Global Sugar Production is estimated at 145 mln tons for 2004/5. This would produce

given the following values

$0.20/litre production cost

1.2litre’s ethanol ~= 1 litre petrol

3.8litres per hectare

10 tons per hectare

145 mln tons divided by 10 tons/hectare production equals

14.5 mln hectares under production times 3.8 litres ethanol per hectare equals

55.1 mln litres ethanol replacing at 1.2 for 1 litres for petrol

45.9 mln litres petrol

however “People in the United States use 360 million gallons (1.36 billion liters) of gasoline each day.” from Wikipedia. So using all the sugar worldwide to make ethanol to run cars would be pissing in the wind. My figures must be out.

World: 2004/05 sugar supply and demand (11/04/04)

F.O. Licht released its first world sugar supply and demand balance for 2004/05 (Sept./Aug.). Worldwide opening stocks are estimated at 68.2 mln tons, down from the 70.1 mln tons in the previous period. World production may reach 148.0 (144.0) mln tons, thereof in the EU 20.0 (19.7) mln tons and in Brazil 31.4 (26.5) mln tons. Worldwide sugar consumption is projected at 145.5 (143.3) mln tons and exports at 53.0 (50.6) mln tons. This should result in ending stocks of 67.8 (68.2) mln tons.

(F. O. Licht, Nov. 2004)

Christmas is coming and the goose, of TV ad revenues, is getting fat. Between now and 25th December children in the west will be increasingly high on sugar. Their desires must be satisfied in this capitalism=consumerism world. Otherwise the invisible hand of the market would not be operating efficiently.

The strangest thing is that in the developing world, between now and the anniversary of Jesus birth this sugar consumption represents, two hundred and forty thousand innocent children will die needlessly, often of hunger.

They will be the roadkill of the capitalist/consumerist juggernaut. As it sweeps its way inexorably to the destruction of humanity, if you do not care about them, as the manic street preachers indicated, care about your own children: “if you tolerate this, your children will be next”.

History will not wait for us to change our lives.

Terrorism, Climate Change and Revolution are all examples of discontinuous change. Discontinuous change differs from evolutionary change though they are often part and parcel of the same process. Sometimes a change slowly manifests and then, once it reaches a certain point, it snowballs. The pace of change becomes very fast. Sudden jumps start appearing where a value that previously was changing slowly or was stable will now assume a radically different value in an instant. This is discontinuous change and it is much misunderstood.

When combined with certain aspects of systems theory, it looks like this sort of change is responsible for most of the trouble in the world. The truth is that this sort of change only results where a situation of tension has built up that remains unresolved over time until it eventually bursts through. Volcanoes and earthquakes are good examples of discontinuous change.

The latest emergence of “International Terrorism” and the terrible examples of climate change we see on the news result from fictitious tensions built in our human society: between rich and poor, good and bad, black and white. Throughout history the need for change, when ignored, results in revolution or war. There is a great need for a revolution in thinking and acting and saying in our world - it might be the only way to avoid mutual destruction.

Much unwanted rubbish arrives for most people in the form of email, adverts, junk mail and other forms of publicity. When it arrives through the front door it’s bad. When it knocks on it in the form of a living person wanting to push their religion or restaurant it is most annoying.

We have lost sight of the waste created to encourage us to buy and the useful purposes and projects to which this energy could better be spent. Advertising used to be beneficial when one or two far sighted people with good products used it. Now it is a cancer on society. It sucks energy from real creation and takes much more for the brain to process and usually reject.

In the information age there is no excuse for advertising. It fosters a lack of resourcefulness and continued ignorance in populations. Today if you want something or need to know something it is not hard to find out for yourself. It would be even easier if unsolicited commercial communication, in all forms, were banned.

I wonder how long would our eyes take to adjust to this world - where we did not suffer the constant psychological imperative to subliminally suppress the junk?

Click on the image, save and print it, then stick on your door. Be ecologically minded … stop the junk.

Ken Kesey wrote me an email once - mind you I had masqueraded as Merlin so it perhaps was not really I to whom he wrote. I was looking at it just now whilst Bobby Darin, I think, “Don’t Worry Be Happy” played. It bought a tear and a smile to my face. “Is Ken Kesey dead?” I wondered. Strange thing to wonder really - I should probably know this, he’s one of my heroes. And yes, I realise I can search Google for the answer but I don’t want to. I don’t want to know if he is because that would mean that as I fall asleep tonight, one more of my heroes will be someone I shall never meet. Perhaps that is the least attractive feature of the celebrity culture. It means living our highs and lows vicariously through the lives of our heroes as portrayed via the media. In times of yore people knew their heroes.

4072500/bb_wm_4072507.stm”>BBC News Story - Alcool in Brazil

Agenda for Sustainable Economy

1/ Replacement of fossil and nuclear power with renewable including

vegetable power

2/ Wealth redistribution to reduce power needs of poor and power use of

rich

3/ Mass change from “consumer living” to “simple living”

This agenda would lead to an increase in peace and happiness through reduced competition for resources.