WRI-Plants at the Pump: Biofuels, Climate Change, and Sustainability

http://pdf.wri.org/plants_at_the_pump.pdf

H-W. Sinn: Food or Fuel?

http://www.project-syndicate.org/commentary/sinn17/English

The Economist: The End of Cheap Food

Rising food prices are a threat to many; they also present the world with an enormous opportunity

http://www.economist.com/opinion/displaystory.cfm?story_id=10252015

Rising incomes in Asia and ethanol subsidies in America have put an end to a long era of falling food prices

http://www.economist.com/opinion/displaystory.cfm?story_id=10250420

S. Johnson-Food and Biofuels: The Price of Success

"In a column in the December 2007 edition of Finance & Development magazine, IMF Chief Economist Simon Johnson looks at how the adoption of biofuels is driving up world food prices. He suggests that rich countries could help limit the rise, which is hurting the poor in low-income countries the most, by removing ethanol subsidies and cutting high tariffs."

http://www.imf.org/external/pubs/ft/survey/so/2007/RES123A.htm

Biofuels : Is the cure worse than the disease ?

http://www.oecd.org/dataoecd/15/46/39348696.pdf

The 20th meeting of the Round Table on Sustainable Development on 11-12 September 2007 considered the sustainable potential of biofuels and government policies to support them. Ministers from OECD member and non members countries, senior representatives of international organisations, academia, civil society, and senior private sector executives discussed the technical potential of biofuels production and national and international policies to promote their development.

Biofuels could boost global warming

http://www.rsc.org/chemistryworld/News/2007/September/21090701.asp

PJ Crutzen et al, Atmos. Chem. Phys. Discuss., 2007, 7, 11191

"Growing and burning many biofuels may actually raise rather than lower greenhouse gas emissions, a new study led by Nobel prize-winning chemist Paul Crutzen has shown. The findings come in the wake of a recent OECD report, which warned nations not to rush headlong into growing energy crops because they cause food shortages and damage biodiversity...

But other experts are critical of Crutzen's approach. Simon Donner, a nitrogen researcher based at Princeton University, US, says the method is elegant but there is little evidence to show the N2O yield from fertilized plants is really as high as 3-5 per cent. Crutzen's basic assumption, that pre-industrial N2O emissions are the same as natural N2O emissions, is 'probably wrong', says Donner."

Carbon Monitoring For Action

http://carma.org/

"CARMA reveals the carbon emissions of more than 50,000 power plants and 4,000 power companies in every country on Earth."

Global Warming Map Animation

NASA has produced an animated map that illustrates changes in global temperatures between meteorological years 1891 and 2006. This animated map is an .mp4 file that can be viewed using a QuickTime player. Each frame in the animation represents a one year increment of the ten year mean temperature anomaly. This animation begins with a historic ten year (1891-1900) mean meteorological year temperature anomaly map and ends with a recent (1997-2006) ten year mean meteorological year temperature anomaly map. The animation clearly illustrates a global warming trend over the time interval.

http://geology.com/news/images/a10_1891_1997_6fps_800kbps_sor3.mov