This [picture] is P Chidambaram, India?s Finance Minister and my newest hero for saying it as it is. He highlights the inconsistencies and discomforts in the ways in which we live. He forces me to confront myself… Now that is rare for a politician, don?t you think?
If you were to ask most people if they were for the environment, most would shrug and say duh, right? Alternative fuel, you ask? Betcha! Want to lose your dependence on fossil fuel and drive your cute car on fuel made out of corn? Of course. It?s cleaner, friendlier, good for farmers etcetera etcetera.
Then, if you asked these same people if they supported the rights of the poorest people in the world to, well, eat, they would respond with a resounding yes. Feed the poor, stop kids from starving, what?s not to like? Coombaya damnit! And that?s where Chidambaram comes in. When there are starving people in the world, and kids are still dying of malnutrition, should crops be grown for fuel so I can go to the mall in my car?
Damn! Speaking in Singapore, he said that using corn and other foods as fuel is a sign of ?lopsided priorities.? And that such an ?uncaring policy? has to be condemned. He said that countries like the US were doing so while the world?s poor are struggling with surging food prices.
It?s stark. Remember that petroleum, which is ?evil? now, began as an alternative fuel. It was a cleaner alternative to coal and other fuels that destroyed people?s health and led to heavily polluted cities and hazardous work conditions. Petroleum was the wonder fuel of its day. Will biofuel, the newest alternative, be the new evil?
What when the interests of the poor come up against the interests of those who can afford vehicles and always win? What happens to the price of food once a bigger buck can be made by selling it for fuel? Will we make choices to drive our vehicles over the right of others to just survive?
It makes me think. It makes me cry. It makes me wonder about our future.
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