A retired PCS executive writes;
Chapter 1: Have you been noticing that PCS, PotashCorp’s, stock has been skyrocketing in the last 6 months. Know why???….Kyoto Madness….GHG emissions. Sounds funny but here is the real reason. It’s all economics… If you go to PCS’s annual meeting this next month..You will hear Bill Doyle, CEO say that an emerging market for PotashCorp is the bio fuel demand…. Which requires… corn… and guess what, corn demands potash.
So the corn is being sold as fuel rather as food. Methanal producers are willing to pay more for a bushel of corn than food producers (good for PCS and good for farmers). In additon acreage for other crops such as wheat, sorghum, soy, cotton, lentils etc.. are being re-sowed to produce corn stock for methanol.
American farmers will produce corn for fuel rather than food if they can get a better return. Replacing acreage to corn will cause a rise in price for the other agricultural products as they become short in supply as acreage is reduced. (bad for the consumer)
American meat production that has historically increased by about 2 % per year, is in decline as feed (corn) is going to the production of fuel rather than producing protein for animals.
Chapter 2: China’s output of protein has increased. This is the second punch in the increase of PotashCorps share increase.
It takes 2 lbs. of grain to get 1 lb. of chicken, It takes 5 lb. of grain to get 1 lb. pound of pork, and 7 lb. of grain to get 1 lb. of beef.
China’s GDP has been increasing, and when you now have a multi billion population with disposable income, they are wanting to eat better, and that will mean they want MEAT. (Refer to any PCS publication in the last 2 years) . In addtion, the Chinese see a growing market in North America for Grain as the Americas use their grain for methanol.
Where does all the pet food come from lately…. See the call backs….Kate you have dogs… where is your dog food produced? Where do you think people food will produced in the future?
So in the end, North Americans will grow food to produce gas, and the Chinese will grow food to feed us. (hopefully a little better quality than the pet food) The ironic thing about this is that we North Americans had the most efficient GHG and low polluting technologies available to produce food, and we are now going to turn our Ag business over to a Third world country that doesn’t give a hoot about CO2 emissions..
But if you analyze this we have slowly turned over other manufacturing industrys to China (where do you think Walmart gets their stuff from).
China is adding 500 coal powered electrical plants in the next 10 years to meet their energy and new manufacturing production requierments. If you do the math, that’s about a coal fired CO2 monster every month. How many power plants does Canada build each month, let alone each year?
Flash! Flash! China is not signatory to Kyoto.
China is gearing up to provide the goods to fulfill the world market that will exist when we shutdown our manufacturing sector in a self flagelation penance, as preached by Dion, Layton, Suzuki et al… in the name of Kyoto.
China’s yearly Increase in CO2 equals the total amount of CO2 that Canada produces in a whole year. So if Canada was to turn off everything that produced CO2 ie…. cars, Suv’s, etc , all electricty, all home heating, all transportation, air travel, etc…we would have only achieved 1 year of grace as China’s increase in 1 year will equal all that we produce. Why in God’s name would we accommodate the transfer of Canadian manufacturing to a less efficient Chinese theatre?
Such is life.
I knew it would never happen under a librano regime, seeing that they are all pseudo commies anyway, but I must admit that I am a little dissapointed that the CPC is not even considering environmental tariffs vis-a-vis heavily polluting 3rd world countries….you want to smarten up these producers of massive amounts of pollution…restrict their access to our markets….no better motivation in the world….if only dr fruit fly, the goracle, leftard alby & co. would embrace this concept, maybe we could have some real progress fighting pollution
We should take all the farmland out west and plant it with trees to save the earth and those people who used to eat our wheat etc, well let them eat O2 or is it tree leaves in the fall.
Then we can send emails to the starving around the earth and let them know that whilst they might be dying so Al Gore can have 3 homes at least the earth was saved.
/sarc
quoting Kingstonlad: “real progress fighting polution”
Um……..
CO2 is NOT pollution! It is a naturally occurring gas! Now, yes, pollution is a real problem (indeed, I’d argue a much big problem than carbon emissions), but to call CO2 ‘pollution’ is to conflate two separate issues.
Btw, awesome post Kate. Your man at Potash Corp. does a phenomenal job pulling everything together.
quoting Kingstonlad: “real progress fighting polution”
Um……..
CO2 is NOT pollution! It is a naturally occurring gas! Now, yes, pollution is a real problem (indeed, I’d argue a much big problem than carbon emissions), but to call CO2 ‘pollution’ is to conflate two separate issues.
Btw, awesome post Kate. Your man at Potash Corp. does a phenomenal job pulling everything together.
oops. sorry for the 2x.
By the way, 500 plants in 10 years is almost a new plant each week, not each month.
“China is adding 500 coal powered electrical plants in the next 10 years to meet their energy and new manufacturing production requierments. If you do the math, that’s about a coal fired CO2 monster every month.”
make that about every WEEK ( 10 x 52)
This is why Gore put his movie out early. If he had waited till the price of corn went up no one would go see it if they had to fork out $20 for beverage and pop corn down at the local cineplex. It is all starting to make sense.
What would Orville Reddenbacher say?
The Worlds Largest Greenhouse Gas Producer is those nasty, selfish Americans right?
—
BEIJING — China is set to surpass the U.S. as the world’s top emitter of greenhouse gases this year — much earlier than forecast — because of its rapid economic growth, according to the International Energy Agency.
Moreover, Beijing’s refusal to put limits on China’s greenhouse-gas emissions will allow them to increase nearly unchecked and erase gains made elsewhere in the world, the IEA’s chief economist, Fatih Birol, said in an interview. That could seriously weaken efforts to design a global greenhouse-gas treaty to replace the Kyoto Protocol.
http://planetgore.nationalreview.com/post/?q=MzdmN2Q5MGU4NGNjOTM0ZGYyMjM5ZWYwZDU5OTViMzU=
We have put huge negative dents in our socio-cultural fabric over the last 15 years or so by allowing minority interests to rule Canada.
Now it seems we are about to put huge dents in our economic fabric. All of this has been/is about to be self-inflicted. The former in the name of “reasonable accommodation” and the latter to feed the apparently bogus global warming/climate change in order to pander for votes.
This conservative party may just be dumb enough to try to implement a Kyoto-type shut down or our economy – if for no other reason than to prove that they can “do” something” compared to the Liberal “doing nothing”. It is all about politics these days and pretty much nothing about substance.
In the case of the environmental directions the Conns seem to be headed (carbon trading off shore) – probably doing nothing is preferable to messing with our economic engines when the messing is almost sure to benefit those offshore like China. Strong/Chretien/Martin and the boys must be doing very well these days.
Just the uncertainties projected by all the political wrangling these days may be enough to bring our economic engines to idle without actually bringing in any new environmental policies.
Central Canada will do most anything to retain political/financial control of Canada – including selling out the oil patch just as they pretty much sold our Western Canada by quietly ushering through Law S-3 just prior to the last federal election.
The pandering is on for a majority and very likely the whys of them not being in majority territory rest with this business of promising/spending most anything to anyone – particularly beneficial to those in ON/QC. The appointment of Bert Brown to the Senate – really! Do the John Bairds of the world truly believe that we are so stupid in the West to believe that this is more than an absurd token that ohhh, by the way, we do think about the West. This is pretty much the popcorn that is supposed to woo us into supporting whatever environmental policies about to come down.
The real kicker is that Stelmach et al seem to be so enamored by having a Con government at the Federal level that they are probably not strong enough to stand up to the Feds right now on the Environment/Water/Immigration files that are being negotiated right now. With Ralph, at least a lot of people knew where he was going before it happened and had a chance to voice.
With Stelmach it seems that we will see (or not) it happen first through highly controlled “advisory groups” and then right into legislation. To late after the fact to voice – but there will be an election next year. Harper operates even closer to the vest and both of these factors are not boding well at all for Alberta right now.
‘Kyoto Madness’ alight.
sda archives show that this has been revealed for sometime now.
The MSM “missed” the hoax part and keep on promoting Kyoto. As in the past, the media will claim they did not know and hence are innocent. sda archives may be valuable to the prosecution.
Oh, and what are Kate’s so-called competitors yaking about these days ?? Some flunky punky off-his-Rocker’s 60th birthday.
Notwithstanding that I believe corn for fuel is a scam, this retired executive should at least get his facts straight. Corn is used to produce ethanol, not methanol.
“So in the end, North Americans will grow food to produce gas, and the Chinese will grow food to feed us.”
Wonder where all that air pollution in China ends up? Canada. What goes around, comes around eh?
Hey speaking of the end, Soylent Green can’t be too far away now judging Chinese morals in trafficking of body parts.
Indeed the end is near, but hey look at the bright side this would spurn a lot of dieting and health clubs.
Here porkie porkie porkie…
Haven’t we seen this movie before, a different version but possibly the same outcome? Thirty or so years ago the poor in Africa were told to plant cash crops to make money so they could live better. The only problem with that was they had nothing to eat and starved. Now we are going to turn our food production into fuel! No flags red here?
This old capitalist smells a long-term buy in food processing and far out futures contracts.
Where’s Uncle Moe and Power Corp in all this?
“Wonder where all that air pollution in China ends up? Canada. What goes around, comes around eh?”
It’ll be OK though, because we’ll be in the no-peeing end of the pool…..
JCL
Very well stated. As Europe succumbs to Islam, we will surrender to China and no one will notice until it’s too late.
And to make this litany of absurdity complete, remember that the whole global warming hypothesis is based on a logical fallacy: that this particular instance of a variation in the Earth’s average temperature is necessarily caused by a new factor (human industrial outputs), and not by the same set of conditions or factors that produced all the previous variations. Add to that that we scarcely know anything about what caused past long term temperature changes, and you have to start wondering about the motives or intelligence of the people promoting this whole noisy business: the planet has a fever? No, but somebody ought to get to a doctor (or psychiatrist) right now.
But I can’t eat potash!
Corn is used to produce ethanol, not methanol.
Posted by: John B at April 24, 2007 10:09 AM
HEY…hang on… maybe I was wrong. I can just drink it AND power my car? Damn. Maybe the Kyoto Kultists are on to something!!
It takes MORE fossil fuel energy to produce so-called biofuel than the biofuel is worth.
Is this the reason the ‘big boys’ are letting the ‘little boys’ “in-on-the-deal’ ??
Is Man Hydro et al putting their own money into ‘wind farms’ ??
nightmare says…
…Where’s Uncle Moe and Power Corp in all this?
right in the middle of it!!!
Another case of an informed observer showing what a foolish initiative the Kyoto accord is! The CRIME of the Century if we allow it it go on will be the ponzi scheme of Mo Strong.
Now show me a politician who is willing to take a firm stand against this.
I do not understand this obsession with bio-fuels. Basic high school chemistry will tell you that ethanol is a hydrocarbon and burning any hydrocarbon produces CO2. Get that? Burning ethanol produces CO2. Sure, it uses somewhat less energy to produce ethanol than gasoline, but, at best, switching to ethanol will only slow down the emission of CO2, not stop it. The only way to achieve the kind of reductions in CO2 that are called for by Kyoto is nuclear energy. Mr. Suzuki and Mr. Gore, if you are serious about CO2 reductions, it is time to come out in favour of nuclear energy. What say you?
The real reason for the ethanol madness is not CO2 or anything like that. The USA are importing 13,000,000 barrels of oil every day, and increasing. At the same time major suppliers like Norway and Mexico are reducing their exports as their production is declining.
You do the math. It’s part of a last-ditch effort to keep the SUVs going. Another part is asking Alberta to pump 5 mbpd from the oil sands ASAP.
This whole rush to ethanol, which was essentially Bush’s lame big handout to Midwest farmers, is so flawed. From what I’ve read, if you factor in the fertilizer and irrigation, don’t forget the natural gas to power those huge irrigation systems, there is no energy savings. And, what happens to the good agriculture practice of crop rotations?
If we plow under everything for corn, import our food, what happens when a corn blight, like the one that did in Ireland, hits our one crop agriculture? It will happen.
An unfettered free market is the best mechanism for determining the alternative energy winners.
I’ll always respect Bush for his response to 9/11 and standing firm in the WOT, but, some of his domestic policies have been stupid.
“So in the end, North Americans will grow food to produce gas, and the Chinese will grow food to feed us.”
I’m glad this inverted supply chain does not impact those of us who hunt and fish to augment the yearly food bill.
The more “fuel crops” the greater the deer population and the greater impact they will have on this new cash crop…thay may become a “pest” specoes in high ag areas….coen fed whitetail is delish…don’t throw your deer gun away yet 😉
What a mess of mixed motives.
Sugar cane is far and away a better fuel source than corn. Yet corn stalks can be engineered for better sugar content over time.
In any case it is a labour intensive make work project with only the cushion against oil to recommend it. Impractical.
While there is no shortage of oil today, it is the fear of an interruption of supply and what that will do to the economy that makes govts crazy.
With billion$ invested in every neighbourhood Canada wide to make and pump gas, and millions employed in the ICEngine, it*s no wonder that Baird wants to make changes to EVs and hydrogen for HD fleets SLOWLY.
A mindless rush to Kyoto could make a serious mess, but I want an electric car now. No, not a hybrid, just a non-gas, non-stinky, non-money sucking, clean quiet ride.
In the mean time, if you can find a Honda Insight, [ 2 seater], buy it. I don*t dare print the MPG that gets. Amazing. = TG
I m not quite convinced that the Canadian manufacturing sector is being transferred to the Chinese because of Kyoto. In fact, I take issue with the following statement:
” when we shutdown our manufacturing sector in a self flagelation penance, as preached by Dion, Layton, Suzuki et al… in the name of Kyoto.”
The manufacturing sector is hurt less by Kyoto and more by the competitive advantage held by third world countries. For that, I do blame Dion and Layton, at the very least.
Canada is a rich country, but Canadians are poor. I have travelled in both the “developing” and “developed” world, and my own impression (Note: opinion, not fact), is that Canada has superb infrastructure and no money. I can dwell on it for hours and throw gazillions of examples, but I encourage you to consider your own experience, cross-border or transatlantic. Compare the stores, the grocery stores, the shopping stores – everything. Look at the amount of money you re paying in taxes to fly through Canada’s over-glitzy airports. Canadian airports have the highest landing fees in the world. They show up in your ticket price. Consider the fact that you re paying these taxes in addition to your regular taxes.
This country has gone too far to the left. But the surprising thing is that, despite the fact that people want to lower their taxes, they still buy into a “Harper is the devil” image. Some of you will ccall this idiocy on the part of the voter, but why is the Conservative Party so incapable of refuting the bad image it has, especially within Canada’s immigrant populations? Immigrants actively vote against the conservative party, but how dare anyone suggest its the Conservative Party’s fault, what with the latter failing to overturn the negative image being propagated? Instead conservatives sit and call the MSM names, and the voters idiots, and the Liberals commies, but when it comes to improving their own image, they just shrug helplessly. I ve been called a Liberal many many many times on this board. i ve never claimed to be one.
The Conservatives are certainly right on some things (I m not a party hack, and I m willing to hold an opinion that goes against the party line – which might be a bit of a novelty to most people here), but, as much as they love making fun of liberal theories, they really love to act like victims too. Its all about shrugging and blaiming everyone else for your own problems, and doing close to nothing to fix them.
All I gotta say is that this bio-fuel makes real sense for canada and canadian farmers.
1) Lots of land to grow stuff
2) Many canadian farmers can’t hardly survive in the current economic climate (notice no young farmers) something has to give and biofuels is the answer.
The food worries are a load of crap. In fact maybe its time for a bit of a famine so people value the food that farmers grow. Maybe then they can make a living at it.
Bio-fuels do not cost more energy to make than they put out. The energy to grow them comes from the sun. The Fertilizers (we’ed need them anyway whether we were growing food or energy)
Remember that beloved oil is really just decayed plant matter
Bio-fuels are carbon neutral not because they don’t produce CO2 when burned (They do produce CO2 when burned) But because during photosynthesis the CO2 that made the plant was taken from the air in the first place) Whereas the carbon in oil has been sequestered underground for however long (estimates vary)
And it doesn’t take alot of energy to produce Ethanol from corn, your combine can run on canola oil (or bio-diesel), The enzymes do the work for you producing ethanol all at room temp,
(Ideally corn is not the best to make ethanol from it would be more efficient to use Switchgrass and other cellulosic materials but cellulose just doesn’t break down easily people are working on it though)
Another benefit of ethanol is that it is higher octane than gasoline which means it can be run at higher compression ratio’s than gasoline providing higher fuel efficiency, (If I remember correctly the octane rating of EtOH is 100)
Another reason to go to bio-fuels is that Those arab states use the money we give them to finance terrorism and giant mosques (one going up near Edmonton right?) on canadian soil, in other words they use our money to transform our society right out from under us.
I don’t believe in Kyoto, but there are other factors that support bio-fuels. The changover will not be pretty but it’s definitely something to work toward
Search autoblog.com for *HondaInsight*
or go to this pdf 2002
insightcentral.net/_files/_pdf/hbro-u02.pdf
Nice car and 700 miles per tank.
Quality?. .. It*s a Honda = TG
“Why in God’s name would we accommodate the transfer of Canadian manufacturing to a less efficient Chinese theatre?”
Because the real goal of Kyoto is the destruction of Western cultural dominance. There’s really no other way to interpret it since it will have NO EFFECT on CO2 emissions (and even if it did, people with their eyes open know that man-made CO2 is not causing global warming).
The real motive of Kyoto, like everything the global jet-set does in empire building and increasing their power. They do this by eliminating state sovereignty in the voting nations and transfering power to unaccountable, unelected global bodies like the EU and the UN. These global elites run these things without regard to the needs, desires and dreams of you and I…
All I see going on with the UN and EU is the crippling beauracratic incompetence, massive corruption and weakening positions overall for the two organizations.
…ethanol, methanol, corn, grain…
– I feel a BEER song coming on eh…
“I’m glad this inverted supply chain does not impact those of us who hunt and fish to augment the yearly food bill.”
WL, ya spoke too soon, remember the discussion over at cjunk about the teacher/school/education system coming down like a ton of bricks on a kid who stood up for his dad taking him hunting?
Tg’s right. Electric powered cars are the way to go. There’s really no need to switch over food production to bio fuels. He’s got a pretty good blog discussing current and future electric vehicles.
I think the true benefit of doing this is to reduce or eliminate the import of oil from the Middle East and Venezuela.
From April 21 edition of Wpg. Free Press business section.
“Fertilizer Prices grow wild”
$1,000-PLUS The quoted price per tonne for anhydrous ammonia, a popular form of nitrogen fertilizer, in some Prairie farm communities. Prices that ranged from $450 to $500 a tonne last fall are $900 to more than $1,000 a tonne this spring.
$45,000 The added cost to an average sized Manitoba farm (1,500 acres) if the farmer bought nitrogen and phosphate fertilizers this apring as opposed to last fall.
WHY THE HIGH FERTILIZER PRICES? HUGE demand in the United States to grow corn for the ethanol industry. growth in fertilizer use in such countries as India, China and Brazil.
CHANGE OF PLAN Some farmers who left their fertilizer buying until spring are looking to cut their costs by growing crops such as soybeans, oats and flax, which use far less nitrogen fertilizer than big users like canola and corn.
I was at last weekend’s Grand Prix in Texas but did not see a single electric car on the track (sorry Tony). I did see those 700+ horsepower methanol burning Formula 1 cars going like snot. While methanol might not be the best for Canadian (i.e. cold) climate, it would make for fun commutes in the summer. Zoom zoom.
Yes but … on a per capita basis the billions of Chinese produce much less CO2 than do the gas-guzzling, gas-belching 32 million Canadians … and under Kyoto they must be allowed to increase their GHG production while our’s must be forced down, and then we will all settle down at a happy average by 2012.
I suppose Canada could change this Suzuki math by importing say a 100 million Chinese to bring Canada’s population to a decent number and reduce our per capita CO2 production …. So it’s either that or non-stop fornication with Canadian women producing more Canadians from menarche to menopause .. hmmmm …. or just bring in many more fecund muslims and tax the hell out of childless DINKS for increased social welfare and baby bonuses.
TC,
Electric cars are barred from all races.
Illegal and unfair advantage. The electric car easily takes any ICE racing machine.
The Tesla did. The X1 did too. = TG
Yep, it’s a long range plan, well thought out:
#1- destruction of western dominance, particularly Judeo-Christian values of freedom, democracy, non-violence, and the elevation of humanity.
#2- addressing the real problem: too many people on the planet.
Hitler, Stalin, Mao? PUSSIES! This time around, no more Mr. Nice Guy…
Jared, do the BTU math. Farms are horrendous users of BTUs.
Biofuels are a solar colector, alright. A hell of an expensive one. Subject to many weather related failures also.
Who is putting their $$ into biofuel production ?? Taxpayers(Govmit)if, IF someone (“investors”) lead.
TG, the electric car has been around for as long as the ICE. Why did it loose ?? Works good for golf carts though. Bout a 5 or 6 thousand yard range. Still looking for that magic battery. Something like the magic carburator of the 60s.
Tories Support Kyoto Motion
The Federal Conservatives teamed up with the Opposition to unanimously pass a motion calling on Canada to meet the objectives of the Kyoto Protocol.
The Bloc Quebecois motion calls for Canada to urgently set absolute targets for cutting greenhouse emissions so as to achieve the objectives of Kyoto.
Liberal environment critic David McGuinty calls the Conservatives support the biggest flip-flop seen from the Conservative government.
Environment Minister John Baird indicated there is no difference between absolute reductions in emissions, which the Conservatives have promised to achieve eventually, and absolute limits on emissions, which they have so far refused to accept. …-
cfra.com
Electric cars lost out in 1908 because they were short range and gas cost 6 cents a gallon.= TG
I’m wondering why a lot of commentors think “the retired PCS executive” is a man.
The retired executive is very prescient. In the past, we’ve been led to believe that “fertilzer feeds the world.” Now, we are finding that “fertilizer fuels the world.” Very interesting.
Since the turn of the century, Americans have grown about 80 million acres of corn. Then, the bushels per acre were in the teens; now they are about 120+. And this year, we are expecting about 90 million acres, although the cool weather may affect planted acres and yield.
The food/fuel paradox is amaxing!
And an electric motor in 1908 cost ?? 5 bucks ??
Calgary Clipper,
I’m a little late getting here but you have it nailed with regards to Alberta. We’re going to get it here in order to satisfy central Canada. Did you see this at CBC yesterday:
“Bloc Québécois Leader Gilles Duceppe, who was present at the Montreal march, condemned Prime Minister Stephen Harper for protecting Alberta oil interests over the health of Quebec’s environment.
“Canada is getting rich off oil and Quebec is paying for it,” Duceppe said.
We got Harper and Flahtery capitulating to Quebec and Ontario with regards to equalization and NL & NS are getting their Accords unilaterally changed with the passing of the budget (a signatory agreement between two different govts. Does this mean all prov/federal agreements can be unilaterally changed now? qualifier: Danny Williams is a socialist who would make Layton blush) and I and many others lost alot of political capital, conservative capital I might add, when Harper blindsided us with this. Don’t forget the income trusts, greater good remember.
Being from the east coast I know what a make work project looks like and I know what its like to be ravished by Ottawa for the greater good. Alberta, beware, we are next.
Where’s Ted Morton in all this? He’s in sustainable management or something right. What’s his take on the possibilty of a Federal take?
We need a HOT AIR TAX to lay on AL GORE and those wackos in those various enviromentalists groups make them pay when ever they opened their big fat pieholes and addimted all that HOT AIR
And Texaco, British American, Standard oil et al sold gas, not batteries. = TG
penny…I believe that was a potato blight, not corn.Corn is native to NA,not Europe.(So are tomatoes,but don’t tell the Italians that).
Tony…just what is being used to produce all that electricity to recharge these wonderful electric cars? The Good Fairy?