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September 21 - October 1, 2019
The two people were William Vogt and Norman Borlaug.
he founded what the Hampshire College demographer Betsy Hartmann has called “apocalyptic environmentalism”—the belief that unless humankind drastically reduces consumption its growing numbers and appetite will overwhelm the planet’s ecosystems.
Rodale died in 1971—bizarrely, on a television talk show, suffering a heart attack minutes after declaring “I never felt better in my life!” and offering the host his special asparagus boiled in urine.
Today we live in a world where almost everywhere slavery is illegal, women can vote and own property, and overt obeisance to social class is frowned upon. Most decision-makers who lived three hundred years ago would have regarded these developments with horror.
Had they grasped that the future could be like this, they would have sought to prevent it.
In its frantic quest to industrialize, China burns almost as much coal as the rest of the world put together.
Outdoor air pollution in China, most of it from coal, contributes to about 1.2 million premature deaths per year, according to a major scientific study involving almost five hundred scientists in more than fifty nations.
administration. “If you’re worried about climate change, and I am, nuclear is the greenest alternative,” Brand told me.
Brand cites the example of France, which constructed “fifty-six reactors providing nearly all of the nation’s electricity in just twelve years.” Nuclear power provides about 77 percent of French electricity, a far greater proportion than in any other nation.
According to Forbes magazine, the world has 1,600 billionaires. Each could sponsor a course of geoengineering single-handedly.
Most researchers now think that the ice ages were caused by slight shifts in the earth’s tilt and orbit, which changed the amount and distribution of sunlight on the surface, cooling the planet.
the collapse of small farming on the East Coast has allowed millions of acres to return to nature.
As a whole, U.S. forests are bigger and healthier than they were in 1900, when the country had fewer than 100 million people.
Many New England states have as many trees as they had in the days of Paul Revere.
At a certain point she referred to evolution as the cornerstone of modern biology. A student raised her hand and said she didn’t believe in evolution. “I don’t care whether you believe it,” Margulis replied. “I just want you to understand why scientists believe it.” After that, she said, the student could decide whatever she wanted.
