Bio-fuels were a

"Banning exports and going after traders is not going to prevent shooting up of prices. This is based on a false assumption. And planting Jatropha instead of soyabean will only end up tripling of food prices,' Vandana Shiva, eminent environmentalist said. Substituting food crops with alternatives such as jatropha will only end up in the extinction of agriculture she said. Shiva blamed the build up of fossil fuel infrastructure for the rise in prices.

Climate change is aggravating the global food crisis and many poor countries could be facing the start of major hunger disasters, former United Nations Secretary-General Kofi Annan said on Tuesday. Agricultural production worldwide must be revamped over time but poor farmers in Africa and elsewhere need help now to meet the spiralling costs of fertiliser, which has prevented them from planting more crops, he said.

Political will has a big role to play if we are to save our planet. Why is it we cannot find a single green politician in India? It took just a small glass bowl to bring home the message of global warming. Its mouth covered with a thin plastic, the bowl containing some soil and humus was home to a plant. Like earth is our home. The bowl had to be placed in sunlight once in a while for a few minutes and that was all the plant needed to stay alive. It was a self-sustaining system. Like earth has been.

Its electricity and water heating is wholly powered by photovoltaics, it uses recycled and energy efficient construction materials, and it is extensively equipped with water conservation equipment. Campaigners hope all new homes in California will be powered solely by renewable energy like the SOLARA development (Copyright Community HousingWorks) The SOLARA development in California, which officially opened last year, is what green campaigners hope will become the model for all new homes in the state.

DUNDALK, Ireland: When the fearsome Cuchulainn was transformed by the rage of battle into a Celtic Incredible Hulk, according to Irish mythology, the warrior's intensity melted snow for 30 feet around him. That was an impressive generation of alternative energy from this Achilles-like hero so closely associated with Dundalk, but this town on Ireland's east coast is turning to less ephemeral kinds of power as it tests technologies to reduce the country's thirst for fossil fuels.

Poland Sees Power Prices Surging On EU Carbon Plan NORWAY: April 10, 2008 OSLO - Polish electricity prices could surge 50-70 percent if the European Union goes ahead with plans to force power producers to buy their carbon emission permits from 2013, Environment Minister Maciej Nowicki said on Wednesday. Nowicki said Poland would be particularly hard hit by the rules, proposed in January and contested by Warsaw, because nearly all of its electricity comes from dirty coal and lignite and so its power producers will need a large number of permits.

The charged and complex debate over how to slow down global warming has become a lot more complicated. Most of the focus in the past few years has centered on imposing caps on greenhouse gas emissions to prod energy users to conserve or switch to nonpolluting technologies.

While the advocates of biofuel as a viable option or supplement to conventional fuels feel that India must shift over to cheaper alternatives that are not in the grip of oil cartels, its opponents vehemently oppose any such move This year's Budget is notable for waiver of excise duty on biofuel diesel. Advocates of biofuel as a viable option or supplement to conventional fuels such as petrol, diesel and fossil fuels are happy with the development as they feel it is time for India, if not the world, to shift over to cheaper alternatives that are not in the grip of oil and kindred cartels.