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Stewart Brand on 'Environmental Heresies'
FleaPlus writes "The MIT Technology Review has an article predicting where the mainstream of the environmental movement may likely reverse its collective stance in the next ten years. The four areas discussed are population growth, urbanization, genetically-engineered organisms, and nuclear power. The article is written by Stewart Brand, known for creating the Whole Earth Catalog, the WELL online community, and the Long Now Foundation. Brand also has some interesting comments regarding the sometimes-conflicting interaction between romantics and scientists in the environmental movement. There's an online debate between Brand and former DOE official Joseph Romm on TR Blogs." Frankly, unless humanity decides to undergo a massive collective personality change of not being consumption-focused, I don't see much other way around these particular issues. What we all need is an Arthur to keep us depressed and sleeping in darkened rooms to lower energy consumption.
The more radical the "radical environmentalist" is, the more unfounded BS they tend to spout.
How does this fly in the face of reason? Nobody has yet demonstrated how genetically-modified crops will reduce population pressures. No-one has found a way to make nuclear energy 'clean' yet. You still have to do something about mining the uranium, and disposing of the waste.
Those who are claiming that biotechnology and nuclear power are some sort of magical solution to these problems are generally just marketing their industry's product. Real scientists, and others using reason and logic, realize that the issues aren't as simple as the "solutions" the marketers are pushing.
For once, I would like to see the advocates of these solutions, explain their reasoning. For some reason, details or explanations are rarely forthcoming, and important problems are ignored. Instead, we see a lot of bashing and stereotyping of environmentalists, combined with exagerration of the effectiveness of the industry-proposed solutions.
Why is there so little science and fact used by those who claim that these are the obvious solutions?
... and then they built the supercollider.
Now, what effects those herbicides will have on the people eating said crops, I leave to the peanut gallery to debate. Just because the plant's immune doesn't make humans immune.
"Learning is not compulsory... neither is survival."
--Dr.W.Edwards Deming
This is why I "sponsor" an environmentalist. For every watt he saves through conservation, I use an extra three. Sponser an environmentalist near you!
Socialism: a lie told by totalitarians and believed by fools.
Are Catholic mods anything like Catholic Girls? (Down on their knees in front of Father O'Blivion.) 'Cause I could _really_ use a blow job ...
What a long, strange trip it's been.