Stewart Brand proclaims 4 environmental 'heresies'

http://www.ted.com The man who helped usher in the environmental movement in the 1960s and '70s has been rethinking his positions on cities, nuclear power, genetic modification and geo-engineering. This talk at the US State Department is a foretaste of his major new book, sure to provoke widespread debate.

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[WarrenWoodcraft]

Nuclear is the lesser of many evils. The waste is minimal, and radiation doesn't kill people in the way people think. Sites of natural radioactivity actually have more biodiversity than would otherwise be expected, hence Chernobyl has already reforested itself, and there's talk of making it into a National Park to make some money back through tourism. Even if you lived there, the increased radiation exposure would take roughly 7 days of your life expectancy, as opposed to 7 years if you smoke...

[originalsugarcake]

@JohnnyRawhide I used to think urbanization and and slums were problems that we had to fix. I thought that the farmers were tricked into moving to the cities and then stuck in poverty. After reading Brand's book I've learned not to fear those words. He never argues that slums are "ideal", he just points out that they grow for very natural reasons (not due to greedy rich people), and that they bring some new challenges with them.

[DrZenith]

@gamble180 Get real. There are already far too many people in the world. 7 billion and this number risks stabilizing at from 10 to 12 billion by 2050 when the planet's biodiversity is already under huge pressure. I'd prefer people to have fewer kids through education and access to contraception but if not, then compulsion. Today, having a large family is an anti-social act.

[TheProlefeed1]

Stewart Brand is a just corporatist, he never believed most of the environmentalism stuff he was pushing himself, other than "we are as gods", it has always just been a means to an end of the globalists Malthusian and Agenda 21 plans, no surprise he, Ricky Rood, and other supposed environmentalists are pushing GMO. Brand founded the Global Business Network with oil baron and fellow futurist Peter Schwartz of Royal Dutch Shell and through their propaganda rag Wired are trying to shape the future

[flamifer1]

Yes, birth control does go against the human nature. It is in the nature of all living species to multiply until more individuals die off of hunger and epidemies than are born. This is the "natural" way you seem to favour.

Thank god, UN-statistcs show, that more and more people are seeing the benefits of having less children. Against bitter resistence of religious fanatics or nazis, who are using well meaning ignorants like you to their sinister ends. Start using your own brain!

[gamble180]

@flamifer1 Actually, the one child policy in china is evil. It goes against the basic human nature. The day this country tries to tell someone they can or cant have kids is the day this country burns, Thank god the influence of people like you extends no further than your mother's basement,

[flamifer1]

>> in China, of course...

So, in your opinion, it is the fault of the "evil" one child policy, that baby girls in China get killed by their parents? Not, mayhaps, because of the "good" old chinese tradition to prefer boys? Do you support this "great" tradition?

For your info, my poor, uninformed friend: China's 1 child policy has saved the country from permanent famines with yearly tens of millions of deaths. Did it ever occur to you, that there could be grave reasons for such a policy?

[gamble180]

@flamifer1 I certainly hope you don't have kids, for plenty of reasons. But they have what your talking about in China of course, where people stuff little girls in bags and drown them because they want a boy and can only have 1 kid. You can have that. Otherwise stfu.

[flamifer1]

Yes, believe it or not: most people even nowadays still live in small communities and live off farming. And most of them are having too many babies. The result of it are growing slums around the cities of the 3rd world. Only birth control can prevent that the whole world will turn into a slum.

>> kill 9 out of 10 people

I am sick and tired of people parroting stupid lies about what birth control is. Please get informed. And try another source than your local preacher too.

[gamble180]

@flamifer1 Listen to yourself. Last borns, family farms, movin to "the big city." The world was like that, 200 years ago. All you have to do is kill 9 out our 10 people, reintroduce plagues, and remove fancy things like electricity and sanitation. good luck.

[flamifer1]

Your statement about the great depression perfectly reflects your conviction, that mankind could only prosper by using up its finit resources as fast as possible and that overpopulation was a local phenomenon. Prosperity is measured per capita and not by total numbers. In my "dream world" last borns don't have to leave their families' farms to go to the city and work in a sweat shop or prostitute themselves. Why? Because they will not be born. We need more education, not more people.