We have entered an era where the question is no longer whether we have changed our world for the worse, but simply by how much. We have threatened our water for millennia, our air for centuries, and our ecosystems for decades...the question is, will jeopardizing our food supply finally be the wake-up call?
If you’re looking for good news in the report, there is a tidbit about how U.S. agriculture is expected to remain “relatively resilient” in the face of unchecked climate change for the next 25 years or so. But after that, crops and livestock don’t fare so well and productivity starts declining thanks to heat and drought. So it’s not exactly great news.
When the best economic solution only entrenches a belief in a practice that degrades quality of life, when other equally effective and less damaging means are available, should signal us that the systems we have created to underpin our economy are flawed.
"In the interim, we will work like mad to extract more natural gas through fracking. We will turn that fracked gas into nitrogen fertilizer to grow more corn than we need. We will use that fracked gas to convert that great surplus of corn into ethanol. And, finally, we will burn that ethanol in our cars, which we will use to drive to our grocery stores to pay higher prices for our food.
This is not the best picture of an efficiency model."
Twenty-five years ago, the science on climate was still in flux, and it took another decade to turn the tide, and another five years to put us to the point we are today...deciding not if but how much. Under the heading of those that do not learn from history are doomed to repeat it, we seem to be headed down the same path on the modification of our food....looking for ways to be better than nature rather than working within the confines of nature.
"His summary judgment on the debate about GE—that “it’s over”—is misinformed at best. One could pass this off as a rhetorical flourish, but the overall context of Lynas’ talk shows that he is quite serious. While there is broad consensus on climate science, there is anything but on many aspects of GE science. As anyone who has read my blogs or reports over the past several years knows, I have cited numerous solid peer-reviewed studies that question many aspects of the safety, impact, or sustainability of GE as it has been developed, and will probably continue to be developed."
The solution to moving forward in a more considered, resilient, and sustainable way rests first in each and every one of use making better choices day-in and day-out to improve both our own quality of life and the quality of life of others...
"Agriculture can be an important part of the solution to some of the world’s most pressing challenges, including unemployment, obesity, and climate change. These innovations simply need more research, more investment, and ultimately more funding."
...then it requires collective action to make sure that what we have done will be a regrettable (and hopefully brief) time in our history, but not the time for which history will judge us as having caused the demise not only of our nation, but of the world as we know it.
"The strategic landscape of the 21st century has finally come into focus. The great global project is no longer to stop communism, counter terrorists, or promote a superficial notion of freedom. Rather, the world must accommodate 3 billion additional middle-class aspirants in two short decades -- without provoking resource wars, insurgencies, and the devastation of our planet's ecosystem. For this we need a strategy."
Happy Friday!
Happy Friday!
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