The mongoose was introduced to Hawaii in order to control the rats (which were eating the sugar cane used to make rum). It didn't work out very well - mongeese are daylight-loving creatures while rats are nocturnal - and the mongeese trashed the native species in Hawaii.
Likewise, the U.S. government has subsidized ethanol production for years. But the Congressional Budget Office says this week that increased ethanol use is responsible for about 10 to 15 percent of the rise in food prices from 2007 to 2008, and only reduced greenhouse gas emissions from the transportation sector by less than 1 percent.
Given that implementing "solutions" without fully understanding the consequences often cause more harm than good, Obama 's consideration of geoengineering the planet to fight global warming should be subjected to rigorous debate to make sure that it will actually be a good thing.
Friday, April 10, 2009
The Law of Unintended Consequences
2 comments:
→ Thank you for contributing to the conversation by commenting. We try to read all of the comments (but don't always have the time).
→ If you write a long comment, please use paragraph breaks. Otherwise, no one will read it. Many people still won't read it, so shorter is usually better (but it's your choice).
→ The following types of comments will be deleted if we happen to see them:
-- Comments that criticize any class of people as a whole, especially when based on an attribute they don't have control over
-- Comments that explicitly call for violence
→ Because we do not read all of the comments, I am not responsible for any unlawful or distasteful comments.
"...subjected to rigorous debate..."
ReplyDeleteI cannot remember when that occured on anything that was brought forth before our government...
It seems to me that they have been geoengineering the planet with chemtrails for years . . . the language used with Obama's idea is practically identical with the CFR's (surprise, surprise).
ReplyDelete