As always, Steyn cuts right to the chase:
Mark Steyn on Time & Global Warming on National Review Online
The biofuels debacle is global warm-mongering in a nutshell: The first victims of poseur environmentalism will always be developing countries. In order for you to put biofuel in your Prius and feel good about yourself for no reason, real actual people in faraway places have to starve to death. On April 15, the Independent, the impeccably progressive British newspaper, editorialized: “The production of biofuel is devastating huge swathes of the world’s environment. So why on earth is the Government forcing us to use more of it?”You want the short answer? Because the government made the mistake of listening to fellows like you.
I think he may be the best import we’ve ever gotten from Canada.
We recently watched the South Park episode on hybrids – the world’s leading cause of smug.
(profanity alert)
There’s slightly less smug being emitted from Great Britain today:
Sting and wife: Yes, yes, we’re hypocrites!: Call it a case of Gulfstream liberal guilt. The environmental activist wife of musician Sting is ‘fessing up to her Green hypocrisy.
If global warming were real, then hybrids would actually help prevent it. But despite popular belief, biofuels actually have nothing to do with global warming. Every combustion reaction releases CO2, whether it’s from gasoline or ethanol.
Some people just believe that biofuels will help because growing plants (such as corn) to make the fuel will pull CO2 out of the air. These carbon “offsets” are just a fraud, though. There’s basically no evidence that they affect CO2 levels at all. The only reason to support biofuels is (conceivably) to cut down on the price of gas.