ditchlily’s Recent Comments

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  energy and foreign policy

  From my own perspective, the wars in Iraq and Afghanistan are inextricably tied to how the US approaches climate change domestically - and Richardson has the necessary foreign policy experience to at least begin sorting out the mess abroad as well as at home. I'm in favor of him because from (what I know of) the candidates so far, he is the strongest in the energy/ foreign policy combination.

  But I too think he is probably doomed :) not necessarily because I have rational reasons for saying that; I'm just in an oh hell kind of phase at the moment. But I'm still sending him a little cash.On The boldest plan on the table posted 2 years, 5 months ago 25 Responses

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  taking off on that...

  I like the point that we all have food narratives that can get extreme, much like politics (and even religion) often can get in this day and age - "(Fill in the blank) is bad! It'll kill you/me/ put us in grave danger!" I agree that moderation in pretty much everything is key. Even sadly, probably in dark chocolate.

  Along those narrative lines, I was thinking about another scary one the other day - from the producer, versus the consumer side of the fence. And I guess that the point here is that on either side, narratives get keyed into economic and industrial structures, too.

  For example, who is to say that even more sustainable biofuels for ethanol (like those from cellulosic sources, such as switchgrass) won't get plugged into an existing industrial, mono-crop structure? What's to stop companies like Monsanto from engineering some super-switchgrass, patenting it, and trapping farmers into that limited production model? (Versus developing switchgrass or cellulosic sources in diversity and moderation, say.) Renewables have a lot of potential, but the existing narratives, or models, present a lot of challenges for implementation in a just and moderate manner.

  Sorry about the trip down conspiracy lane. But sometimes I worry.

  Lily
  ditch_lilyOn On the peculiar American habit of demonizing food posted 2 years, 6 months ago 22 Responses

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  evolution and environmentalism

  nice to see this... kansas, as many may know, has been a wee bit troubled in recent times over that evolution thing. These conflicts inpsired the Hall Center of the Humanities and the Biodiversity Institute of KU to collaborate in holding Difficult Dialogues lecture series. So far, we've heard from Kenneth Miller, Judge Jones, Os Guinness, and Richard Dawkins, with Eugenie Scott and Michael Behe to follow.

  And the speakers have all been interesting in their way - but this - this is GREAT. Looking forward to reading Prof. Wilson's latest book. Unfortunately, around here, to get folks on the stick re environmentalism, we are probably also going to have to sort out evolution, to some extent. At least get a sense of partnership going between religion and science.

  Sort of like sorting out a really problematic marriage between two people who refuse to consider divorce :) although yes, that analogy seriously breaks down.On E.O. Wilson chats about his new book on the intersection of science and religion posted 3 years, 1 month ago 5 Responses