Via: bpclaims.us

Kidney stones are often caused by dehydration from high heat conditions or by not drinking enough liquid. If global warming continues as projected by United Nations Panel on Climate Change, the United States can expect as much as a 30-percent growth in kidney stone disease in some of its driest areas, according to the study published in the Proceedings of the National Academy of Science.

Margaret Pearle, senior author of the study from the University of Texas said: “This study is one of the first examples of the global warming causing a direct medical consequence for humans.”

“When people relocate from areas of moderate temperature to areas with warmer climates, a rapid increase in stone risk has been observed. This has been shown in military deployments to the Middle East for instance,” Pearle added.

This scenario is taking on a bad rap for proponents of biofuels. “Burning food today to serve the mobility of rich countries is a crime against humanity, “said Jean Ziegler, a special rapporteur on the Right to Food for the United Nations, quoted in Time.com in its April 28 issue.

Critics for the food-to-fuel mandates say ethanol production actually requires more energy than it generates, creates hazardous by-products, and wreaks havoc on the food and feed supply chain, shrinking supplies while driving up prices.

Proponents of the biofuels counter: ” Biofuels are not the villains threatening the food security of the poorer nations, ” says Luiz Inacio Lula da Silva from Brazil , quoted in the Time.com article.Reid Detchon, executive director of think tank Energy Future Coalition, says, ” I think the sudden rise in price of food has people looking for causes, and biofuels are a convenient scapegoat.”

Are biofuels the scapegoat?

Biodiversity in our environment is crucial to sustaining human livelihoods. People especially in developing countries are dependent on continued diversity, that is why the government strive to maintain and conserve it. The great wealth of plant and animal species and their interactions with one another, and with the environment, made earth habitable for humans.

Major causes of biodiversity loss are extraction, over-exploitation, land-use change, climate change and the suppression of native species by newly introduced invasive species. Natural disasters and wars contribute, too, to the loss of biodiversity. If the loss of biodiversity is to be halted, the political will of policy makers and society at large must be converted into implementation and action. Decisions on the conservation and use of biodiversity must involve the people affected. Sufficient incentive to promote biodiversity sustainability, for example, managing a forest rather than cutting it down. Industrialization of agriculture must not take place at the expense of biodiversity. Making people who are affected to have a fair share in the profits arising from the use of their biodiversity.

A Filipino biotechnology company, SECURA International said malungay oil was tapped by the North America Biofuels Inc. last January for its biodiesel needs. The company is now completing the farming of malunggay in 500,000 hectares of farmland to supply the needs of foreign company.

Danny Manayaga, president of SECURA said biodiesel marketing companies prefer Moringa oil over Jatropha as source for biofuel. ” The most beneficial part of malungay is nutrition. All the parts of the plant can be used. Whereas with jatropha, there is poisonous part of it that would be left when you get the oil. It’s like nuclear waste, where will you dispose the waste?” Manayaga said.