Comment Re:We've been doing it for a long time (Score 1) 367
Harvard could make a significant contribution by divesting from coal and telling everybody why, but it has declined to do so. This press release is just a timely distraction.
Are you claiming that the roundup-ready genes have NOT been found in other plants growing near cornfields?
We all know Monsanto are pricks in their dealings with small farmers who refuse to buy their seed, but what "damage" has been done to human health or the environment by GMO plants of any kind? - Resistance to roundup and cabbages that glow in the dark is not "damage".
Aside from that, scientific claims cannot be "proven in court" and your well known non-belief in AGW has nothing to do with science.
Unfortunately the green movement is rather plagued by poor science.
Yep, that's exactly the point Lovelock makes in the quote, and it's why I make the distinction. You do realise that the founders of greenpeace were respected scientists, right? Lovelock was one of them, by the mid-90's every single one of the founders had left the organisation they founded in disgust. GP did mankind a great service in the 70's/80's by almost single handedly stopping atmospheric testing in my backyard. However during the late 80's political types had well and truly taken over the organisation and the founding scientists wanted nothing to do with their pseudo-science.
The original scientific evidence that plutonium from atmospheric tests was making it's way into the bones of Aussie children and sheep came from a CSIRO scientist in the late 50's, early 60's, he won his (national security) battle with the Australian authorities and published his findings long before the green movement got started.
Actually, Congress did give NOAA more money for a new supercomputer. The computer hasn't materialized because NOAA is locked into a single-source contract with IBM. As TFA mentions, IBM just sold its supercomputer division to a Chinese company (Lenovo). It seems some people are antsy about the implications for a Chinese company providing the computer behind a critical national security capability (weather prediction).
scaling issues?
Correct, it's the indestructible requirement that doesn't scale well. A heavy "package" (AKA indestructible armour) for 5kg or 5g is pretty much the same thing.
we don't want plutonium-powered reactors on an exploding rocket
Back up a bit, who's the "we"?
I recall seeing testing footage for the RTG in the Cassini probe, among other things the tests involved a large artillery gun and a steel wall a few feet thick. Cassini was particularly controversial because it made a 'sling shot' flyby of earth at a much greater speed than escape velocity. From the tests I saw in the doco decades ago the worst thing that could possibly happen with an RTG is that it falls from the sky directly onto someone's head. Far from being anti-nuke, I'm actually interested the idea of "pebble bed" reactors (materials research is what's needed there). I'm also in favour of "full life cycle" nuclear power as practised in some parts of the EU. I don't know of a -science based- environmentalist/hippie/greenie who thinks otherwise. I've held these views since the early 90's, I'm not alone either, James Lovelock and some other influential greenies expressed similar opinions in the early 2000's
I speak to you today as a scientist and as the originator of Gaia Theory, the earth's system science which describes a self regulating planet which keeps its temperature and its chemical composition always favourable for life. I care deeply about the natural world, but as a scientist I consider that the earth has now reached a state profoundly dangerous to all of us and to our civilisation. And this view is shared by scientists around the world. Unfortunately, governments, especially in Europe, appear to listen less to scientists than they do to Green political parties and to Green lobbies. Now, I am a green myself, so I know that these greens are well intentioned, but they understand people a lot better than they understand the earth, and consequently they recommend inappropriate remedies and action. Lovelock 2005.
Disclaimer: According to my parents I became a Hippie back in 1976. Like any other social group, "Hippies" in general are reasonable people if you stop insulting them and feeding them on bullshit.
What you can eat, or drink, smoke (liberals), who you have sex with (conservatives).
The last lot to increase taxes on my smokes here in Oz were the right wing jesus freaks currently in power, $4/pack = ~20% increase. I'm a left wing smoker (both kinds), have been for ~40yrs, I started back in the 70's when the Marlborough Man was still cool and you could smoke anywhere except places that were likely to explode after striking a match.
Excellent analysis, Mr. Pillow. Thanks!
If A = B and B = C, then A = C, except where void or prohibited by law. -- Roy Santoro