When is becoming less dependent on petroleum a bad thing?
Louise Cleary, Brigidine Sister, prepared the complete article on this issue which will be posted on the UNANIMA International web site www.uananima-international.org What follows is an abbreviated version.
Food and Fuel go together
- Samuel Baraka has had to make do without “luxuries”. Since the beginning of the year, items like bread have been missing from his shopping list because he can only afford the very basic commodities. (East African Standard, Nairobi,17 March 2008)
- Filling up an SUV's fuel tank with ethanol uses enough maize to feed a person for a year.(Economist 6Dec2007)
- Grain prices are soaring. Rice is selling for over $1000/tonne in April whereas it averaged at $270/tonne last year.
We have all heard about the growing food crisis and soaring food prices. This has been exacerbated by the use of food crops for biofuels, particularly in the global north, and raises a moral dilemma.
Some would say that what biofuels do is undeniable: they take food out of the mouths of starving people and divert them to be burned as fuel in the car engines of the world's rich consumers. ….
Biofuels, which are made from corn, palm oil, sugar cane and other agricultural products, have been seen by many as a cleaner and cheaper way to meet the world's soaring energy needs than with greenhouse-gas emitting fossil fuels. Canada, the United States, the European Union, Japan and Australia have targets to increase their energy production from biofuels, either by domestic agriculture or by importing the raw materials. Kenya, South East Asia and Brazil are looked to as key market sources; Brazil was expected to supply 50% of the European Union’s market for biofuels as the EU worked towards its original goal of having 20% of its energy produced by biofuels by 2020….
During the Commission on the Status of Women in March the disproportionate effects of climate change on women, particularly from developing countries, was highlighted. At review sessions in Financing for Development the anticipated immense costs of climate change mitigation and adaptation were addressed and the worry that this would impact severely on meeting the MDG’s, particularly, MDG 1 especially eradicating extreme poverty and hunger by 2015, which is already seriously off-track. Speakers at the current Permanent Forum on Indigenous Issues are vociferous in expressing their concerns about the impacts of both biofuel production and deforestation, accelerated by carbon trading mechanisms, on their livelihood, health and culture….
It is clear that the excessive energy consumption of the developed world is key in accelerating climate change and it is a matter of justice that the consumers bear their proportion of the responsibility for reducing the impacts. It is a matter of life and death for many who bear the disproportionate costs of energy consumption, they will die of starvation.
WHAT’S NEW
A TREMENDOUS THANK YOU… In the last several weeks UNANIMA International received word that it has received grant awards from special funds of our member congregations to assist in the funding of our STOP THE DEMAND campaign. The Society of the Holy Child Jesus has granted us $7,000 and the Holy Union Sisters have granted us $7,000 from the Mother Helena Fund and the Sisters of St. Anne granted us $10,000 from Esther’s Dream. A huge thank you to each of them for their support.
A SECOND TREMENDOUS THANK YOU and congratulations. UNANIMA International offers a special congratulations to administrative assistant (and more) Jennifer Kuhlman. She will be graduating on 16 May with a Master’s from the New York University Robert F. Wagner Graduate School of Public Service. Unfortunately this means that she will be leaving us for a full-time job soon. She has made significant contributions to UNANIMA International this year especially by putting the STOP THE DEMAND campaign materials on the website in four languages, and by serving as secretary for the NGO Committee on Financing for Development. We will miss her creativity and enthusiasm.
Commission on Sustainable Development, 5-16 May in New York. UNANIMA International will be represented by a special delegation of four members: Holy Names Sisters, Claudette Bastien, Denise Girard, and Sue Schaad, and CSA Sister Kathleen Ries. Next month’s updates will have further information on what happens at this commission meeting.
Application Deadline for Intern position for next year is approaching quickly. If you or anyone you know is interested in this position, please encourage them to apply soon. (Application attached here and will also be posted on the UNANIMA International website.)
Participation in Protest against the HBO reality show CATHOUSE which is set in a brothel. As part of their anti-trafficking activities Louise, Catherine and Kathleen Ries formed a picket line protesting the sexual exploitation of women in this show.
Sr. Kathleen hands out flyers explaining the purpose of the 24 April protest in front of the HBO Offices in New York City.