commentopia What the World Is Saying A SERVICE BRINGING YOU THE BEST READERS' COMMENTS FROM TOP NEWS SOURCES ON THE WEB ENVIRONMENT WEEKLY ARCHIVE JULY, 2009 - SEPTEMBER, 2009
[RETURN TO commentopia HOME PAGE]
SEPTEMBER 14, 2009 - SEPTEMBER 20, 2009 ENVIRONMENT NORMAN BORLAUG: THE MAN WHO HELPED FEED THE WORLD `
I am proud to be a small town Iowa farm boy, in no small measure because of Norman Borlaug. The sign is in keeping with the modesty of the man himself, who grew up on a small farm outside Cresco. People joke about the flat, boring expanse of cornfield that is Iowa, and Cresco is among its flattest and corniest precincts. People joke that Iowa farmers only talk about the weather and corn. It was this weather and plant-obsessed farmer from the most boring, flat, corn-carpeted part of Iowa who is responsible for saving the lives of a billion, perhaps several billion people. [REASON/Norman Borlaug: The man who saved more human lives than any other has died.]
<> It's depressing me to read through post after post with people debating miniature Paul Erlichs instead of just praising one of the world's greatest heroes. In the real world, Norman Borlaug saved hundreds of millions of lives from starvation. And even if many government programs were created to support the green revolution, we should actually find that nearly miraculous. So much of government's energy is bent on destroying productivity and in this one instance at least a few of them actually managed to support programs to increase the agricultural output by orders of magnitude - and as it always does, this abundance of supply led to low cost and wide access for populations of starving people around the world. This is something to be lauded and held in our absolutely highest esteem. And frankly, anyone who thinks there's a correlation between "paleolithic" foods and human health has quite a number of screws loose. As someone who everyone here knows spends a lot of time debating with so-called trolls, I wouldn't touch those crazies with gloves on. Even on the scale of correlation vs. causation, their ideas make no sense. I'd be stronger & "healthier" too if I walked or ran everywhere, built my house with my bare hands, climbed mountains and trees and was in constant struggle with nature every day just to stay alive. I probably wouldn't get a pain in my side when I ran and I probably would look starving-chic good. But first off - that has everything to do with exercise, and little to nothing to do with GE agricultural products. And secondly does that one variable (and blatantly ignoring that hundreds of millions of people would starve to death at our current population size) mean that my life would have been better 4,000 years ago? NO! Of course not. And as far as slow-poison goes, we can safely assume that Borlaug himself ate mostly his own modified crops, no? And he lived to 95... Slow acting indeed. At any rate... the message of the day is: Norman Borlaug - HERO of the WORLD died. It's sad news, but a fine opportunity to educate all of our friends about one of the greatest humans who's ever lived. [REASON/Norman Borlaug: The man who saved more human lives than any other has died.]
<> Hats off to this great hero who helped save millions of people from starvation. India was said to have lived from "Ship to mouth" because of its reliance on the foreign imports. After the green revolution, it has successfully fed its teeming masses. I feel outraged by some posters which suggest that increase in food production led to population explosion. Going by their logic poor people have no right to live. What will happen if your family is starved to keep world population down? Have we people become so insensitive to suggest this? [NEW YORK TIMES/Norman Borlaug, 95, dies; Led green revolution.] SEPTEMBER 7, 2009 - SEPTEMBER 13, 2009 ENVIRONMENT MAN'S BEST FRIEND FIRST BRED FOR THE TABLE?
A wolf is notoriously shy and avoids humans (he's hardly the Big Bad Wolf of Red Riding Hood), so I've always wondered how wolves and humans got together in the first place. The old theory is that a few particularly friendly wolves (strange concept) started hunting with humans, and domestication followed. This new theory, as depressing as it is, sounds more plausible. Wolves were first captured for meat and then gradually became members of the family, in some places at least. But it's also encouraging to me as an ethical vegan because it shows that historically, humans have overcome their blood lust and come to treat animals with respect. [DAILY BEAST/Dogs domesticated for food?] CROSSHAIRS: THE HUNT FOR THE GRAY WOLVES OF IDAHO
1) Anyone that says hunting is easy and takes no effort has no idea what hunting is. Don't pigeon hole the hunters that go out and put in some serious physical effort with the wimps that drive around on roads please! [IDAHO STATESMAN/Two Idaho hunters kill wolves on opening day] <> The whole thing about deer and elk hunters having less to hunt is actually the exact opposite. Wolves cull the sick and the weak and in doing so, strengthen the deer and elk population’s gene pool. I think the real problem is that there have been so many deer and elk that hunters are getting lazy and don’t really want to work for their kill. Once deer and elk and other food sources are reduced by natural predation by the wolves, the wolf population will also naturally stabilize. But it’s still going to take time. Let the gov still pay for those very few livestock animals that get taken by wolves and teach the ranchers to use natural deterrents to keep wolves away. For once, let nature take it’s better course. Humans have repeatedly proven we aren’t able to control what millions of years of evolution can do naturally. <> I am a bred, born and raised Westerner, by way of Alaska, California and Colorado, who never was east of Texas until my mid-20s. It took a distance to acquire the perspective to see that the “rugged individualism” of the west allowed plunder and destruction (nuke testing, weapons testing). We patted our backs as we poisoned our land.
[NEW YORK TIMES/Hunting wolves, and men] <> I am not a trophy hunter at all. I seriously don't like the killing part of the hunt, but I was raised to respect the woods and to engage nature as way to provide for my family. Back in the 80s, as a young adult with four children to feed, I was glad I was raised this way. The wolves are out there. They are over populated. Just last week in the course of one night a pack of wolves killed over 120 sheep on a ranch in Montana. The population has to be controlled. I think hunting them probably makes the most sense. I don't kill anything I don't eat, but I don't condem those who will hunt the wolves, either. I would much rather see that than any other form of culling. By poisening the wolves they are taking a chance of poisening so many other species. At least by hunting them, the wolves are being taught to fear and respect their human predators. This eventually will result in the weaker wolves being culled while the smarter and stronger wolves will survive and breed. The theory is that wolf packs eventually will learn to avoid the human interface in order to survive. Hopefully it will also deter the wolves from looking at domestic livestock as a potential food source. [THE SPOKESMAN-REVIEW/ N.Y.Times disses the Idaho wolf hunt]
AUGUST 31, 2009 - SEPTEMBER 6, 2009 ENVIRONMENT OZONE LAYER IS NO LAUGHING MATTER
Given its long standing and beneficial use in medical and dental anesthesia ,sedation and analgesic techniques and that Nitrous oxide is probably best known for this by the lay person, I am surprised that this aspect has not been reported here nor in particular what proportion of polluting nitrous oxide is medical versus the other anthropogenic causes of N20 pollution. [NEW SCIENTIST/Laughing gas is biggest threat to ozone layer.] <> This stuff is real. Don't mock it unless you're happy to go live at the tip of South America, where the hole in the Ozone hole sometimes wanders. You will not enjoy that experience in the sun. [U.S. NEWS AND WORLD REPORT/Nitrous oxide fingered as monster ozone slayer] <> "Family" farms cannot feed a nation or the world and history bears this out. 150 years ago 75% of the U.S. was involved in agriculture, mostly of the subsistence type. Today only about 2% of our nation is involved in agriculture and we feed not only ourselves but a large part of the world.
Agricultural land mgmt. is the greatest man-made contributor of environmental nitrous oxide. That said, you can't not farm. For a lot of valid reasons industrial farming gets a bad rap but to use a less than perfect analogy, SUV's still pollute, but if you can (and do) shove six people in one as opposed to having six different Prius' on the road, you're probably still better off. [NPR/Nitrous Oxide: A necessary evil of agriculture.] AUGUST 24, 2009 - AUGUST 30, 2009 ENVIRONMENT SEARCHING FOR GREEN POWER ON AND OFF THE GRID
We can't buy only wind or solar power because neither source produces power consistently (sun goes down, wind stops blowing). There is no practical way to store any 'extra' energy they produce. For those reasons our mix of electricity sources necessarily includes a large percentage of steady, reliable sources (coal, nuclear or hydro). The grid can absorb irregular inputs from wind and solar because they comprise such a small portion of the whole. Were that percentage to increase beyond a certain point, we would have problems. [NPR/Search for green power on and off grid.]
ROBERT REDFORD AND THE RENEWING OF THE OLD WEST
Being from the West, I know the good dams have done. They have provided cheap, renewable power for industry. They have provided water for arid areas that provide for cattle and farming and would otherwise have nothing but sage-brush and Jacob trees. Dams also moderate flow so that a low or high precipitation year does not adversely affect the areas down-stream. I understand that many parts of many rivers are damaged by them. The ecologies have adapted to the dams. Yes, community is important to the west. That does not change with the size of community. That does change as elitists enter these areas and demand homage from the community. Many actors, actresses and musicians have homes in Sun Valley, ID because the community does not treat them differently and preferential treatment is not demanded. Ask Boise, ID about the cross on the hill. [FOX NEWS NATION/Do you agree with Redford's vision for the West?] <> It's good to see Redford still at it. He has always been one of the few thinking celebrities when it comes to political statements -- he possesses a wealth of knowledge and understanding about the environment of the American West and I always appreciate his activism. It matters little that he is a celebrity -- he is also intelligent, thoughtful, and articulate about the West. [DENVER POST/Redford joins call to conserve the west] STONE THE CROWS!: THE WORLD'S CLEVEREST BIRD
Why do people find it so hard to believe that crows are intelligent enough to “assess” situations or problems? Is it because they’ve been taught that humankind sits so far above the rest of the living that nothing could possibly be close to intelligent? We are kings! haha.
<> Crows are clever in the wild as well, for example: when a federal wildlife damage management control officer went to a pecan orchard outside of Lubbock,TX, the farmer told him to keep his eye on a crow flying above the trees. The officer watched in amazement as the crow swooped into the orchard, grabbed three pecans, (one in each foot and one in it's beak) the crow then flew over to a road and dropped the pecans on the asphalt, and landed just off to the side of the shoulder and waited. After a minute, a car came by and ran over the pecans, crushing the shells. The crow hopped on to the road and ate the smashed pecans. [U.K.TIMES/Aesop's fable or fact: Meet the world's cleverest bird.]
AUGUST 10, 2009 - AUGUST 16, 2009 ENVIRONMENT NORTHWEST GLACIERS - SHRINK RAP ON GLOBAL WARMING
The key word in "global warming" or "global climate change," is global. [MCCLATCHY/Study finds three Northwest glaciers shrinking faster ]
<> I'll be 60 in November and have lived long enough to notice the change in weather from when I was a kid. It's not just glaciers, but rainfall patterns, cold fronts, etc. While the extremes in weather continue to exaggerate (some colder than ever winter days and some hotter than ever summer days), what's in between and most of the time is generally hotter. I grew up in Florida, and the water table there has dropped about 30 feet statewide due to a 30% reduction in "normal" rainfall. The last two times I visited, much of the state was dry like San Bernadino, and they have had wild fires there that are unprecedented. When the rain shuts off, it's REALLY scary. The other issue that doesn't get talked about enough is population/over population. The world has almost three times as many people living on it as it did 40 years ago. And in this country, each of those three times as many people are generally consuming two to three times the energy (per capita) then from 40 years ago. I remember cars from the 40s and 50s. Most were "mid-sized", had six cylinder engines, no A/C, no power steering, and well over half had standard transmissions. They got about 17 MPG in the city. In the 60s cars got bigger, with more "stuff" on them, and ever since, between the "barges of the 60s, 70s and 80s, and the SUVs of the 90s and 00s, we're looking at 12MPG, and there are three times the cars on the road as then. No matter how you cut it, WE North Americans consume an inordinate amount of energy, much of it CO2 producing fossil fuels to heat/cool our homes and run our enormous cars. Even if global warming is a hoax (I don't think it is), the transfer of wealth that has occurred, with us purchasing unprecedented amounts of petroleum from the middle east, is draining this country dry. Seen any photos of Dubai lately? That's where your money is going every time you fill the tank. [THE OREGONIAN/Long term study details glaciers shrinking in Washington and Alaska] AUGUST 3, 2009 - AUGUST 9, 2009 ENVIRONMENT FORCING THE ISSUE OF FOIE GRAS
Guys, I'm not a vegan or vegetarian (I've tried. Don't have the discipline. I'm a loser). But I do practice cutting out certain things from my lifestyle. I don't wear fur. I don't eat veal, I don't eat foi gras. It just crosses a line of cruelty and inhumanity for me that is just unnerving. I don't condemn or disrespect others who don't make those same choices, but I do offer the reasons why I chose to boycott certain things. And I write emails, and sign petitions and things like that, of course.
<> Sharks are becoming endangered thanks to shark's fin soup, so, no, it's not worth it. I wouldn't eat a snail darter or a condor, either. But geese and ducks and cows? Damn right. [NEW YORK MAGAZINE/GRUBSTREET]
JULY 26, 2009 - AUGUST 2, 2009 ENVIRONMENT BILL GATES - HURRICANE KILLER?
"It'll never fly, Orville!" Amazing how many opinions you non-maritime, non-scientist, non-engineers have on matters you know next to nothing about. Obviously these arent meant to withstand a storm. They're meant to be strategically placed in the path of a storm. They must be cheap to construct because they will be possibly be disposable. So you build them cheaply and drop them all over the path of a storm before it gets there. By the time it does get there, the water is cooler thus the storm weakens. that's the idea.[NOLA.COM] <> I am a scientist and also an avid follower of all new technologies and this has the potential to change how we live here on Earth. The science behind this is very solid it's never been tested in the wild but it has been tested in lab settings and in those settings it's been a very effective tool you can never tell for sure how a technology will work until you place it in the wild but so far this looks very promising. I'll be the first to give some mad props to Mr. Gates right now. [NOLA.COM]
City governments have a tendency to view a city as a single entity, rather than what it really is -- a collection of unique neighborhoods. Strategies aimed at increasing citywide growth or shrinking citywide infrastructure miss the true picture of how to revive and nurture a city of any size. JULY 13, 2009 - JULY 19, 2009 ENVIRONMENT
So, what are the benefits of these ants? No mention of that...and it's not as if they are destroying ecosystems, which if you think of it is the kind of behavior only us humans really excel at doing. <> “So ants from the west coast of Japan fought their rivals from Kobe, while ants from the European super-colony didn’t get on with those from the Iberian colony.” They’re picking up bad habits from humans. [DISCOVER]
I love the idea of wind energy, but it will not ever work. The reason is not just transmission lines, but you cannot ever get rid of your primary source of generated power. Wind energy is not dependable. It is not constant. Power plants cannot just ramp up at the drop of a hat when the wind stops blowing. After you succeed in installing all these generators, servicing and maintenance will ruin any profitability. You will now still have to maintain your old source of power, and the new one as well. This is not complex people. [FORBES] JULY 6, 2009 - JULY 12, 2009 ENVIRONMENT GLOBAL WARMING AND THE ONGOING DEBATE
I think it’s pointless and less than useful to accuse anyone of “treason against the planet” for holding an opinion, however wrong and dangerous it may be. It simply inflames the argument, making each side’s position even more intractable. Let’s not forget where we live (I’m in the USA), and here we have something called the 1st Amendment. As a certified tree hugger and someone who is almost insanely committed to restoring our ocean’s to health, I can’t disagree more vociferously with those who deny there’s a problem — a really big problem. It’s been proven to my satisfaction by scientists who know far more than I do about the damage that’s been done and continues today. It’s getting worse by the year. But…BUT…deniers have a right to deny. The way to counter that is to be louder than they are. To be more eloquent than they are. To be smarter in our PR than they are. To give more money to environmental organizations than they give to the chambers of commerce and coal and oil and and timber and agribusiness interests. I suspect Krugman was speaking somewhat metaphorically — he said “a form of treason.” He didn’t say treason. That would be…silly, and he knows it. [CHRISTIAN SCIENCE MONITOR]
<> The larger point is there is no consensus among the scientific community. While I we could pick and choose reports that have merit supporting our point of view, there is likely another study debunking it. There is a report out by Leonard Weinstein (NASA researcher) from May 11, 2009 shooting down the CO2 positive feedback myth. There are also reports from John Coleman (founder of the Weather Channel) contradicting man-made global warming. My point is, we don't have a consensuses and haven't had ANY attempt at honest debate in congress yet we are rushing cap-n-trade legislation through in record pace. To answer your question, there is plenty of scientific research to give us cause to be more diligent and what I see as a "very basic point" is that we research and debate rather than rush to political expediency. I am not sure how old you are, but you might remember we were told we were headed for a catastrophic ice age not too long ago.[FOXNEWS NATION]
JUNE 29, 2009 - JULY 6, 2009 ENVIRONMENT
I know it's not the most newsworthy story of the day but it still was funny to watch, even for me who is not a supporter of Obama. Some of you anti-Obama people (and I am one) need to lighten up. Just as we didn't appreciate it when Bush was blamed for everything, we need not do the same to Obama. Evaluate each situation on it's own merit. If it's funny, it's funny. [USA TODAY] Ok, this is a bunch of hooey. I'm an animal lover, I catch and release spiders, I've even given money to PETA, but when it comes to something that lands on dung and then tries to land on me or my food, I swat that nasty sucker too. [HUFFINGTON POST]
Climate Change - Green Subsidy? China and India are both up and coming powerhouses that can clearly contribute their own funds towards developing clean energy technologies. Developed countries should not have to subsidize green technology development for these countries. Monetary contributions should come in the form of investments in local companies willing to operate and develop clean technology. Outright subsidies smells of blackmail. Will India and China refuse to promote clean energy technologies with out this money? In the short run they will only hurt themselves. According to a Time magazine survey the top 4 polluted cities in the world are found in India and China; is that not impetus enough? [NEW YORK TIMES]
JUNE 8, 2009 - JUNE 14, 2009 Global Warming and Extreme Weather Linking extreme weather events to global warming ignores the facts that extreme weather events are actually decreasing. Over the past 5 decades there has been a downward trend in the number and intensity of North Atlantic hurricanes. There is a similar downward trend in American tornados. There are no significant trends in southern oceanic cyclones. There are no long term increases in heat waves or even extreme cold spells. Population growth and changes in land usage are the two most significant factors in how extreme weather events impact on humanity. We need only look at the impact of Katrina on New Orleans to understand that. [Guardian UK] Does the estimable Mr. Annan ever attempt to offset these figures with the number of lives which are saved and improved because there is reliable electricity in many of the third-world hell-holes where these 'climate deaths' occurred, allegedly. [Huffington Post] |
