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Biofuels protesters disable fuel pumps

Agrofoolsaction! | 18.04.2008 09:13 | Bio-technology | Climate Chaos | Social Struggles

Agro-fuels protesters disabled the fuel pumps of two BP filling stations early Tuesday morning in opposition to mandatory blending of biofuels into petrol and diesel. Protesters argue that biofuels will worsen climate change, and cause food shortages.
Protesters have taken this action in Edinburgh as part of a national day of action against biofuels - April Biofools day - coinciding with the Renewable Transport Fuel Obligation's (RTFO) coming into force, making it a legal requirement to mix 2.5% biofuels into all petrol and diesel.

Agro-fuels protesters disabled the fuel pumps of two BP filling stations early Tuesday morning in opposition to mandatory blending of biofuels into petrol and diesel. Protesters argue that biofuels will worsen climate change, and cause food shortages.
Protesters have taken this action in Edinburgh as part of a national day of action against biofuels - April Biofools day - coinciding with the Renewable Transport Fuel Obligation's (RTFO) coming into force, making it a legal requirement to mix 2.5% biofuels into all petrol and diesel.

BP was targeted since it is a major investor in biofuels.

Biofuels are more appropriately called agrofuels, as far from being connected to natural, sustainable life they are made from crops grown on unsustainable monoculture plantations.

Far from being a green solution to greenhouse gas emissions, agrofuels drive climate change. Increased use of agrofuels has been promoted by governments as a possible way of decreasing greenhouse gas emissions from transport. However, there is evidence that the process of producing agrofuels hugely increases greenhouse gas emissions when deforestation, peatland destruction and nitrogen fertiliser-use are taken into account.

The production of agrofuels is causing large-scale deforestation which is likely to lead to a tipping point of irreversible rapid destruction of forests, which could mean the release of as much as 120 billion tonnes of CO2. Similarly, the expansion of palm oil production for agrofuels is leading to an acceleration of peat draining, which is likely overall to mean the release of 40 million tonnes of CO2. In addition, increased large-scale agriculture means increased use of fertilzers which mean the release of large amounts of nitrous oxide, a greenhouse gas nearly 300 times more potent than carbon dioxide.

Agrofuels are also a major threat to food supplies and food sovereignty. Increased demand for agrofuel crops is putting pressure on food prices, pushing more and more people below the breadline.

Agrofuel crops are being grown on monoculture plantations. The land for these is often violently seized by governments and corporations from the people who live and work on it. People displaced are forced to either go to join the growing numbers of people living in poverty on urban peripheries or, as happened in the 1970s, settle in a previously uninhabited area of rainforest, causing further ecological devastation to add to that already caused by the plantations themselves.

Agrofuels are being pursued by Western governments because they offer a non-Middle Eastern fuel source. This is unrelated to the need to combat climate change, and is instead based on maintaining neo-imperialist power.

Agrofoolsaction!

Comments

Hide the following 4 comments

Hope you are all vegan

18.04.2008 14:55

Hopefully the activists responsible are vegan, if not, they are a walking contradiction.
People with true concerns need to understand the best way to stop any food shortage, is not to waste huge amounts of grain feeding it to livestock just so people here can have their steak or chicken, as this is such an unsustainable way of eating. food shortage is a major concern for all of us but campaigning against bio fuels is not the way forward when grain from a feild next to starving people is being sent over to the uk and other countries to feed livestock.

Chris


Hope you are all perfect

18.04.2008 16:14

Hopefully the activists responsible are perfect people, if not, they are a walking contradiction.
People with true concerns need to understand that you don't deserve to be involved in any form of activism unless you are an absolutely flawless being and have never done anything wrong in your life. There are many major concerns in this world but you've got to sort yourself out before campaigning against huge profit-driven multinationals, otherwise they could accuse you of hypocrisy!

-----

In all seriousness, I wish people would stop being so fucking self-righteous about veganism. By all means educate people about the realities of animal farming, but feeding vehicles and feeding humans are two entirely different things, regardless of what the vehicle or human is actually being fed.

Also bear in mind that many people (myself included) understand and agree with the arguments for veganism and vegetarianism but cannot immediately just "switch". It is a slow process which requires adjustment in many ways.

me


Vegan AND against biofuels

19.04.2008 09:12

I suspect the author of the first comment belongs to the new breed of so-called environmentalists who are profiting from the boom in biofuels by converting engines etc and is just trying to protect his interests ( hence his reluctance to come out against the destruction wreaked by biofuels on the environment and on the poorest people on the planet). What his self-righteous and ultimately hypocritical analysis fails to point out is that eating meat AND growing grain for biofuels are both unsustainable and highly damaging activities, and that as in all other campaigns people pick their fights and put their energy according to where they're at in the continuum of their personal development and awareness. Campaigning against one issue does not invalidate the other, and lecturing people because they’re not vegan does nothing towards creating solidarity among campaigners and help them embrace new ideas or lifestyles. (especially if the real motive is personal profit).

Campaigner


Divine Wrath Approaches.

19.04.2008 09:47

A Vegan told me the world could support thirty six billion vegan people. He was quite happy to genocide our co-evolution for that to happen. Cows. pigs, horses and chickens must cease to exist so that the vermin destroying our planet's ability to support life shall multiply.

Mass Extinction approaches.

Chipfat Diesel User