Al Gore made his first political endorsement since “losing” the 2000 presidential election and, oddly, Gore’s political resurfacing on behalf of Barack Obama came the same week that the corn-growing state of Iowa — the state where Obama essentially WON the 2008 Democratic race for the White House — was inundated with floodwater.
Corn — now at $10 a bushel. Land. Ethanol. More corn. Global warming. Change. Climate Change. Gore. Obama. Farmers. Corn. Future. Futures. And, then, there was this item in the St. Louis Post-Dispatch. It was an article that elucidated the terrible impact that all the corn-growing in Iowa will have on the Mississippi Delta and the Gulf of Mexico.
We’re talking: Energy crisis = Ethanol = Corn Crops for fuel source = Food prices surge = Runoff into Gulf means dead zone = More global warming impact.
“Scientists predicting the biggest-ever “dead zone” in the Gulf of Mexico are blaming Midwestern corn grown for ethanol for higher levels of pollution escaping down the Mississippi River.
“In the past several years, there’s been an expansion of corn, which has the highest fertilizer per acre … and that’s for biofuels.” said R. Eugene Turner, a Louisiana State University professor who directed the study into the gulf’s water quality.” from the St. Louis Post-Dispatch.
If there were ever more clear signs as to how our entire system of life is, well, basically screwed, this was the week to see it.
