By Greg Cooke

It first must be established that this is not a question of his environmental policies. Agree or disagree, they are not the issue here. Their consequences, however, are.

We have seen a reaction to the global warming scare that has people scrambling to produce alternate fuels. This seems like an excellent idea, regardless of climate issues; more energy sources are always better than fewer.

Unfortunately, no one has managed to remember the law of unintended consequences. Every positive development will have some negative repercussions as well. What are the negative repercussions of this alternate fuels bonanza? Food riots in various developing countries.

With staple crops such as corn being used to make ethanol, the price of corn has sky rocketed. With subsidies in place, it is radically more profitable to grow corn than anything else. Rather than a glut in the market lowering the price, the massive demand for corn has raised it.

This results in higher prices for feed, which is often mainly composed of corn. It also results in many farmers abandoning other crops to grow corn, raising most crop prices.

With basic staple costs going up, this of course raises the price of all complex foods that require multiple ingredients, almost all of which start at the farm level.

This chain reaction has unleashed a wave of rising food prices, causing panic in several countries, even war.

The prices of things like soy, rice and wheat have all risen in response to the “food for fuel” initiatives, and it hits mostly those in the poorest countries.

We see the effects as mass panic in places like Haiti, Indonesia, the Philippines and several
African countries.

This all brings us back to my original point. Gore’s rabid propagandizing of global warming seems to have contributed to anything but peace. In the effort to stem the tide of global warming, massive amounts of unrest have been created. Does this sound like a basis for a prize promoting peace?

Whether you agree with Gore’s views on global warming or not, it cannot be ignored that these policies have created incredible damage throughout the world.