MORE
THAN THREE BILLION PEOPLE IN THE WORLD ARE BEING CONDEMEND TO A PREMATURE DEATH
FROM HUNGER AND THIRST.
It is not an exaggeration; this is rather a conservative figure. I have meditated for quite a long time on
that after the meeting held by President Bush with the
The sinister idea of turning foodstuffs into fuel was definitely
established as the economic strategy of the
A wire service issued by the AP, a
WASHINGTON (AP), March 26 - President Bush touted the benefits of
"flexible fuel" vehicles running on ethanol and biodiesel on Monday,
meeting with automakers to boost support for his energy plans. Bush said a
commitment by the leaders of the domestic auto industry to double their
production of flex-fuel vehicles could help motorists shift away from gasoline
and reduce the nation's reliance on imported oil.
"That's a
major technological breakthrough for the country," Bush said after
inspecting three alternative vehicles. If the nation wants to reduce gasoline
use, he said "the consumer has got to be in a position to make a rational
choice."
The president
urged Congress to "move expeditiously" on legislation the administration
recently proposed to require the use of 35 billion gallons of alternative fuels
by 2017 and seek higher fuel economy standards for automobiles.
Bush met
with General Motors Corp. chairman and chief executive Rick Wagoner, Ford Motor
Co. chief executive Alan Mulally and DaimlerChrysler AG's Chrysler Group chief
executive Tom LaSorda. They discussed support for flex-fuel vehicles, attempts
to develop ethanol from alternative sources like switchgrass and wood chips and
the administration's proposal to reduce gas consumption by 20 percent in 10
years.
The discussions
came amid rising gasoline prices. The latest Lundberg Survey found the
nationwide average for gasoline has risen 6 cents per gallon in the past two
weeks to $2.61.
I think that
reducing and recycling all fuel and electricity operated engines is an urgent
and elemental necessity of all humanity.
The dilemma is not in the reduction of energy costs, but in the idea of
turning foodstuffs into fuel.
Today we know
with accurate precision that one ton of corn can only render as an average
The average
price of corn in US ports has reached 167 dollars per ton. The production of 35 billion gallons of
ethanol requires 320 million tons of corn.
According to FAO,
US corn production in 2005 reached 280.2 million tons.
Even if the
President is speaking about producing fuel out of switchgrass or wood chips,
any person could understand that these phrases are far from realistic. Listen
well: 35 billion gallons, 35 followed by nine zeros!
Beautiful examples of the productivity of men
per hectare achieved by the experienced and well organized US farmers will come
next: corn will be turned into ethanol; corn wastes will be turned into animal
fodder, with a 26 percent of proteins; cattle manure will be used as raw
material for the production of gas. Of
course, all of this will happen after a great number of investments, which
could only be afforded by the most powerful companies whose operations are
based on the consumption of electricity and fuel. Let this formula be applied to the Third
World countries, and the world will see how many hungry people on this planet
will cease to consume corn. What is
worse, let the poor countries receive some financing to produce ethanol from
corn or any other foodstuff and very soon not a single tree will be left
standing to protect humanity from climate change.
Other rich
countries have planned to use not only corn but also wheat, sunflower seeds,
rapeseed and other foodstuffs to produce fuel.
For Europeans, for example, it would be a good business to import the
entire soybean production of the world to reduce the cost of fuel for their
automobiles and feed their animals with the wastes of that legume, which has a
high content of all kinds of essential amino acids.
In Cuba,
alcohol was produced as a sugar cane by-product, after three extractions of
sugarcane juice. Climate change is
already affecting our sugar production.
Severe droughts alternate with record rainfall values, which hardly
allow our country to produce any sugar during a period of 100 days with
adequate yields during our very mild winter.
So, in Cuba, we are either producing less sugar per every ton of
sugarcane, or the number of tons of cane per hectare has been reduced due to
the long lasting droughts in the plantation and harvest seasons.
I understand
that Venezuela would not export alcohol; it will use it to improve the
environmental safety of its own fuel.
Therefore, despite the excellent technology designed by Brazil to
produce alcohol, its use in Cuba to produce alcohol from sugarcane juice is
nothing but a dream, the ravings of those who entertain such ideas. In our country, the land which would
otherwise be devoted solely to the production of alcohol could be better used
to produce foodstuffs for the people and protect the environment.
All countries
of the world without exception, whether rich or poor, could save trillions of
dollars in investments and fuel if they only replace all incandescent bulbs
with fluorescent bulbs, which is what Cuba has done in all the residential
areas of the country. This would be a
palliative that will enable us to cope with climate change without killing the
poor people in this planet with hunger.
As can be
seen, I am not using adjectives to describe either the system or those who have
become the owners of this world. That
task will be brilliantly accomplished by the information experts, the many
honest socio-economic and political scientists in this world who continuously
delve into the present and the future of our species. A computer and the
increasing number of Internet networks will just be enough to do that.
For the
first time a truly globalized economy exists and a dominant power in the
economic, political, and military spheres that is in no way similar to the
ancient Rome ruled by emperors.
Some
people may wonder why I am speaking about hunger and thirst. And I will answer: this is not about the other side of a coin,
but of the many different sides of quite another object, maybe a six-sided dice
or a polyhedron which has many more sides.
This time
I will quote an official news agency, founded in 1945, which is in general very
familiar with the economic and social problems of the world: TELAM. It literally said:
“Within
hardly 18 years, nearly 2 billion people will inhabit countries and regions
where water might seem a far away memory.
Two thirds of the world population could live in places where the lack
of water could bring about social and economic tensions that could lead peoples
to go to war over the precious “blue gold”.
In the course
of the last 100 years, water consumption has grown at a pace which is more than
twice the population growth rate.
“According
to the World Water Council (WWC), the number of persons affected by this
serious situation will increase to 3.5 billion by the year 2015.
On March
23, the United Nations Organization observed the World Water Day, urging all
member countries to cope with the international water shortage as of that day,
under the auspices of FAO, with the aim of emphasizing the
increasing importance of water shortage in the world and the need for greater
integration and cooperation to ensure a sustainable and efficient management of
water resources.
“Many
regions in this planet suffer from severe water shortage, where the annual rate
of cubic meters per person is less than 500.
Every time there are more and more regions suffering from a chronic
shortage of this vital resource.
“An
insufficient amount of the precious fluid necessary to produce foodstuffs, the
impaired development of industry, urban areas and tourism, and the emergence of
health problems are some of the consequences that derive from water shortage.”
So much for the TELAM wire service.
I have
not mentioned other important facts, such as the ice that is melting down in
Other
topics could be addressed, but in these few lines I simply intend to make some
comments about the meeting held by President Bush with the chief executives of
US automakers.
Fidel
Castro