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Confessions of a Greenpeace Dropout: The Making of a Sensible Environmentalist
The document discusses perspectives on environmentalism, advocating for sustainable practices such as growing more trees and utilizing wood as a renewable resource. It also emphasizes the importance of nuclear and hydroelectric power as key energy sources while highlighting the benefits of genetically modified organisms like golden rice in combating vitamin A deficiency. Additionally, it critiques environmental extremism and promotes a balanced approach to climate change and environmental issues.
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Confessions of a Greenpeace Dropout: The Making of a Sensible Environmentalist
- 1. Confessions of aGreenpeace Dropout The Making of a Sensible Environmentalist Minneapolis - November 5, 2013 Patrick Moore, Ph.D.
- 2. Allow Golden RiceNow Agri-Growth Council Minneapolis - November 5, 2013
- 22. Environmental Extremism •AntiHuman •Anti-Science and Technology •Anti-Tradeand AntiGlobalization •Anti-Business and AntiCapitalism Anti•Just Plain Civilization
- 24. Wood is themost important renewable energy source and the most important renewable material resource
- 25. We should begrowing more trees and using more wood. Many activists argue that we should cut fewer trees and use less wood.
- 26. Trees grow ina factory called the forest, by renewable solar energy
- 27. Steel, concrete, andother non-renewable materials are made in real factories with huge inputs of energy, mainly fossil fuels. TREES ARE THE ANSWER WOOD is GOOD www.greenspirit.com
- 28. “In the longterm, a sustainable forest management strategy aimed at maintaining or increasing forest carbon stocks, while producing an annual sustained yield of timber, fibre, or energy from the forest, will generate the largest sustained mitigation benefit.” (38 words) Intergovernmental Panel on Climate Change - 4th Assessment Report, 2007 The Intergovernmental Panel on Climate Change, the foremost peer-reviewed experts on climate change, says the easiest and cheapest way to fight climate change is to "leave trees standing and protect its biodiversity." Stephanie Goodman, Greenpeace, Vancouver Sun, Feb. 2011 Grow More Trees - Use More Wood (6 words) Patrick Moore - Repeatedly 29
- 29. Sustainable Salmon Aquaculture- British Columbia, Nova Scotia, Washington State, Maine, Norway, Chile, Scotland, New Zealand, Australia.
- 32. “I would neverfeed a child farmed salmon. It’s poison” David Suzuki Toronto Star, September 15, 2004
- 33. There are manyopinions about climate change There is no convincing scientific evidence that human release of carbon dioxide will, in the foreseeable future, cause catastrophic heating of the Earth's atmosphereobserved increasethe Most of the and disruption of in Earth'saverage temperatures since global climate. Global Warming Petition Project – the mid-20th century is very likely Opposed toobserved increase31,000 due to the Kyoto – Signed by in Scientists and Professionals. anthropogenic GHG concentrations. “I am Nations Intergovernmental Unitedcertain there is too much
- 34. CO2 Levels inthe Global Atmosphere
- 35. 22C 17C Text Text 14.5C 12C A Billion Yearsof Global Climate Change
- 36. CO2 LEVELS HAVEFLUCTUATED GR
- 37. 1998 warmest year todate What happened here? Why did it get warmer here?
- 38. Ocean Temperature isnot Increasing
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- 41. This is thesum total of our knowledge of the extent of sea ice in the northern and southern Source: Polar Research hemispheres. Group - University of Illinois http://arctic.atmos.uiuc.edu/cryosphere/
- 42. Good thing weweren’t around 10,000 years ago
- 43. Tropical Cyclone Energyis Not Increasing "There is medium evidence and high agreement that long-term trends in normalized losses (from extreme weather events) have not been attributed to natural or anthropogenic climate change" IPCC - Special Report on Extremes, March 2012
- 45. Hydro supplies 20%of global electricity production. It is the most important and cost-effective source of renewable electricity
- 46. Three Gorges HydroelectricDam - Yangtze River, China 22,500 Megawatts = 40 Coal-Fired Power Plants
- 47. China, Canada andBrazil Lead in Hydroelectric Generation
- 48. Greenpeace’s Fossil FuelDilemma Greenpeace says: "This ship is driven by super-efficient electric motors and sails that set a standard for sustainable shipping. It will be powered by the http://www.greenpeace.org/international/en/news/Blogs/makingwaves/c now-rainbow-warrior-in-action/blog/37537/
- 49. Nuclear energy willbe the most important source of electricity in the future. There is fuel for thousands of years.
- 50. 21 countries produce 15%or more of their electricity from nuclear energy.
- 51. Used Nuclear Fuelis one of Our Most important Future Energy Resources 52
- 52. Nuclear and hydroelectricenergy are the only nongreenhouse gas-emitting energy sources that can effectively replace fossil fuels and satisfy global demand Electricity Hydrogen Desalinization Heating
- 53. Heavy Oil Upgrader- Suncor
- 54. Oil Sands Mining- Canada
- 55. Coal Mining -USA CO² Emissions from Burning US Coal Production are About 15 Times Higher than from Burning Canadian Oil Sands Production
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- 57. Reclaimed Tailings Pondat Suncor Oil Sands Project
- 58. Bison Managed byFort McKay First Nation on Reclaimed Tailings Pond at Oil Sands Project
- 59. Reforested Area Reclaimedfrom Active Mining Operations
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- 62. Organizations That SayGM Food is Safe The American Medical Association The American Assn for the Advancement of Science The World Health Organization The National Academy of Sciences The Royal Society of Medicine (UK) The European Commission The American Council on Science and Health The Academy of Nutrition and Dietetics The American Society for Cell Biology The American Society for Microbiology The American Society of Plant Sciences The International Seed Foundation The International Society of African Scientists The Federation of Animal Science Societies The Society of Toxicology The French Academy of Science The Union of German Academies The International Council for Science and many more
- 63. The Main BiotechCrops Grown Today are Corn, Soybeans, Cotton, Canola, and Papaya. Many others are in development.
- 64. Since 2002, whenGM corn was introduced in the Philippines, farmers income has increased by $155 million per year, and pesticide use has declined more than 50%. A farmer with Bt corn in the Philippines – Greenpeace warned of “dying children and cancer clusters”.
- 65. Indian farmers forcedthe government to legalize Bt cotton Since 2002 when GM cotton was introduced in India, production has more than doubled. India was a cotton-importing country. Today India exports 20% of its production. 70 million people are employed in cotton farming.
- 66. A good illustrationof the effectiveness of GM technology. The potato plants on the right have been modified to resist the Colorado potato beetle. Those on the left have not been modified. It is easy to see why farmers grow GM crops.
- 67. Vitamin A Deficiencyin Preschool-Age Children
- 68. 250 million preschool childrenare vitamin A deficient. World Health Organization More than 2 million people die from diseases related to vitamin A deficiency every year. Golden Rice Project Photo taken in India: December 2012 by Prof Ingo Potrykus
- 69. Right to left:Prof. Peter Beyer, and Dr. Ingo Potrykus, the coinventors of Golden Rice. Dr. and Ms. Datta helped in the lab during the nine years of discovery. Their work may one day end nutrient deficiency for hundreds of millions of people.
- 70. Golden Rice hasthe potential to eliminate Vitamin A deficiency in developing countries, saving 250,000 - 500,000 children from blindness and death every year due to vitamin A deficiency.
- 71. The only differencebetween conventional rice and Golden Rice is that Golden Rice contains the essential nutrient beta carotene.
- 72. Under the agreementreached among patent holders and the Golden Rice Project, any farmer in a developing country earning less than $10,000 a year will not pay a license fee for Golden Rice and will be able to save and replant the seed.
- 73. Organizations Involved Withthe Development of Golden Rice The Golden Rice Humanitarian Board The International Rice Research Institute The Rockefeller Foundation Syngenta Foundation Bill and Melinda Gates Foundation Philippine Rice Research institute Bangladesh Rice Research Institute Helen Keller International Biosafety Resources Network Biotechnology Institute of the Philippines Seed Stories United States Agency for International Development (USAID) US National Institutes of Health
- 74. A Golden RiceField Trial at the Philippine Rice Research Institute 21
- 75. Urban activists, supportedby Greenpeace (these are not farmers) destroying research crops in the Philippines in August 2013. Filipino 22 farmers don’t have tattoos, video cameras, or dyed hair.
- 76. Greenpeace anti-GMO ActivistsClaiming that Golden Rice is Deadly The ultimate disinformation and ignorance
- 77. Greenpeace claims thatthere has not been enough testing on GM foods, including Golden Rice. Yet when scientists conduct field tests and clinical nutrition tests, Greenpeace destroys the field tests and trashes the scientists who do the nutritional tests. Does Greenpeace really believe that “possible unforeseen circumstances” are worse that 500,000 children going blind every year?
- 78. 40 grams ofGolden Rice a day is all that is needed to prevent blindness and death
- 79.
- 80. Summary- A SensibleEnvironmentalist Would: 1. Grow more trees and use more wood 2. Choose hydroelectric power where it is available. nuclear energy over coal for electricity 3. Choose production. 4. Use geothermal heat pumps in most buildings. cost-effective technologies that require less fossil 5. Develop fuels. 6. Use genetic science to improve food and medicine. 7. Not ban useful chemicals unless there is evidence of harm. 8. Embrace aquaculture as a sustainable industry. 9. View climate change as natural and not catastrophic. 10. Recognize that poverty is the worst environmental problem. 11. Not kill or capture whales or dolphins anywhere, ever.
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