Connections Part III – Terrorism, global warming … Ethanol, Iowa and Hillary Clinton
Posted by Spherical Phil at 11/5/2007 8:50 AM 
Categories: Change,Transformation,Leadership,Connections,Politics,Hillary Clinton,Whole
Categories: Change,Transformation,Leadership,Connections,Politics,Hillary Clinton,Whole
This weekend Presidential candidate Hillary Clinton campaigning in Iowa said
"We can be more creative about how to grow the economy in rural areas," said Clinton. "We need a whole strategy on rural economic development."
I applaud Hillary’s desire for a “whole strategy,” as readers of this blog know I am more than a little interested in whole. But Hillary (or her speech writers more accurately) should have read my blog posting about Connections (Part I) before her speech calling for a whole strategy.
The AP article reporting on her speech said she called for increasing the production and use of alternative fuels, and improving rural access to high-speed Internet services.
Clinton noted Iowa's success with creating new jobs at ethanol plants, and the high corn prices sparked by the ethanol boom.
"We can create millions of good jobs if we do this right," said Clinton. "Look at what's happening in rural Iowa. It could happen all over rural America if we do this right."
But how many people will die?
In Connections (Part I) I quoted UN official, Jean Ziegler, who it was reported that very day, called for a five year moratorium on biofuel because current biofuel approaches are driving up food costs, causing food shortages and prices jumps that are a “catastrophe” for the poor of the world.
The article reported that the world price of wheat doubled in one year and the price of corn quadrupled, leaving poor countries, especially in Africa, unable to pay for the imported food needed to feed their people.
What’s good for Iowa may not be good for the world. Creating jobs in Iowa is great, but can’t we do it without starving people in Africa?
For those astute who remember what came next in the Connections Part I, there was another component to the whole of the situation. There was another AP article that day about the growing water shortage. The article stated, “The government projects that at least 36 states will face water shortages within five years because of a combination of rising temperatures, drought, population growth, urban sprawl, waste and excess.”
It seems the water report did not factor in the massive increase in water consumption from producing ethanol. The Institute for Agriculture and Trade Policy reported “a 254 percent increase in volume of water used in ethanol production from 1998 through 2008. If changes aren’t made, it is likely ethanol water use will see even more of an increase in the next decade.”
The AP article included this not so insignificant fact though, “The Intergovernmental Panel on Climate Change, a United Nations network of scientists, said this year that by 2050 up to 2 billion people worldwide could be facing major water shortages.”
Remember my comment about a Catch 33? Here’s a new version, more high paying jobs in Iowa making ethanol, starve more people and add to the catastrophic growing water shortages.
I like Hillary (though of course I don’t know her personally), she is smart, driven and appears capable. She is absolutely correct that we need a ‘whole strategy.” It’s just that this idea of whole is a bit of a larger challenge than she, or any or of the candidates have a clue. Well perhaps they have a clue but the political process won’t allow them to talk freely, but that is the subject for another time.
Her comments help to illustrate the challenge of being whole. We have to truly see and be whole, we cannot look at a few parts, connect them together and say that is the whole of the situation, its not.
But here’s the payoff, it is only when we truly look at the whole and share the full situation that we can tap into the KEW (knowledge, experience and wisdom) of individuals and humanity as a whole. When we all know what we are truly up against, what the whole situation really is, we can work together and come up with truly “whole” solutions.
Spherical,
Phil
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