Americans are some of the lowest consumers of rice but for most of the rest of the world it is the staple crop that keeps poorer consumers alive. The doubling of rice prices, coupled with rising prices for virtually all grains, is a major concern. While the US is an exporter of rice, many countries are now restricting exports to try to control prices. In a global economy this won’t work because you cannot have a commodity priced differently in two or more places- sellers in the cheaper country will find a way to sell in the more expensive one (one exception to this is the price of sugar in the US, held artificially high and protected from cheaper exports to the benefit of a few wealthy US sugar producers- a rant for another place!).

Rice, as a crop, is exceptionally sensitive to climate changes. Even a slight warming trend will kill off a crop and this is happening in traditional rice-growing areas worldwide. Because of the unique growing conditions needed for rice (water paddies) you cannot simply replant at a more suitable location. Combined with exploding energy and fuel costs, this forces prices up. It is not a small matter- people will starve.

The climate is a closed system. Changes have wide-reaching and sometimes unpredictable affects. Starvation will be one of them and it could change geo-politics very rapidly as hungry people are angry people.

I’ve been following this story for a few weeks. A 160 square mile ice shelf has begun collapsing in Antarctica due to warming. It is theorized that warming waters melted floating ice that protected the shelf from large wave action, causing its connection to land to be broken.

No word on its affect on ocean levels but it is probably negligible. The real danger is that this is a harbinger of larger collapses to come.

Here is a video of the collapse. A much larger shelf may be in danger of breaking up as a result of this collapse.

This post by Marc Andreesson, Founder of Netscape and Ning, on an hour and a half conversation with Obama last year is required reading for anyone sitting on the fence between Hillary and Barry.

In today’s Times Frank Rich makes a telling point about race and the Republican Party- they’re all old white guys. They took the South from the Dems in the 70s by playing the race card. Now the hoary immigration fear-mongering is driving their right wing. This is very bad for John McCain, a man I do not disrespect but whom I could never support for President because we need to clean house this time around- a thorough flushing out of the vermin is required.

Here’s McCain’s big problem:

“The authors of the new book “Millennial Makeover,” Morley Winograd and Michael D. Hais, point out that the so-called millennial generation (dating from 1982) is the largest in American history, boomers included, and that roughly 40 percent of it is African-American, Latino, Asian or racially mixed. One in five millennials has an immigrant parent.”

From Rich’s column. The same millenials are unconcerned about the role of gays in society (there’s nothing weird about being gay to them), nor do they see an issue with women’s rights- they accept them. What they do care deeply about is the future, the environment and the war. Their friends and family are the ones dying in Iraq, they are going to grow up dealing with climate change and its horrific global effects.

So, they’re not a big voting block, right? They’re coming out in droves for Obama. But think about this- they are also talking to their parents who are my generation, a generation that lived without a war (post-Viet Nam, pre-Iraq I) and were the first generation to start to understand environment, energy and population issues. There is a lot of real political discussion going on around this country and that’s not could for the whites guys in suits.