Lions led by Sheep -

Oct 02 2008

How to Stop Global Warming

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36 Responses to “How to Stop Global Warming”

1. # Hans Lakon 02 Oct 2008 at 8:00 pm

   Hi Steve!

   In this world of Republicans and Democrats, meat-eaters and vegetarians, dog lovers and cat lovers, we have a new divide. On one side are global-warming believers. They’ve heard Al Gore’s inconvenient truths and, along with the staff of Time magazine, feel “worried, very worried.” Humanity faces no greater threat than a warming Earth, they say, and government must drastically curb carbon-dioxide emissions. On the other side are those who don’t think that the Earth is warming; and even if it is, they don’t think that man is causing it; and even if man is to blame, it isn’t clear that global warming is bad; and even if it is, efforts to fix it will cost too much and may, in the end, do more harm than good.

   Standing in the practical middle is Bjorn Lomborg, the free-thinking Dane who, in “The Skeptical Environmentalist” (2001), challenged the belief that the environment is going to pieces. Mr. Lomborg is now back with “Cool It,” a book brimming with useful facts and common sense.

   Bjorn Lomborg argues that many of the elaborate and expensive actions now being considered to stop global warming will cost hundreds of billions of dollars, are often based on emotional rather than strictly scientific assumptions, and may very well have little impact on the world’s temperature for hundreds of years. Rather than starting with the most radical procedures, Lomborg argues that we should first focus our resources on more immediate concerns, such as fighting malaria and HIV/AIDS and assuring and maintaining a safe, fresh water supply-which can be addressed at a fraction of the cost and save millions of lives within our lifetime. He asks why the debate over climate change has stifled rational dialogue and killed meaningful dissent.

   Lomborg presents us with a second generation of thinking on global warming that believes panic is neither warranted nor a constructive place from which to deal with any of humanity’s problems, not just global warming. Cool It promises to be one of the most talked about and influential books of our time.

   Fight poverty! Dont fight global warming!
   40% of the food in the western world is wasted……
   Education is the key to the future!

   ONE EARTH ONE MISSION! Make things better for future generations!

   Hans

2. # Wai Minon 03 Oct 2008 at 3:11 am

   Hello there Mr Steve,

   This is actually my first time reading your post albeit you often send me updates on your blog through Care2. And yes, I always perceive it as a nuisance. Pardon me.

   Maybe it is because I don’t really have much time on the computer. Chatting, blogging, Purking, reading, studying etc etc, I am almost preoccupied always! Fortunately, I got up early today, and I was clear from self-solicited business. I got your email and said, yes, I gotta check it out.

   A click, and I was brought to your blog, fascinating technology, a click and taddda…. you get transfer to another website. =). The first thing I read on your blog upon my first visit, was your blog title.

   Lions led by Sheep.

   I gotta say, that is certainly a very distinct title, which I think only illustrious people can come up with. The only question that came into my mind was, “Damn! Why din’t I think of that earlier?”

   Well, this is why God created everyone differently, so that the world will not be mundane, you totally impressed me without your captivating blog title. :)

   So, the page fully loaded, and I started reading the post, and I gotta salute you man, you are one fantastic man.

   You come up with things I never imagined, food? Who thought, food would play such a quintessential role in putting global warming to a halt. I am mesmerised.

   You elaborated your aspects fantastically, till I got nothing else to say. But only one thing, I will be frequenting this blog more often.

   Oh ya, not forgetting, I am gonna link you in my blog links section in my blog, so that others can read it too! :)

   I suppose it is all for now, I end my comment with;

   Save the World! End Global Warming! One World, One Mission!

   Cheers,

   Wai Min

3. # Steve N. Leeon 03 Oct 2008 at 9:35 am

   Sorry, Hans, but I haven’t read these books, so can’t comment on your passionate review of them. (You’re not working on commission are you? ;-) )

   As for the conclusion you say they draw, well, I’m pleased Mr. Lomborg agrees with me that feeding the world should be a primary goal instead of, as so often seems to be the case, something of a ‘hobby’ in which we indulge in those moments when we’re bored with everything else.

   Thanks for commenting.

   Don’t worry, Wai Min, you’re not alone in thinking that those blog post updates as nothing but a nuisance. Some Care2 people have written and said in no uncertain terms that they do not wish to receive more. I find this strange as if they took the time to actually visit, as you have, they’d find I disucss the very issues they are suppposed to be passionate about. Still, nothing I can do about that.

   But thank you for giving me the benefit of the doubt and visiting. I’m pleased you found it a worthwhile experience. And thank you for being so kind about my blog and my writing. It’s always a thrill when someone new ‘gets’ what I’m talkiing about - some don’t, you know!

   Thanks, Wai Min. Have a wonderful weekend,
   Steve

4. # Susan Lon 03 Oct 2008 at 9:07 pm

   Thanks for the post. I do think you’ve “hit the nail on the head.” Great read.

5. # Phil Heinleinon 04 Oct 2008 at 12:36 am

   Steve,

   It’s not just feeding the world, it’s also about what we eat. If we were to eat lower on the food chain, there’s be a lot less global warming and deforestation… think “cow farts” and “slash and burn” agriculture. What we choose to eat has a lot to do with it.

6. # franciscoon 04 Oct 2008 at 2:15 am

   Steve, One thing is sure concerning your posting, it most certainly proves how mankind’s “imag”ination will do nothing but destroy and pervert Creation.

   Of course someone who lives off of their own “imag”ination, and the “imag”ination of others? Well needless to say that such a one would demonstrate prejudice in accordance with that which supplies their needs? Better said “wants”!

   And the problem presented has, not to do with needs, but wants!

   For if the wants were not, the needs would not be.

   Who is willing to live “A Simple and Spiritual Life”?

   Why is it no one listens?

   “You can not serve The Creator(GOD, Great Spirit,,,) and m-o-n-e-y”…….

   “And the covetous(greedy) ridiculed The Messiah”…….

   Truth is never ending…….

7. # Steve N. Leeon 04 Oct 2008 at 12:12 pm

   Yes, you’re right, Phil. It is about what we eat, too. I’ve written about greed and over-consumption previously, and already have a very rough outline for another post in the not too distant future.

   But simply modifying our own diets won’t feed others. We can’t get away from the fact that we have to GIVE more than we are.

   Thanks for adding to the discussion.

   Francisco, I’d like to think that you’re entirely wrong and that it’s mankind’s imagination that will indeed save the whole of creation. I know we haven’t done a very good job up to now, but even we, in our arrogantly finite, infinitely arrogant wisdom, must surely see we can’t go on as we are. I’d like to say all that, but then, I’m constantly reminded of just what a dumb species we truly are, so who’s to say if we won’t end up destroying ourselves or not.

   I’ve spoken at length about ‘need’s versus ‘wants’ versus ‘deserves’ before, so I won’t go back into it here.

   Thanks for stopping by.

   Hey, Susan. Nice to see you hear again. Thanks for the comment. I’m glad you liked the post.

   Have a good weekend, everyone,
   Steve

8. # nancyon 04 Oct 2008 at 3:41 pm

   Thank you Steve for the wonderful article. I will be sure and share with others as I feel more people would love to read it and discuss with others.
   It would be nice if the whole world could just work together to resolve the issues.

9. # Steve N. Leeon 04 Oct 2008 at 3:56 pm

   Raising awareness of important issues is what my blog is all about, so telling other people about it would be much appreciated, Nancy. That’s very kind of you.

   Unlike some, I’m sure a day will come when we all do work together. Sadly, I doubt it will be seen by anyone living today not currently in diapers! But, you never know. I was reliably informed by a commenter who’d read last week’s post that I am NOT the omnipotent being at the centre of the universe, so maybe I’m wrong with that time estimation! Who knows? ;-) Fingers crossed for an announcement in Monday’s press, huh?

   Thanks for commenting, Nancy. And for sharing my post with others. Have a great weekend,
   Steve

10. # franciscoon 04 Oct 2008 at 4:37 pm

    Steve wrote: “Francisco, I’d like to think that you’re entirely wrong and that it’s mankind’s imagination that will indeed save the whole of creation. I know we haven’t done a very good job up to now, but even we, in our arrogantly finite, infinitely arrogant wisdom, must surely see we can’t go on as we are. I’d like to say all that, but then, I’m constantly reminded of just what a dumb species we truly are, so who’s to say if we won’t end up destroying ourselves or not.”

    “dumb”? Disobedient, rebellious, proud, vain, perverse, destructive,,,,,, spiritually dead, braindirtyed educated clones who continue to feed their “imag”inations ;-(

    It was ignorant, unlearned “savages” who testified:

    “A Simple and Spiritual Life is the only Life that will survive”!

    “Who’s to say if we don’t end up destroying ourselves”? Already said, by The Creator, HE WHO is going to “destroy those who destroy the earth! And as The Messiah testified, so it is you have “seen” that the “multitudes follow the broad way to destruction”!

    Btw, The Messiah, He testified that the words He spoke were not His words, but they were the words of The Father(Creator) WHO sent Him”!

    Sadly, as of now it seems you are of the multitudes ;-( Those who would rather live, or desire to live, the “american(worldly) dream”, which is to exist and believe in, mankind’s “imag”ination ;-( For the sake of “ease of life”;-(

    So it is that the multitudes, yes even the porverty stricken, believe the LIE that is “ease of life”, rather than receiving “a love of The Truth ;-(

    Sadly, The Truth that is Creation sufficiency has given way to the lie that is “self sufficiency” ;-( And so it is that the multitudes but serve “time” in the prison that is this world, and those who won’t, or can’t follow their way, they look upon as the dung of the earth ;-(

    So heed The Call to “Come Out of her, MY people”! “Come Out” of that which is of this world, that which is of the “imag”ination, and especially this world’s systems of religion!

    Get Real! Life is Spirit, yet only that Life which is in and of The Creator(GOD, Great Spirit,,) is Real, and only that which is Real is Forever!

    Choose Real Life!

    How many roses have you stopped to smell while piloting one of this world’s unguided missles, the ones they call automobiles?

    And how many have been killed along the way ;-( For what purpose?

    Yet, there is hope!

    For Miracles do happen!

    So there will be those who experience The Miracle that is receiving “a love of The Truth” and who take heed unto The Call to “Come Out of her, MY people”!

    Peace, in spite of the dis-ease(stress) that is of this world, for “the WHOLE world is under the control of the evil one” indeed and Truth…….

    Truth is never ending…….

11. # Uncle MythManon 04 Oct 2008 at 9:49 pm

    Right On! And then, having full stomachs, our slav– butlers-and-maids will thus be better able to trolley us around in our rickshaws.

12. # kenebabyon 04 Oct 2008 at 11:01 pm

    Yes we can stop global warming if …. we put a huge plug in each of the Volcanoes around the world.

    One volcano can spew out more toxic fumes and gasses in one burst than mankind can do in 100 years. So old mother earth will just have to do what she has been doing for millions of years and that is clean it up herself.

    This doesn’t excuse human kind from trying to find cleaner ways of doing things as the population of the earth grows.

    ..

13. # Jillyanne Michelle Capeon 05 Oct 2008 at 12:58 am

    I think feeding the world is a wonderful idea, as long as we are not doing it with genetically modified crops. They are contributing to the problem, not helping it go away, not in the long run anyway… (Monsanto needs to go).

14. # Uncle MythManon 05 Oct 2008 at 2:16 am

    Isn’t carbon good for plant-life? Why not grab that smog … i dunno, whoosh it into greenhouses; then it REALLY IS greenhouse gas! (or did I just use the stupidest pun known to mankind?)

15. # Aliciaon 05 Oct 2008 at 2:19 am

    Hi,
    My english is not so well, so I hope I can make myself clear.

    I just want to say, that all this sounds good and has a good intention.
    The only thing is (at least I believe so) that the earth has not been destroyed yet exactly because there is hunger and poverty. Those who are in poverty don’t participate in this society full of consumism.
    If everybody would consume like the USA (or other developed countries) does, we would need like 10 planets so that we would have enough (food, space, things, cloth, etc.).
    So if we start to feed everyone I asume everything is gonna die sooner, global warming will increase.
    I’m not saying that poverty is okay, or that we need it or that it is good because without it we all would be dead already, nor anything like that, …I’m just saying how things really are.

    Besides, I don’t think we need any other solutions or ideas, we have them already, we have had a lot of ideas and really good ones. The thing is that no one wants to try them or do them. Maybe because of lack of education, maybe because they think those who speak about global warming are exagerating, maybe because they just don’t care (because they think the catastrophe is still far away), maybe because it is hard to change habits (specially for older people), but, I think it is specially because of the money.
    Because the oil companies (and many others but specially these ones) earn a lot of money, so they don’t want people to stop consuming oil, so they bribe the government and car industries and many other people, making sure that we don’t stop using oil (even when they know it is very polutant), and it is all about money. We need energy to make everything we do, and we could get it from green sources (like the wind) and everybody knows that, but since that won’t make “the masters of the universe” more rich then they are now, they don’t let it happen. And although we all know we are about to die, we won’t stop consuming energy nor the car nor any other things.

    The problem is the lack of education we have and the lack of commitment and apathy we have (well and the money, as I already said).
    All food has given us is a lot of ideas, yes, but exactly these ideas are the ones that made us go too far, and now we are paying for it.

    You should see a film called “Who killed the electric car?”, maybe you will understand what I’m trying to say.

    Thank you

16. # Steve N. Leeon 05 Oct 2008 at 1:44 pm

    Firstly, Alicia, let me just say you have to make no apologies or excuses for your English - it’s excellent and easy to understand.

    Secondly, yes, you’re right. Feeding the world would have to be done in a responsible manner. Cutting down the Amazon to provide all three billion poverty-stricken people in the Third World with cheeseburgers wouldn’t exactly be the best of ideas, would it?

    As for new ideas? I don’t profess to offer up revolutionary concepts that no one has ever heard of before. What I try to do is present concepts from new angles, with uniques twists, or simply as slap-across-the-face facts in an attempt to make people think about issues they may never have or to look again at things they may have already dismissed.

    If you haven’t already, take a look at these posts on over-consumption, apathy, and manipulation by those in control - I’m sure you’ll enjoy them.

    http://www.lionsledbysheep.com/2008/06/26/how/

    http://www.lionsledbysheep.com/2008/09/11/oil/

    Thanks for a valuable contribution, Alicia. (Please don’t worry about your English as there’s nothing to worry about!)

    Yes, Jillyanne, again that’s a good point. Though I have to say that’s an area I haven’t researched so can’t comment on with any authority. In theory, I can see the benefits - disease resistant crops, higher yields, less pesticides, hardier plants… But that’s theory. Practice rarely pans out like the theory says it should. Not least with mutations, cross-pollinations, unnatural side-effects, etc, which is when the problems start.

    Mythman, yes plants thrive on C02. Sadly we, and a lot of other things, don’t. So that’d have to be some greenhouse!

    Thanks for commenting, everyone,
    Steve

17. # Steve N. Leeon 05 Oct 2008 at 1:54 pm

    That’s a strange comment, Kenebaby, if you don’t mind me saying - the last part kind of negates the first part. Yes, there are natural global warming causes we can do nothing about, but there are others we are in complete control of, so why should we make a situation worse when we could make it so much better?

    Another comment, Mythman? Personally, I don’t have a rickshaw, but hey, it takes all kinds. As for full stomachs and slaves? You either have a very odd sense of humour, are living a couple of centuries in the past, or have visited the wrong blog.

    Steve

18. # Rockon 05 Oct 2008 at 1:55 pm

    You have a wonderful philosphy and your a good writer. I have no websight or do I do much blogging. I believe in God the almighty, our saviour. In as much as your feed the world makes common sense and global warming is real despite the arguements abounding as to why. As I see the world today, maybe negatively but I believe realistically…. As we grow the good as the good book teaches, It seems the bad always is just a step beside us as Satan works to our detriment. The more people we make strong by food and enlightenment it seems the more corruption, greed and power hungry some become. The growth of terrorism follows and who needs that? The struggle for power grows as do the wars we have witnessed. I don’t have the answers, I wish I did. The answer is in Gods government for obnly he can do it right. I am by no means suggesting we should give up hope. I encourage your positive attitudes. I have come to the personal conclusion that we are living the end times and it will be as written in the good book. Until then, stay positive and never give up the good efforts. We are in for the ride of a lifetime. Then the promised land will be granted, after we learn that man is incapable of governing himself and Satan is finally disposed of. God bless our world now and forever.

19. # Shirleyon 05 Oct 2008 at 3:44 pm

    Steve,
    Wonderful idea that we can all participate in in some way! Fighting over the cause and blaming will get us nowhere but as we serve others out solution will come to us. Thanks for the blog post and sending me the message.

20. # Steve N. Leeon 05 Oct 2008 at 5:25 pm

    Thanks, Rock, I’m pleased you like my post and my writing style.

    Yes, there’s so much corruption in the world. And, yes, it does seem to be getting worse, as I’ve spoken about before. No sooner has a natural disaster in some area seen worldwide donations come flooding in to help than there are scum there milking the situation for all they can while good people get no aid and suffer.

    But there’s corruption in most parts of our lives these days, and at all levels. If people could acknowledge this fact we might be able to do something about it but so many simply can’t see it.

    I hope you’re wrong about the events of the Book of Revelation being close, but then one of the signs is an economic meltdown, isn’t it?

    Thanks for commenting.

    Shirley, I’m glad you like the idea. Yes, you’re right - fighting and blaming will get us nowhere. We need to act. How many millions have to die before we get off our butts and stop it?

    Thanks for dropping in.

    Hope your weekend is going well,
    Steve

21. # Heidi M.on 06 Oct 2008 at 4:26 pm

    You make great points here, as always, Steve. We need to educate the poor of the world to feed themselves. I believe that education is the key in most of the third world. Tribal/religious/philosophical warfare has left so many in the stark poverty of the refugee camps, living in fear and with little hope. I believe that if you asked them, most of them would want to make their own way and support their own families. Taking hand-outs demoralizes them. So feed the mind and the body.

    The US does need to reduce consumerism. We throw away more than the people in the Third World even see in their lifetimes. We need to learn to live with less. I know I live with less than most of the people I know, and I guess that by US standards, I live in poverty. But I know that there are those MUCH worse off than I am.

    Someone in here (my apologies for not remembering your name) mentioned “isn’t carbon good for plants”…….. If we didn’t spend so much time deforesting our planet, the CO2 emissions would be less of a problem. I’m not saying that they wouldn’t be a problem, but I think the situation would not be accelerated as it is. Over the last century the Western World has mass consumption on the increase, and deforestation on the increase. A dangerous combination.

    As for the oil companies………………. don’t even get me started on those fat cats. Anyone out there seen the movie “The Water Engine”?

22. # Steve N. Leeon 07 Oct 2008 at 8:58 am

    Yes, it’s that old ‘give a fish, teach to fish’ argument, isn’t it, Heidi?

    I know all about living below the ‘perceived’ poverty line. Believe me, few of us in the West know anything of poverty. And that’s probably why we let 3,000,000,000 people languish in it. We think poverty is not having the latest iPod, not being able to go on vacation this year, not eating out as often as we’d like… Is that the true definition of poverty?

    I’ve written about consumption before - see my Obesity post - but I’ve already another post planned on it. The problem is I have so many posts ‘planned’ that some never see the light of day! Well, they will eventually.

    Thanks for making some great points, Heidi,
    Steve

23. # Todd Hellskitchenon 13 Oct 2008 at 7:52 pm

    Nice post.

24. # Steve N. Leeon 14 Oct 2008 at 9:33 am

    Thanks, Todd. Glad you enjoyed it.

    Steve

25. # Michaelon 21 Oct 2008 at 4:07 pm

    Well Steve, I frequent this site a lot, yet this is my first comment. I am very impressed with every article I have read here, but I guess you could say I am in a short of words whenever I read such posts; my mind has opened up to new ideas and new ways of thinking. I like your commen sense approach and I just wanted to commend you and your work. Thank you.

26. # Steve N. Leeon 21 Oct 2008 at 4:32 pm

    That really is so very kind of you, Michael.

    Believe me, it’s truly heartwarming to hear, not just because it means I’ve written good posts, but because that is exactly the experience I am aiming for my readers to have. I don’t like writing purely factual posts, or posts that list ‘10 ways to beat global warming’, etc, as you’ll have gathered. What I do like to do is present information in way that a reader may never have considered it before, so forceing him to question the way things are and the way things could be.

    Actually, it’s a style of writing I developed for my book ‘What if…?’ - one of the characters regularly makes observations about the world, seeming to be talking about one thing but then a subtle twist reveals a startling reality check or a possible solution to a problem.

    I wasn’t sure this style would cross-over into short blog posts, but, most of the time at least, I seem to achieve roughly what I set out to do - simply make people think. So, when I get a comment like yours, it really does mean a lot as I can see all that hard work really is worth it.

    As for common sense? I really can’t believe that we make problems and the world so incredibly complicated when in reality many, many things could be so very simple.

    Thank you, Michael. I hope you continue to find my posts interesting.
    Steve

27. # greg vanderlaanon 03 Nov 2008 at 6:38 am

    It is cooler in the shade… parasols in space could cause shade…

    we need millions of space mirrors… place them between the earth and sun, reflect the heat away from the earth… each one could be a mirrored mylar baloon about 20 feet in diameter filled with a cup of water… in the vacuum of space the water would boil (due to the heat of the sun) and expand to cause the balloon to become a sphere…

28. # Steve N. Leeon 03 Nov 2008 at 12:01 pm

    That’s an interesting concept, Greg. I’m not sure how practical it is, though. Wouldn’t it simply be easier to show a little discipline and stop wasting so many of our resources, and cut global warming that way?

    Also, if the balloon becomes a sphere, what happens to its reflective properties? Mirrors need to be flat.

    Thanks for contributing to the discussion,
    Steve

29. # Greydeeron 03 Nov 2008 at 6:10 pm

    Hi Steve. Just read this blog for the first time, and have a couple of things to say.

    Firstly, keep up the good work - I do think poverty and particularly food poverty are way too far from the top of the agenda these days.

    Secondly, I think you glossed over the comment on eating lower down the food chain without paying it enough attention. The main reason why this is a good idea is that we currently devote way too much of our resources - land, water etc - to producing meat. If less livestock was reared, there would be more agricultural land available to produce food directly for human consumption, making it easier to feed the world - not to mention the lessening of the greenhouse effect of ‘cow farts’!

    Finally, re the comments about it taking a long time to make the change, and not knowing when this will happen, there are many traditions in which the date of 21 December 2012 or thereabouts is given as the tipping point, at which time the choice will be made as to whether Earth/humanity slips into chaos or rises into evolution to higher consciousness. There’s so much out there about this, if you google 2012, you’ll find a whole raft of information on it. Everything we can do to help tip that balance in the right direction is worthwhile. If it’s true, we have only 4 years to make a difference! Focusing on what we want the world to be like (and not how we see it at the moment), and ‘being the change we want to see’ are two very important ways in which we can contribute to this. I get the impression that most of the people who visit this site are interested in helping to achieve this change, so the more the merrier, and never think you can’t do anything to change the world!

30. # Steve N. Leeon 03 Nov 2008 at 8:59 pm

    Thanks for your thoughts, Greydeer. Don’t worry, if I appeared to gloss over the remark about food it is only because I have a whole post planned devoted solely to that subject.

    No, I don’t know anything about this 2012 thing, I’m afraid (short of London getting the Olympics in that year which is going to cost the taxpayer an absolute fortune, but then who cares about that?!). My time is so stretched these days that I rarely have time to simply surf the web without some work-oriented goal, but I’ll certainly Google it and see what turns up.

    Tipping points? With all the things that go on in the world and yet don’t act as a tipping point, it’s hard to imagine what needs to happen to change anything. Not that I think change won’t happen - if I did, I wouldn’t waste my time writing this blog - but it would be nice to think it was going to be some time sooner rather than later.

    I’m pleased you are enjoy my posts. And don’t worry, I will be keeping up the good work! Thanks for stopping by,
    Steve

31. # elizabeth shipleyon 09 Nov 2008 at 2:22 pm

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32. # Debal Debon 14 Nov 2008 at 1:34 pm

    Hi Steve, Wonderful reading, and thought-provoking too, especially for those happy-go-lucky ones who think that “business as usual” technology will eventually fix all environmental and social problems.

    What you have sggested a solution to an extremely complex political and social problem - one of social injustice of resource distribution. Indeed, if the distributional inequity is removed, social and corresponding inequities should also become mitigated. However, there are two great fallacies in your suggestion.

    First, you assume that IF everyone get sufficient foods (which presupposes food is eveny and equitably distributed all over the world), people would come up with more creative technologies to solve existing problems. This total faith in the “technological fixes” to social and political problems is a non sequitur. It begs the question: Why are the millions of well-fed people in the North (and parts of the South) innovative enough to influence their governments to solve the problem of inequitable distribution? Why cannot they “invent” some technology that distributes the excess production evenly, rather than stifling it with subsidies? (Please recall the enormous subsidies given to the US farmers to NOT produce on their farms; also the enormous subsidies to US food export to, but prohihibitive taxes on import from, the South). Until that happens, food distribution will never be equitable, so hungry people will persist in the world - even in the USA, and Europe - despite any rates of GNP growth. Also please recall that even if technological inventions and interventions happen to boost national food grain production, pockets of endemic famine persist in countries like India, Paraguay and Sierra Leone.

    Second, Your assumption of the importance of food has already been shared by the multinational biotech corporations like Monsanto, who claim that genetically modified (GM) foods are the solution to food security. So they sell more GM crops, pump in more of their propreitary agrochemicals (especially herbicides) to grow the same crops, and inject more toxins into air, water and soil. Agrochemical industry, following the same logic, produce more chemicals, and create more hybrid seeds designed to grow on these chemicals, and their factories spew more toxic chemicals in the environemnt in the process. And the world gets warmer and warmer!

    Currently the debate in the South is whether to grow biofuel crops (another technological innovation!) at the expense of food crops, and sell the fuel to the North to buy foods. So more people are designed to go hungry.

    I suppose your blog is a good starter. But the solution to global warming requires a more holistic political thinking and action. The current industrial hegemony ought to be overthrown in order to imagine a new hunger-free world order. Deb

33. # Vladion 16 Nov 2008 at 9:55 pm

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34. # Paul von Hartmannon 21 Nov 2008 at 5:02 pm

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35. # Steve N. Leeon 29 Nov 2008 at 12:18 pm

    If I found a blog on cookery and a post on cooking the perfect pot roast, and I commented - The characters in my book ‘What if…?’ eat food. It’s a suspense thriller set in the US and apart from having some really exciting car chases, shoot outs and plot twists, it has a wonderful exploration of humanitarian and environmental issues. It’s great. You should buy it. Here’s the link…

    It’s clearly an advert with the most tenuous of links to the subject of the post.

    There has been a spate of advertising on my blog through inappropriate comments with very tenuous links to the subject of this post. I will not allow this.

    If people want to make a decent comment and actually talk about the subject at hand, then add a brief remark and even a link to something related that’s fine. Merely saying, ‘Hi Steve, Good post.’ then launching into your promotion is not a proper comment and those concerned know it.

    This is partly my fault - I turned a blind eye to one such comment as it was quite subtle - that inspired two other people to think my blog was an excellent promotional tool for their purposes and posted with less and less subtlety.

    Commenters who abuse this blog in that way a second time will be banned.

    I may agree with your cause or think your product excellent, but I will not allow you to use my blog as a billboard!

    Steve

36. # Steve N. Leeon 29 Nov 2008 at 12:32 pm

    Hi Deb,

    I didn’t mean to suggest that our only hope for salvation was in technology. Being restricted to how much I can cram into a single post, my regular readers will know that my posts often discuss humanity evolving as a cultural being, not just as a technological one. If everyone was fed, clothed, sheltered, etc, it would mean there had already been a major shift in our communal worldview, which would imply we’d learned enough that technology would not be our only choice for a solution.

    Yes, you’re right about the problems or corporations - the greed and pollution they spread. But isn’t it true that there’s enough food produced in the world to feed everyone? Okay, it’s not evenly distributed - yet - but we don’t need to increase pollution/genetic modification to feed people, just learn to share.

    My whole blog is about a holistic approach to… well, every single thing on the planet, really.

    And all it would take is a simple change in mind set. We change our minds constantly, every single day of our lives - would one more change be so great?

    Thanks for stopping by and posting a well thought-out comment, Deb.
    Steve

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