Editor’s Notes

 

Help! Where are you hydrogen power?

Ethanol is galloping over the horizon

 

A world anxious about it’s dependence on ever more expensive and non-renewable oil is about to take a long hard slurp of renewable ethanol, which, needless to say, is derived from plant growth. On the surface this seems all well and good. But our species can’t seem to operate for long in the centre of anything where common sense prevails. All too soon we’ll demonstrate an unquenchable thirst for ethanol. Good arable land may be turned to feed our gas tanks. (Estimates are that to produce one million barrels of ethanol, it takes 50 million acres.) Good arable land to feed our stomachs may shrink faster than water on the Sahara. If we’re not careful a growing food shortage (already a problem in certain parts of the world) will result in a cob of corn or a single tomato costing at least $10 each (when you can find them). Let’s hope as the salvation lunge for ethanol ramps up, that hydrogen power will grow from its current relatively embryonic stage into a strapping young giant that will save us from our gluttonous use energy to keep us on the road. Today we focus on the issue of ethanol.

 

We offer an interesting piece by Martin D. Weiss of Money Markets who puts ethanol in perspective as a good investment, while noting that George W. will sign a contract for ethanol with Brazil later this week. George, ever loyal to his oil and munitions mentors, secretly hopes the agreement with Brazil will drive a wedge between that country and Venezuela. But I doubt he’ll be successful. The momentum for a United States of South America has taken a solid hold on the now and future.

 

A second story by the ever-energetic Weiss backgrounds Brazil’s economic success and argues that the country could become the new China.

 

Third on ethanol is about the deal George W. will sign with Brazil this week and how U.S. politicians from corn-growing areas are wary of the agreement. Brazilian ethanol is made out of sugar, a product that’s a lot cheaper to grow than corn.

 

Then we turn to China which will honour a Canadian doctor by naming March 4, Doctor Day in his name. The Canadian doctor is Norman Bethune who  invented the portable blood transfusion process and applied it on the battlefronts as the Chinese were fighting Japanese invaders. The ChiPubisher

nese credit Dr. Bethune with saving the lives of thousands of their troops.=MsoNormal style="MARGIN: 0in 0in 0pt; mso-pagination: none; tab-stops: 28.0pt 56.0pt 84.0pt 112.0pt 140.0pt 168.0pt 196.0pt 224.0pt 3.5in 280.0pt 308.0pt 336.0pt; mso-layout-grid-align: none"> 

And a word from CBS news anchor Walter Cronkite who was a key figure in turning Americans against their country’s involvement in the Vietnam war. At 90, Cronkite is hale and hearty. He says the American invasion of Iraq had been a disaster.

 

We publish summaries of what’s available this week on the newsstands. Don’t be dismayed. I don’t expect you to read the summaries, or all of that which is published in True North five days a week. Pick and choose, just like you would in a paper newspaper or magazine.

 

Finally, tomorrow we’ll publish the piece about the number of virgins a female can expect when she goes to heaven.

 

Looking forward.

 

Carl Dow,

Editor and Publisher