New York (CBS)  -- THE TIGHTENING OF RICE

The price of grain, all kinds of grain, has risen sharply all over the world. It's getting so that the poorest people can't afford it.  There've been protests in Egypt, food riots in Haiti.  Rice has been a staple. The staple food of people in many poor countries, especially in Asia.

The price of any commodity is supposed to be related to supply and demand.  But Tim Johnson of the California Rice Commission says something else is going on.

"The supply of rice in the world hasn't significantly changed.  Demand's increased but prices have sure outstripped everybody's expectations," said Johnson.

Even here in the United States, some of the big box stores like Sam's Club and Costco are now rationing rice. Putting limits on the number of bags people can buy yet it's still selling out.

"I've been with Costco for 21 years. I haven't seen it like this before," said Stephanie Gordon, Store Manager.

In San Francisco's Chinatown a 20 dollar bag of rice is now selling for 40 dollars.

"The price go too high, way too high," said shop owner Ming Wong.

Some blame commodity traders for bidding up the price.

"In a short time they can make a good profit," said Virginia Teng of Sun Hing Foods.

"We never thought was gonna go up that much that quick," said Matthew Lim, Manager of Kim Chuy Restaurant.

Chef Mark Schoenfield has laid up a years supply of the rice he imports from Italy for his restaurant.

"We go through a lot of risotto here," said Schoenfield.

He blames the falling dollar for the 40 percent increase in the price, Schoenfield explains to CBS News Correspondent John Blackstone.

Blackstone: You're up a lot?
Schoenfield: Yeah, almost too much to even count sometimes.

Hoarding runs up the price though. That's why Costco is limiting bags per customer.

"We don't want to create a panic where we don't think there is a panic.  If we weren't able to get any more rice or any more flour, that would be a different story. But we are able to continue to replenish our supplies," said Jim Sinegal, president and CEO of Costco Companies Inc.

The United States actually exports rice. Milo Hamilton, president of FirstGrain.com, a rice marketing advisory service in Austin, Texas, says people here aren't hoarding rice to hedge against price increases.

"If we stopped or reduced the export of rice, we would have plenty of rice to sell in the United States for people in the United States that wanted to buy rice," said Hamilton. "People are stockpiling rice in this country because they are afraid they won't be able to get rice."

WAYS TO EASE OUR CARBON FOOTPRINT

Do you understand about carbon offsets? Don't feel too bad if you don't, because it's a little complicated.

The idea is that if you do something that generates greenhouse gases, you pay a fee for doing that to a company that uses the money to help somebody else reduce greenhouse gases by the same amount.  A company called Driving Green collected a 15 hundred dollar fee from Captain Dan Kipnis, the organizer of a sailfish tournament in Miami, Florida,who told my CBS News colleague Hari Sreenivassen what the 15 hundred dollars was for.

"We are offsetting the fuel we burn this weekend, our T-shirts, everything that is involved with this tournament -- people traveling in, our banquets, everything being offset," said Kipnis.

Driving Green used the money to help Ridgeline Farms, a Clymer New York dairy farm with 600 cows turn cow manure into electricity.  Hari spoke with the dairy farmer Vinnie Howden.

Sreenivasan: That's being turned into energy?
Howden: Yes it is, that's dollar signs to me, manure to everybody else.

The manure generates methane, a powerful greenhouse gas. The fishing tournament's 1500 dollars partially funded the generator to turn the methane into electricity.

"Right now, the farm actually has a zero electric bill, and we actually sell power back to the grid. The national grid," said Howden.

Critics say carbon offsets let people pollute and BUY their way out.  Driving Gree's Dan Linsky told Sreenivasan that not true.

Sreenivasan: So this isn't guilt money?
Linsky: Not at all, no.  We actually do reduce emissions.  If it was guilt money, I would take your money and say, 'Okay, bless you.' But no, it's not guilt money, no.

But beware, says Sreenivasan.

"While Driving Green's projects are verified by a third party, not all businesses calling themselves 'carbon offsetters' are," said Sreenivasan.

THE EFFECT OF BEETLES ON GLOBAL WARMING

Global warming has allowed mountain pine beetles to survive farther north than they used to, and the beetles are killing trees by the millions according to the Canadian Forest Service.  The outbreak has affected over 51 thousand square miles in the western United States and Canada. 

The dead trees no longer take carbon dioxide. Instead, as they decompose, they could release 990 megatons of carbon dioxide, causing more global warming.  And the green grass grows all around. As we shall hear.

Once upon a time there were trees by the millions.

There was a tree, all in the wood.
The prettiest tree, that you ever did see.
Oh the tree in a hole and the hole in the ground.
And the green grass grew all around all around,
and the green grass grew all around.

Birds used to nest in those trees. And lay their eggs. And what would become of them all when it got warmer? And the beetles came and trees fell by the millions? And the carbon dioxide made it warmer? And with the warmth came more beetles. and still more.

Oh the bug on the tree.
And the nest on the branch.
And the egg in the nest.
And the branch on the limb.
And the limb on the tree.
And the tree in a hole.
And the hole in the ground.
And the green grass grew all around all around.
And the green grass grew all around.

PICKING THE PERFECT PASSWORDS

These days you need a password to get into various online services including your e-mail, your bank accounts, stock brokerage and other important personal information.  And 88 percent of a group of adults queried recently in the United States and the United Kingdom confessed that they use the same password for all these things.

It's obviously ever so much easier to remember one password than it is to remember a half a dozen, especially since it's recommended that you keep changing your passwords every few months or so.  And it's also strongly advised that you not use your spouse’s name, or your birth date or home address   This is the cyber equivalent of hiding the front door key under the doormat.  It's the first place an identity thief would think of looking.

There is a reason, of course, why human beings don't like changing their passwords and continue to use the same password for practically everything.  It is because we are human beings, and being human beings we know perfectly well what will happen if we do it the way we're supposed to.

What will happen is that the first person who will be barred from entering our accounts is us. We will forget.  And if we follow the simple rule of using different passwords for everything and changing them every five minutes and writing them down, we will forget where we put the piece of paper we wrote them down on.

Am I wrong?  Of course I am not wrong.  I speak from extensive experience in these things.  As much as we want to shut the bad guys out, we truly do not want to shut ourselves out. 

The mean age of the people queried in this survey was 46. Old enough to know better, but also old enough to be a bit set in our ways.  We don't want to believe that somebody might be trying to hack their way into our private lives and make off with our money.  Or worse yet, our identities.  But believe it. They're out there.