Fuel for thought

EVER since the value of money has been realised, Africa has been a willing workhorse but now the potential for Africa to up its income on red herrings will probably be its demise.

Envisage Africa of the Future:

After the last tree has been felled, the Motherland’s surface will, in all probability, be covered by billions of hectares of (mainly) Jatropha curcas ― that common plant used for live fencing with which we are all so familiar ― because it grows wild and even goats won’t eat it. Its purpose? Basically to provide the world with biofuels, whilst beneath the surface of the continent a vast mining conglomerate second to none, will be ripping the wealth out from the guts of the Motherland. Too far fetched to contemplate? Maybe not in your lifetime, but this is the world you children may come to know.

With the limited shelf life of fossil fuels, the buzzword on the international market now is “bio-diesels” required to keep the wheels of civilisation turning whilst avoiding anymore climate change? It does not take a brain surgeon to realise that climate change was brought about years ago when the main arteries of the planet like the Zambezi, the Nile, the Colorado, the Yellow River and other vast rivers, strategically planned by the Universal Source, were tourniqueted for giant hydro-electric schemes and the natural order of things would change forever, beginning with rainfall? Apparently if all these vast concrete bastions, holding back millions of tonnes of water, were to crack open and flood the plains below, the earth would tip on its axis, so it is too late to even consider demolishing them now. 

Initially India was the perfect choice for Jatropha where varieties of this “weed” thrive in its regional climate, but the Asians have finally realised that the return on 10 acres per family is not as viable as growing food to feed the village, so biofuel industries have to focus elsewhere. The international plan is to now produce Jatropha curcas in the sub-Sahara region.

With everyone in the Developed World focused on achieving goals, and studying for degrees, where is there going to be a mass of cheap labour which can survive on a basic staple diet? Where else but in Africa’s millions of homeless orphans with little or no education and no structured family support to state their case. This is a harsh assumption, but why else are only a handful of celebrities temporarily dedicated to the realities of the Orphan Situation, and not the rest of the world?

Belonging to the Euphorbiaceae family, it is related to the rubber plant, and besides certain medicinal properties, its seed oil inevitably is thought to contain insecticidal, fungicidal and other but natural properties. Plans to begin cultivating Jatropha on a vast scale are already underway in Tanzania, monopolising land that could otherwise support crops.

Already this has been calculated as affecting crops because the US-based International Food Policy Research Institute (IFPRI) has projected “maize prices rising by more than 20 percent by 2020, and more than 71 percent in a drastic expansion scenario”. Prices only increase when commodities are in short supply.

In addition, the FAO has predicted that by 2050, in 40 years time, the world’s arable land used for biofuel development could be as much as 20 percent in order to compliment the world’s energy needs! Biofuel demands have already had an impact on maize and sugar, according to the FAO, and an increased demand for biofuel production could affect food aid, and may even keep prices above historic levels.

While animal lovers are concerned about cruelty to animals, the real horrors are that natural wildlife habitat will gradually diminish throughout Africa because, as they cannot eat Jatropha, they too, will die. But that will be perfectly acceptable in the new world because the other continents have been seriously involved in breeding programmes and now with cloning, replicating wildlife is a mere technicality.

Celebrities owning a miniature Chihuahua are just the tip of the iceberg. In the new world anyone, able to afford such a luxury, will be able to purchase a miniature giraffe or a palm-sized minute, and very cute, chimpanzee and drive around using fossil-free fuels that don’t affect the climate anymore.

Ironic that such a materialistic society, with its luxury travel and new toys of the new age will all be happening in the northern hemisphere, piggybacking on the southern hemisphere where, other than high-tech industrialists, few will want to visit.