Wolf Howling: wheat

Wednesday, July 9, 2008

Global Warming Update: Higher CO2 Levels Mean Higher Plant Yields

You can't make this stuff up. Even as the radical greens advocate economy busting measures to combat rising CO2 levels, recent tests carried out by German researchers shows that plants love the higher carbon dioxide levels, with yields for wheat, barley and rice increasing substantially.
___________________________________________________

This from Breitbart

The dangerous rise in greenhouse gases in the atmosphere may be troubling scientists and world leaders but it could prove to be a boon for plants, German researchers said Tuesday.
Increasing exposure to carbon dioxide appears to boost crop yields, Hans-Joachim Weigel of the Johann Heinrich von Thuenen Institute for rural areas, forestry and fisheries in the central city of Brunswick told AFP.

"Output increased by about 10 percent for barley, beets and wheat" when the plants were subjected to higher levels of carbon dioxide, Weigel said.

The Thuenen Institute, which has been monitoring the phenomenon in fields since 1999, trains CO2 jets on the plants so the gas reaches 550 parts per million in the air around them -- the level expected in the atmosphere by 2050.

Weigel said the studies have indicated that while greater CO2 exposure appears to spur growth, it can also undermine the quality of the produce.

He said the next step in the study would be to evaluate the effect of higher temperatures on plant growth -- which scientists cite as another consequence of higher CO2 emissions in the atmosphere. . . .

Read the entire article.

Biofuel Insanity

The amount of grain, be it corn in the U.S. or wheat in the EU, that it takes to create enough biofuel to fill up one tank of gas is substantial. And of course, this is grain diverted from food and feed stocks. Thus, it should have been obvious to a casual observer that setting massive targets for biofuel production would have serious repercussions for the world food supply. And in a text book demonstration of the law of supply and demand, it has sent food prices skyrocketing. Now we learn that this is a surprise to many of our legislators. One can only marvel at their utter vacuity.

_______________________________________________________

This from an exceptional post by Dr. North writing at his blog, EU Referendum:

. . . CNN . . . blandly tells us: "Those battling global warming by promoting biofuels may unintentionally be adding to skyrocketing world food prices …".

Er … to meet the ten percent biofuels quota for the UK would require, according to our estimate, 14 million tons of wheat, against a total production of 11 million, all but one of which is used for food production.

And, as we pointed out last year, the conversion of European grain lands to growing wheat for petrol is going to raise its cost of food.

Multiply that world-wide and you have, in broad terms, the best part of 130 percent of global grain production devoted to producing ten percent of the global demand for automotive fuel. And these people didn't realise that it would raise food prices?

Did these people actually think you could siphon off the greater part of global agricultural production and it would have no effect on food prices? These people promoted such a policy without realising it would have that effect? What did they think … that they could just go to the supermarket and buy some more food to make up for the shortage?

What do these people do for brains? Do they keep them in glass jars in their bathrooms, for occasional use . . .

Read the entire post. And on our side of the pond, while there are some things that Bush has gotten right, his economic policies - inclusive of his embrace of biofuels - have just been horrendous.