Search Results for: mckibben

In his new paper, S. Matthew Liao proposes biomedical modifications to help humans consume less: 

[A] car uses more fuel per mile to carry a heavier person, more fabric is needed to clothe larger people, and heavier people wear out shoes, carpets and furniture at a quicker rate than lighter people, and so on.  And so size reduction could be one way to reduce a person's ecological footprint. For instance if you reduce the average U.S. height by just 15cm, you could reduce body mass by 21% for men and 25% for women, with a corresponding reduction in metabolic rates by some 15% to 18%, because less tissue means lower energy and nutrient needs.

Ronald Bailey finds that this isn't the first time the idea has been suggested. Steve Clark doesn't believe the proposal counts as "voluntary":

Unless the techniques that are being proposed are somehow made reversible then the children in question will have no choice in the matter. Their parents are deciding for them. As a society we do not give parents an unlimited right to make decisions on behalf of their children. 

Duncan Geere offers a critique to another of Liao's bioengineering suggestions, using hormones to make people more empathetic:

A reader writes:

We shouldn't even be asking the question about the relative productivity of organic farming until we've addressed the extravagant wastefulness of consuming animal-based foods rather than plants. (By most accounts, it takes from two to ten pounds of corn to produce a single pound of meat.) If you truly want to minimize the resources that go into your diet, then eat plant-centered meals and buy your food from your local farmer's market. This is food that, for the most part, would not even be grown in the absence of local demand. It's therefore a bad-faith argument that eating local, organic food is somehow depriving poor people of their share of the earth's resources.

Another writes:

In response to Charles Kenny, the right metric to think about agriculture isn't some binary "organic vs. industrial" conflict, but rather "small vs. large."

by Zack Beauchamp

The Obama Administration seems set on building the Keystone XL pipeline, which has created quite a furor. Dan Stone explains the basics:

[The environmentalists'] issue is a new project know as the Keystone oil pipeline that would transport oil from Canada’s tar sands fields to refineries in the Gulf Coast. The State Department has given the environmental go-ahead for the project, leaving it to the president to make the final decision. But environmentalists like McKibben see it as an expansion of America’s dependence on dirty fuels and are trying to pressure President Obama to nullify the permit and halt the Keystone project.

Mark Engler summarizes the Green left's uprising:

John Horgan criticizes climate fear-mongering. He cites the 1992 paper by anthropologists Carol and Melvin Ember, "Resource Unpredictability, Mistrust and War":

The strongest correlate of warfare was a history of unpredictable natural disasters—such as floods, droughts and insect infestations—that had disrupted food supplies. The Embers were careful to note that it was not the disasters themselves that precipitated war, but the memory of past disasters and hence the fear of future ones. … In other words, wars stemmed from factors that were not ecological so much as psychological.

Bill McKibben confronts the lockstep denialism of GOP senators over climate change: The odd and troubling thing about this stance is not just that it prevents action. It’s also profoundly unconservative… Conservatism has always stressed stability and continuity; since Burke, the watchwords have been tradition, authority, heritage. The globally averaged temperature of the planet has … Continue reading Taking The “Conserve” Out Of Conservatism

Kerry Howley quotes Joe Quirk from H+, the new transhumanist magazine: Here’s another moral imperative you transhumanist fools haven’t considered: we owe something to people who don’t exist yet. People who don’t exist yet are waiting in line to take our places. They can’t do that unless we die. Don’t nonexistent people have rights? Damn … Continue reading Deep Thought Of The Day

Ross McKibben helpes explain why the Brits are so tired of a prime minister most Americans still revere. Money quote: Gordon Brown’s leadership will doubtless be calmer and more genuinely risk-free than Blair’s. Yet, even with all the luck in the world, it is unlikely that he can save the ‘project’. The problems of New … Continue reading A Political Obit for Blair