Muck and MysteryLoitering With IntentTasty Toms- June 28, 2008 We often hear anti-tech nutters claim that improved crop cultivars are necessarily inferior to heritage cultivars. Their proof is that mass market tomatoes are insipid. This does not support their claims, it just shows that the traits selected for in those varieties - mostly suitability for machine harvest - are insufficient. Perhaps they are getting better For generations, agriculturalists and scientists have bred tomatoes for size, shape, texture, flavor, shelf-life, and nutrient...http://www.garyjones.org/mt/archives/000812.html More Immorality- June 27, 2008 At this point one can be fairly well assured that moral claims mask immoral objectives. There are rare exceptions in this, as in everything, but it is seldom the case when part of public rhetoric. Sen. Barbara Boxer (D-Calif.), a co-sponsor of the bill, has called it "the world's most far-reaching program to fight global warming." It is indeed policy on a grand scale. It would slow American economic growth by trillions of dollars over the next half-century. But in terms of temperature, the...http://www.garyjones.org/mt/archives/000811.html Immoral Reasoning- June 26, 2008 In the earlier post Moral Reasoning I noted that: Whenever I encounter someone who makes political arguments claiming that they are based on moral arguments I know that I've entered the twilight zone where reason has no force. It's worse than that in many ways. Of course my affluence enables me to be concerned more about animal welfare than about obtaining sufficient calories. Isn't it fantastic that I am affluent enough to care Actually, she doesn't care, except in an anemic sort of way...http://www.garyjones.org/mt/archives/000810.html Melancholy- June 25, 2008 One of the things that irritates me about environmental pundits and activists (or get's up my nose as Charlie might say) is that they greet improved analyses with disappointment. Two studies out today one on energy trends, one on climate as a security issue bode poorly for those seeking to prevent global warming from passing dangerous thresholds. Coal and oil use climb relentlessly, at a rate similar to that for growth in wind, solar, and nuclear power, but in vastly larger quantities. ....http://www.garyjones.org/mt/archives/000809.html Aye- June 22, 2008 Charlie is a writer. One of the aspects of the present-day environmental movement that gets up my nose is the tendency towards magical thinking that many of its followers engage in; notably, the belief that because doing something about climate change (and environmental degradation and peak oil and the whole dismal litany) is better than doing nothing, any particular something they can point to clearly must be done, however irrelevant it might be to dealing with the underlying problem. It...http://www.garyjones.org/mt/archives/000808.html Revolution 2- June 22, 2008 A theme that has been developing, mentioned in several earlier posts, is the growing realization that the world has been misguided about agriculture in recent decades, indulging various declensionist dialogues and false nostalgia for peasant agriculture, as if the agricultural theme parks of heavily subsidized western countries were real and could be the basis for world agriculture. That realization has been sharpened by the food shortages, even riots, that have been in the news....http://www.garyjones.org/mt/archives/000807.html Flash Carbonization- June 20, 2008 The earlier post Fast Pyrolyzers discussed an interesting paper, The Charcoal Vision: A WinWinWin Scenario for Simultaneously Producing Bioenergy, Permanently Sequestering Carbon, while Improving Soil and Water Quality, that advocated a superior method of generating bioenergy in more environmentally benign ways. The technologies involved were only briefly mentioned. Fast pyrolyzers rapidly (1 s) heat dry biomass (10% H2O) to 500C and thereby thermally transform biomass into bio-oil (60% of...http://www.garyjones.org/mt/archives/000806.html Rope-A-Dope- June 18, 2008 Recent events have given some conservatives hope that AGW will, in the end, be an issue that they leverage for political benefit. I argued three things: (1) anthropogenic global warming (AGW) is real, (2) current projections of its expected impact are wildly uncertain, but are not sufficient to justify the costs of an aggressive emissions reduction program, and (3) conservatives have an unseen political opportunity to win on the issue by pointing this out. . . proponents of emissions...http://www.garyjones.org/mt/archives/000805.html Moral Reasoning- June 17, 2008 Whenever I encounter someone who makes political arguments claiming that they are based on moral arguments I know that I've entered the twilight zone where reason has no force. The cover article in the current Scientific American claims to be a guide to the perplexed in thinking through a difficult question: how do we weigh the costs of ameliorating climate change today versus the potential benefits that this will create for future generations Unfortunately, it is rhetoric from front to back..http://www.garyjones.org/mt/archives/000804.html Siesta- June 16, 2008 Clocks aren't very interesting for me. My days are ruled by the sun, and vary considerably at this latitude during the year. This is siesta season. I start work very early, in the cool pre-dawn, and get after it until it gets too hot. Then I eat, rest and nap for a few hours along with all other sensible creatures except, it is said, mad dogs and Englishmen. Most mammals sleep for short periods throughout the day. . . Our bodies are programmed for two periods of sleepiness: in the early...http://www.garyjones.org/mt/archives/000803.html |