TUESDAY, APRIL 22nd, is Earth Day. Unfortunately, there is very little to celebrate this year, as the devastation of the Earth is increasing at an extraordinary rate and, in many countries, the poor are feeling the pain of hunger and starvation.
The major culprit this year is climate change. Droughts in various parts of the world, especially Australia, have cut food supplies and the rush to grow biofuels leaves less land on which to grow food. As a result food prices have jumped dramatically during the year. Maize is up 31 per cent, rice has increased by 74 per cent, soya is up 87 per cent, and wheat is now 130 per cent dearer than it was last year.
In recent years, concerns about global warming and the end of the oil era convinced many people that growing energy crops might be a good idea. In the US the production of ethanol from plant matter increased by a factor of five in the past decade. Policy decisions taken this year will lead to a further five-fold increase. Europe is also boosting biofuel production and attempting to source it from various parts of the world.
The speed at which these changes are taking place can be seen from a glance at investment in biofuels. In 1995 it was a mere $5 billion. A decade later it had jumped to $38 billion, and is expected to top $100 billion (€63 billion) by 2010.
Sorry to say the biofuel boom is a classic example of the paradox of conscious purpose. This means that we often achieve the very opposite result to the one we intended. In both southeast Asia and South America, growing biofuel crops has led to massive destruction of the rainforest. In Brazil, for example, more than 302,514 hectares were destroyed in the second half of 2007. One of the main reasons for this is the pressure to grow more soya.
In Malaysia and Indonesia producing biofuels from palm oil will increase the amount of carbon dioxide released into the atmosphere, because the preferred way of clearing the forest is by burning it. This final destruction of the forest will lead to the extinction of countless species of plant, animal, reptile and bird life.
Global food supplies are also at a very low ebb. The last time the US's grain silos were so empty was in the early 1970s when president Richard Nixon sold the wheat surplus to the USSR because crop failures there were leading to starvation. The US recently told the World Food Programme to expect a 40 per cent increase in the price of food in 2008.
Less food and dearer food has led to riots around the world. In Morocco, 34 people were arrested in January 2008 for taking part in riots over food prices. The situation in Egypt is worse. In a 12-month period up to March 2008, the price of cereals and bread had increased in Egypt by 48.1 per cent, according to Egypt's Central Agency for Public Mobilisation and Statistics. The price of cooking oil rose by 45.2 per cent. Because of these increases, the Egyptian government has relaxed the rules on who is eligible for food aid. This has led to tensions and, if the situation continues, could destabilise the government.
The same is true in Pakistan. Meanwhile, at least four people were killed and 20 wounded when demonstrations against rising food prices turned into riots in southern Haiti.
My colleagues in the Philippines tell me that both the price of rice and insecure supplies of the cereal could do much more to destabilise the government of President Gloria Macapagal-Arroyo than coup plotters or even charges of gross corruption. All in all there is little to celebrate on Earth Day, 2008.
Fr Seán McDonagh is a Columban missionary. He spent more than 20 years in the Philippines and is author of many books on the environment. His latest is Climate Change: The Challenge To Us All.