And I thought jokes about Al Gore eating too much were so last year.Sean Hannity, on FOX News, recently blamed the former vice president for the food crisis. Seriously. This hugely complex issue we're all hearing about has been helpfully simplified by Hannity who says:
"The Growing Consensus is that the crop deficit is directly related to the increased demand for production of quote earth friendly biofuels, an effort pushed by none other than the vanquished vice president Al Gore and all in the name of quote saving the planet."
Hannity's theory is a little too simple and a wee bit misleading (so is Hannity's statement that "Scores of scientists all over the world say human activities are not heating up the earth at all.").
Gore's views on bio-fuel are a bit more nuanced. At a speech in Argentina last year, for instance, Gore said that, "the drive to produce alternative fuels must not create new forms of environmental damage." He also talked about food prices increasing if biofuels are not used carefully.
At this point, the causes of the world food price crisis are still being debated. It could be rising oil prices, Asians eating way more meat, unseasonable droughts brought on by climate change, and yes, possibly an increase in the use of biofuels. It could be a whole mix of these factors. Even the American subprime mortgage crisis, by causing instability, could be part of the problem. The point is, we don't totally know.
Blaming Gore for the problem seems pointless. Well, until he's caught as being behind global warming, rising oil prices and feeding meat to Asians (which he hasn't specifically denied).
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