Here's a 'solution' we really don't need... 23 September 04

God, these Bozos will never learn. I mean what do they think the end result of unleashing a whole new gentic code on the world is going to be. Any fool who passed 9th grade biology class knows that genetics is the rsult of millions of years of trial and error and only codes that pass the test of time get passed on. Now they want to spring hundreds if not thousands of new codes onto the world. This is true madness! Who claims that all this is safe? The people who stand to make money on it I bet.

I’m sure you’re right to issue a warning on this genetic meddling. But I’d find it more convincing and useful if you’d couch the argument in more temperate terms. Why assume posters have any qualifications in biology? Better to help with a few references to easily digestible sources of information. I’ve read and struggled with Matt Ridley’s “Genome”. Is it a worthwhile read?

Douglas Coker

This is my first contribution and I am probably about to be rather controversial ….. It would be foolish indeed to dismiss any possible solution to the predicament we are rapidly falling into. Let’s face it – the chances of all 6 billion of us co-operating to reduce CO2 emmissions before the worst effects of GW are upon us are vanishingly small. Our use of oil is utterly fundamental to the way we currently live and the political wherewithall to change this is just not there. We who are aware of and accept the threat are a tiny minority of humankind; for the average Chinese person enjoying the newfound feedom of his first car and comfort of a centrally heated home, GW is simply a non-issue. And who are we to tell him that he can’t have these things that we have had for so long, even if he doesn’t realise that he may only get a short time to enjoy them. Climate change activists who adopt a ‘holier than thou’ attitude to technology, blame it for GW and preach that we should “give it all up because look where it’s got us”, are whistling in the wind. When push comes to shove declaring “I told you so” isn’t going to guarantee their survival. Humans are going to need all the ingenuity and imagination we can muster to get through this and if that means genetically engineered trees then so be it. I would add that much of what I think on the subject of climate change is informed by your admirable book – Rising Tide – in particular it’s emphasis on the lives of people around the world, struggling to continue their normal lives in the face of the changes around them. I just don’t share your optimism that disaster can be averted – at least not in the way you are suggesting.