Global Warming

[hawklen]

*grins again* Dont forget the massive amounts of methane cattle let go into the atmosphere every year. More pollutants  than cars!

*whistles and walks away*

[lonnarin]

Things become political once money is involved.

If 0.00000001% of the world's population made a dollar every time somebody threw a candy wrapper on the ground, then littering would become a political debate.  Politicians would be bought out by this tiny multi-billionaire minority to uphold the right of the masses to litter, and top notch research teams would be hired to prove that the garbage was scattered all over the floor before we got here.

Oh the smoke and mirrors of politics.  This is why I prefer dry humor and fatalism.  No money to be made in being a smirking corpse.

[Skywatcher]

If mathematics is the language of science then theory is its poetry and engineering is like righting checks to pay the bills.

[scotcar]

Regarding bioengineered crops you need to understand the farming system.
In many crops, farmers buy need seeds every year.  Keeping seed (Brown bagging) may be up to 30% of the market, the rest is new seed from companies.

There are already seed breeders rights in many countries that means you have to pay a "technology fee" for using that variety.  The fee goes back to the plant breeding companies so they can invest in new varieties.

Believe it or not, farmers do not have to buy the seed.  In fact, unless you are giving them something extra (money, time or productivity) getting them to buy a product is very difficult.

Lasty, seedless/sterile varieities of plants already exist. Seedless grapes and watermellons, hybrid tomatoes and hybrid leeks all have a market/production advantage.  However farmers can't sell the seeds from these crops.

As research into food crops continue, meaning we identify oils, proteins and other nutritional factors that people want in their food, you will want the quality control provided by new seed each year to produce the foods you want.  Maybe not the best example, already McDonalds has high quality control on the potatoes it uses for frying (certain type, size and shape).  Australia has systems to identify specific protein profiles in wheat to suit specialty markets.  By knowing the grain quality of new seed you can meet these requirements.

If people say that you can't beat the big boys, here is one example were we did.  We took (non-GM) germplasm from Australia to the US and took nearly 90% of one part of the market.  Sure we added in a GM trait, but the germplasm was what did it for us.  Basically it was what the farmers wanted so they brought it.  Even though we are a big company our seeds business was not strongly funded.

Hrm...too rants in two days.   Not good.....

[AeonBlues]

I think everyone else has been trying pretty hard to avoid turning this discussion to political commentary. It really was not the point. It was a decent discussion while it lasted, though.

The issue of global warming is entirely a political issue.  The U.S produces more green house gases then any other country in the world, and flat out denies responsibility for how its actions affects the rest of the world.  When 2000 scientist form an organization called The Union of Concerned Scientists. When 196 world leaders get together and sign a treaty to reduces green house emissions, presumably because they believe that global warming it is a serious threat, but the U.S refuses...

Then the issue of global warming has by default crossed into the realm of a political issue.  To not analyze the politics behind U.S and trans national decision making is to ignore vitally important aspects of this discussion.

AeonBlues

[Laldiien]

The issue of global warming is entirely a political issue.  The U.S produces more green house gases then any other country in the world, and flat out denies responsibility for how its actions affects the rest of the world.  When 2000 scientist form an organization called The Union of Concerned Scientists. When 196 world leaders get together and sign a treaty to reduces green house emissions, presumably because they believe that global warming it is a serious threat, but the U.S refuses...

Then the issue of global warming has by default crossed into the realm of a political issue.  To not analyze the politics behind U.S and trans national decision making is to ignore vitally important aspects of this discussion.

AeonBlues

Then this discussion thread should be locked by a mod.  There is no point or purpose in bring real world politics to this forum.  It will only serve to agitate and annoy and quite frankly, this community is splintered enough without people adding more fuel to the fire.

We need to be building a place to relax and enjoy.

Edited:  Removed ", not playing this divisive game." from the last sentence.  Lacked clarity.

[Dorganath]

Sadly, I am now moved to agree.

It's clear that my previous warning went unheeded. There have been good points offered on both sides of this, and hopefully everyone who has read it will come away with something, perhaps something they had not previously considered.

Like most issues, this one bears no singular cause, no singular solution, and yet it is being used by everyone as a springboard for personal, commercial and political advantage.  All sides of the issue are guilty of this to some degree or the other.  Everyone's convinced that they're right and those who think differently are wrong.  Until people start actually working for real, meaningful change, there will be no change. It is a complex, dynamic thing that simply cannot be reduced to one factor, one government or one political philosophy.

So on that note, I am locking this thread with one final thought, that applies to more than just this one issue.

In discussing, debating or championing a cause or issue, don't let yourself get so close to it that you cannot see all parts that are important.