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["Kieran &/or Donna" <holycow@frontiernet.net>]



Fascinating comments.  The more the merrier.   Sorry to have misquoted you, Alan.  Definitely the world is full of shades of gray, to quote Mark.  The worst of it is we never know in advance what's going to prove safe or efficient.  Nature is complicated.  Look at the long term effects of any fad, like for example agriculture itself.  Who would ever have believed 200 years ago how many trees in North America would be gone now?  And yet my husband, flying over from Europe where he grew up, could not believe how many trees are left.  Ireland was deforested by the bloody British (I quote him) in an effort to destroy hiding places for the rebels.  And to build their navy to loot so many other countries. (The novel SEA OF POPPIES by Amitabh Ghosh is worth reading, write it on your Dec calendar page for the long winter nights.)   When Ireland joined the EU, they were supposed to bring up their forested area to the minimum required 1% forest.  Donna