EUOBSERVER / BRUSSELS - As the wave of strikes, protests and riots by millions of the world's poorest citizens in reaction to soaring food prices spreads around the globe, the European Commission is to offer a further €117.25 million in emergency food aid in response to the impact of the increase in food prices on the world's most vulnerable people. Making the announcement in the European Parliament, the commission's development chief, Louis Michel, said: "The rise in basic food prices is a worldwide humanitarian disaster in the making. Ongoing humanitarian food programmes are under enormous pressure with less food available for people already on the brink of starvation." "Millions more, who were just about coping before, now risk going hungry," he added. "Addressing food price issue is a global challenge requiring long-term solutions but the emergency is now. We have an obligation to act - and act quickly." "All analysts say that the era of cheap food is over. We won't see food prices going back down to former levels," he said, pointing out that the aid package was only a partial solution, but not enough to deal with what he called a "structural problem."
What I do have is a sense of impressions, gained largely from the various essays and news items we discuss on a regular basis.
It seems quite obvious to me that we have, in the west, a set of lifestyle expectations that are predicated on cheap energy from hydrocarbons, cheap resources based on contorl of markets and cheap food based on cheap energy and political control of supplier countries. But I cannot prove that, it's an impression.
It also seems to me that our politicians have refused to understand that these "good" times were coming to an end, or if they have, in such a timescale that they can put off electorally difficult decisions till after they've left office. Sadly the "unexpected" arrival of this new reality coupled with this cowardiceoptimism has not only resulted in the end period of the cheap hydrocarbon paradigm being unnecessarily problematic, but which have in some ways made them much worse.
The UK and US have not encouraged green behaviour with sufficient vigour. Indeed the killing of the Shetland wind power scheme demonstrates the chronic levels of denial at government and individual level about what is happening. Yet again, in the S of France, I was chastened by the sight of wind farms on every hilltop, such a contrast to the pathetic NIMBY-ish resistance to any development here.
What the heck are we doing driving everywhere ? Why aren't there railways being built in the UK ? Why is everything backward and in service of the great god car ? We can't pretend we can keep articulated lorries rumbling around 100s and 1000s of pointless miles in defiance of the concept of localism just cos it seemed like a good idea 15 years ago.
And politicians should have taken a lead on this. And they haven't.
But I can't prove any of it. Sorry keep to the Fen Causeway
I just get grumpy at the unsupported assertions of doom that get thrown around.
It seems quite obvious to me that we have, in the west, a set of lifestyle expectations that are predicated on cheap energy from hydrocarbons, cheap resources based on contorl of markets and cheap food based on cheap energy and political control of supplier countries.
However, to return to assertion rather than fact, when fuel doubles in price in 5 years (sorry can I bold that ? An awful lot of people, J, Oil drum etc are talking about fuel prices doubling in FIVE years) that's gonna have a real impact on the way we move things around. Car commuting is gonna become truly problematic in the UK & USA. As DevilsTower states in his/her Big Orange Satan diary Belated Earth Day: The Big Gulp
The answer is conservation. Drive less. Take public transit. Walk. If it's too far to walk, use a bike. If it's too far to bike, and there no public transportation, car pool. If you can't car pool, use a smaller, more efficient vehicle. If you have a long commute, move closer to work. If you can't move closer, take a closer job. If you can't get a different job, see if you can telecommute. It really is that simple. Which of course, doesn't mean it will be easy.
Drive less. Take public transit. Walk. If it's too far to walk, use a bike. If it's too far to bike, and there no public transportation, car pool. If you can't car pool, use a smaller, more efficient vehicle. If you have a long commute, move closer to work. If you can't move closer, take a closer job. If you can't get a different job, see if you can telecommute.
It really is that simple. Which of course, doesn't mean it will be easy.
Damn right. The further down the list, the more those options scream in neon red that our way of life is toast, cos it doesn't just apply to commuting. That's everything.
HGV traffic is going to make the Tesco transportation economic model for food distribution uneconomic. Then how will london and other large cities feed themselves ? The railway capacity to do so simply doesn't exist, the goods yards don't exist and there isn't space to build them cos we built houses and other stuff on them.
And we could have planned to prepare for this. And whilst continental Europe is better placed than UK/US, we're all gonna suffer cos we still have car based economies : That's not economies with cars, that's entire patterns of life and economic opportunity based around the car resulting from half a century of cheap personal transportation. And it's over. That time has gone, it disappeared and we're now in that period of painful adjustment that has been made worse because politicians didn't accept it was coming. Which is my origianl argument
Yes, this is assertion rather than fact and you can frame it as "that's won't, not can't" if you wish. I have never written fact-heavy diaries, I don't have the smarts, the background in reason nor the research kudos to be able to mount the sort of sustained arguments that make Chris Cook or Jerome's essays so compelling. Neither am I gonna start. But if intellectual shortcomings such as mine become a barrier to having an expressed opinion then perhaps you need to say that out loud. I'm sure zoe would be interested as she argued similarly last week. keep to the Fen Causeway
