Green Geeks?

sigmatt asks: "I've often wondered where Slashdot readers stand on environmental issues. This might be considered a little off topic for this site, but so many programmers that I know, including myself, are outdoorsy people in their other life, and I'm interested in the opinion of the wider geek community. The local issue in my part of the world at the moment is logging of old growth forests, primarily used for wood chips. The wood chips are not very valuable (as low as AU$7 a ton - that's US$3.50!), but it is the easy option - and I suspect it leads to the highest profits and quickest company growth. Unfortunately, our wonderful forests - with so many potential future uses (fine furniture, tourism, and, of course, my own hiking trips) are being wasted away at an alarming rate. Recently the tactics of those opposing the practice of woodchipping our old growth forests have turned to attacking the tourism industry in order to try to make a government who won't listen change its mind. For example this site ripping off another site, and the posting of a controversial bill board in Sydney airport. What do you think about these approaches?"

Comments

Re:Tsk-tsk

[MacAndrew]

It's no fad, I've been involved in it for 30 years. We've made a hell of a lot of progress in that time. Not enough, but a lot more than industry said was possible without wrecking the economy. And more of us would be dying without it. It just took a look time for us to recognize things like the hazard of lead in gasoline or ozone in the atmosphere or arsenic in the water or.....

And we can always do better -- this is not the best-of-all-possible-worlds. The 'third world" (now usually calle developing nations) doesn't have to become a sewer. That's why people criticize sweatshops or worry about NAFTA side-agreements. We can export the "fad" if we choose to.

But maybe i don't understand your point.