Comments on: Environmental heresies https://rose.geog.mcgill.ca/wordpress/?p=226 Thu, 28 Apr 2005 14:02:30 +0000 hourly 1 https://wordpress.org/?v=5.8.10 By: pete https://rose.geog.mcgill.ca/wordpress/?p=226&cpage=1#comment-517 Thu, 28 Apr 2005 14:02:30 +0000 /?p=226#comment-517 Although I disagree with the first point about population decline in ten years (the UN expects the peak to come much later than that), he is probably right with his other points. GM food will be widely adopted by nations that have little choice in their struggle to feed their populations. The environmental effects of GM foods will be what they will be, and will be the price people pay for not starving.

While I would like to live in the country, urban centers are more efficient in terms of transportation and energy requirements (when the dreaded urban sprawl is avoided), and if properly designed and planned, they need not be soul crushing. Now if we could learn to stop building our cities on our best agricultural land…

As for nuke power, the cultural bias against it in the West (except France) is pretty insurmountable right now. Given a few years of regular brown-outs, that may change, especially if new technologies can be sold as being safe (or at least safer). Woe to the grandkids if we start getting most of our power from fission, though. Even barring accidents (good luck), those plants will have to be de-commissioned after 40 or 50 years, and the material dealt with.

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