The Law of Unintended Consequences shows its power again. This time, it is the hug-a-tree-don’t-that-make-you-feel-wonderful eco-morons that are at fault because developed nations are single-mindedly pursuing “green energy” to kill big oil and the third world is desperately trying to help:

The drive for “green energy” in the developed world is having the perverse effect of encouraging the destruction of tropical rainforests. From the orang-utan reserves of Borneo to the Brazilian Amazon, virgin forest is being razed to grow palm oil and soybeans to fuel cars and power stations in Europe and North America. And surging prices are likely to accelerate the destruction.

The rush to make energy from vegetable oils is being driven in part by European Union laws requiring conventional fuels to be blended with biofuels, and by subsidies equivalent to 20 pence a litre. Last week, the British government announced a target for biofuels to make up 5 per cent of transport fuels by 2010. The aim is to help meet Kyoto protocol targets for reducing greenhouse-gas emissions.

So it is Europe and its fixation on the Kyoto Protocol that is not only willing to sacrifice the world’s economy, it is actually killing the planet.

Simon Counsell, director of the UK-based Rainforest Foundation, says:

The expansion of palm oil production is one of the leading causes of rainforest destruction in south-east Asia. It is one of the most environmentally damaging commodities on the planet.

Shazam!

But what can we do? How about good ol’ fashioned soybean oil? I’ve been hearing about that since I was a kid.

The main alternative to palm oil is soybean oil. But soya is the largest single cause of rainforest destruction in the Brazilian Amazon.

Hmmm. Anyone want to execute the “nuclear option”?

Update: Somewhere in this post, I meant to throw in the fact that the United States is actually a net consumer of greenhouse gases. That is, every year our environment uses more carbon dioxide than we use. More at MnKurmudge&DCKid.