Fuelling the biofuels debate

Intelligent debate is crucial to the development of biofuels. It is right and proper that people with ideas put them forward and that those idea are rigorously challenged, by people who think it is wrong or bad.

Sadly, however, some students at Brown University and their half witted friends at Greenwash Guerillas, don’t think this is the right way to go about things. It would seem that silencing critics is easier as New York Times columnist and author Thomas Friedman was pied by the Greenwash Guerillas while giving an Earth Day Lecture at Brown University. (see the video at the end of this piece.)

There is a long history of organizations and governments who chose to squash comment and opinion that they didn’t agree with; the Nazis, Pol Pot, Stalin, Robespierre to name a few. I’m sure Greenwash Guerillas and the students at Brown are proud to be associated with such company.

Perhaps the next step for The Greenwash Guerillas set-up a book burning night where they can get rid of any book that they consider transgresses their greenwash rules.

Whatever happened to the idea, often attributed to the great thinker Voltaire:

I disapprove of what you say, but I will defend to the death your right to say it.

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There’s nothing quite as smug as an op-ed columnist, who claims the high ground, and currently The New York Times’s Paul Krugman is unbelievably smug. In a column, Grains Gone Wild (read the full piece) published on 7th April Krugman opens up with the platitude; “These days you hear a lot about the world financial crisis. But there’s another world crisis under way — and it’s hurting a lot more people.”

He is, of course, referring to a real and chronic shortage of staple food stuffs around the world. While I may not like his writing style, he is absolutely right. He is also bang on the nose when he suggests that there are a variety of reasons for the problem; “How did this happen? The answer is a combination of long-term trends, bad luck — and bad policy.”

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