using a food crop for fuel. Gore contends corn ethanol is negatively impacting food prices and that there are better biofuel solutions to be developed and supported The energy collective. Al Gore Says Supporting Corn Ethanol Was A Mistake.

Everyone knows this has been a total disaster. Reuters now reports that a quarter of America’s corn harvest now goes to making ethanol with totally predictable consequences on world food prices. A child of five could’ve predicted this scenario.

So should we be surprised that the latest Worldwatch press release warns that overpopulation and global warming are to blame for rising food prices?

Our early 21st century civilization is in trouble. We need not go beyond the world food economy to see this. Over the last few decades we have created a food production bubble—one based on environmental trends that cannot be sustained, including overpumping aquifers, overplowing land, and overloading the atmosphere with carbon dioxide, The challenge is to quickly reduce carbon emissions, stabilize population, and restore the economy’s soils, aquifers, forests, and other natural support system Worldwatch Press Release: “When Will the Food Bubble Burst?”

Reading this, you’d think it was global warming and overpopulation to blame for rising food prices. And that’s exactly how it’s been reported. Most newspapers and media get the majority of their stories from the major news wire services like AFP or Reuters. they don’t have the resources to check stuff out properly and rely on the wire services to do this for them. Here’s how Reuters reported it:

The rapid surge in staple food prices in 2008 that sparked global riots and sent millions into poverty is back. Now, researchers say that because of global warming and trends in population, these dramatic price movements in the food economy are likely here to stay. Reuters. On the Frontlines of a Warming World, 925 Million Undernourished People.

On the second page of the news wire, Reuters does get around to mentioning other factors, but as an afterthought. As you can tell from the title and the opening paragraph, the article pins rising food prices on overpopulation and global warming.

But elsewhere on the Worldwatch website, far away from the press release for easy consumption, is the full report on rising food prices. Still as alarmist, but buried halfway down the report, barely visible, is the truth:

Even Worldwatch has to admit this fact. It’s not global warming and overpopulation that has driven food prices up but biofuels. But you wouldn’t get this information from the press release, you have to actually read the report for that.

Food riots in Algeria, food riots in Haiti. People dying. People starving. And why? Because of the insane push for a “sustainable” alternative to petrol, one that even Gore admits was a damn stupid idea, driven by politics not science.

And don’t think this is coming as a surprise. Three years ago the UN’s Special Rapporteur on the Right to Food slammed the drive for biofuels as a “criminal path” that was leading to hunger, starvation, rioting and death:

GENEVA, Switzerland, April 28, 2008 (ENS) – The United States and the European Union have taken a “criminal path” by contributing to an explosive rise in global food prices through using food crops to produce biofuels, the United Nations special rapporteur on the right to food said today. At a press conference in Geneva, Jean Ziegler of Switzerland said that fuel policies pursued by the U.S. and the EU were one of the main causes of the current worldwide food crisis. Environment News Service. UN: Biofuel Production ‘Criminal Path’ to Global Food Crisis’.

That’s right – the “food crisis” of rising food prices in 2008 was caused by pointlessly diverting food into fuel, exactly the same as now. The reports blaming overpopulation and global warming are smokescreens. The vast majority, the overwhelming majority of the rise in prices is due to perfectly good food being pointlessly turned into fuel that benefits (hardly) anyone and costs taxpayers a fortune.

So, let’s spell it out. Here’s what’s happened:

1) Gore and other global warming cheerleaders push for biofuels

2) America and EU mandate targets for biofuel use.

3) Quarter of corn production goes to fuel use, prices skyrocket.

4) NGO’s issue report blaming global warming and overpopulation.

5) The media repeat this line without investigation or even reading the report properly.

And these are the people who believe that they know how to save the world. Who are demanding a total reorientation of everything. How we eat, live, work, travel – everything. They’ve driven up the price of food in a way even the UN calls “criminal” and then they turn around and say its global warming and overpopulation.

But then, that’s how it works.