GREENIE HERO DISSES THE GREENIES

James Lovelock of 'Gaia' fame says the Greenie dislike of science makes them impotent, foolish and irrelevant -- to summarize:

"European politicians appear to accept the near inevitability of global warming but, oddly, turn to the green movement and its lobbies for guidance, more than to scientists. I see myself as a green but I speak as a scientist. Despite their good intentions, the majority of the greens are more concerned about the trivial risks from chemicals and radiation than about the serious risk of adverse global changes; consequently, their advice to governments is flawed.... The error of the modern green movement is its self-indulgence, its hypochondriac obsession with personal hazards to health such as pesticide residues and other unwanted chemicals in foodstuff, nuclear radiation and genetic manipulation. Greens foster the illusion that if the planet were farmed organically all would be well....

Renewable energy might be a good idea in the long term, and is a showy way for politicians to prove that they are doing something, but it is already too late to expect it to play a significant role; global warming is already happening and is likely to intensify. To supplement the feeble energy supplies from renewables by lashings of natural gas is a risky option, particularly for Britain. The European encouragement of subsidised renewable energy might be justified were there no alternative tried and tested energy source - but there is: clean and safe nuclear energy. The objections to it are unscientific and perverse, but the green lobbies have preached against it until some European governments have been forced to act against the public good and allow it to be phased out....

Moreover, the economist Shimon Awerbuch reminded us that the magical appearance of a clean, safe and economic source of energy would do little to stop the burning of fossil fuels, such is the human tendency to over-consume. Indeed, the spread of wind turbines in Germany has been accompanied by an increase in coal combustion, the dirtiest of all fuels. The earth system, Gaia, functions because within it are powerful restraints to growth, as we will discover. We have to make our own restraints if we are to avoid those the Earth will apply. Perhaps the unreasoning fear of nuclear energy at least implies some built-in restraint.

So what will happen and what should we do? There are three main alternatives. The first is laissez faire: continue to enjoy a warmer 21st century, and make cosmetic attempts to hide global warming. I suspect that this is what will happen in much of the world. Second is the deep green way: eat nothing but organic food, use nothing but renewable energy and raw materials. These policies might restore the Earth to health but at the cost of a massive reduction in the numbers of people and possibly the loss of some civilisations. There may be a third, less unpleasant, way: the high-tech road. It would require us to take global change seriously and lessen the footprint of humans on the Earth. First, and most important, it would mean no more natural habitat destruction. To attempt to farm the whole Earth to feed people makes us like sailors who burned the timbers and rigging of their ship to keep warm. Then we must embrace science and engineering; we need their skills and inventions to lessen our impact on the Earth. If more food comes from less land by genetic engineering then use it; better still, if food can be synthesised by the chemical and biochemical industries from carbon dioxide, water and nitrogen, then let's make it and give Earth a rest. We need a portfolio of energy sources, with nuclear playing a big part, at least until fusion power is an option, and we must stop fretting over the minute risks of cancer from chemicals or radiation. In Britain, one quarter of us will die of cancer anyway, mainly because we breathe air laden with that pervasive carcinogen, oxygen......

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Many people would like to be kind to others so Leftists exploit that with their nonsense about equality. Most people want a clean, green environment so Greenies exploit that by inventing all sorts of far-fetched threats to the environment. But for both, the real motive is to promote themselves as wiser and better than everyone else, truth regardless.

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