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  • From: "sals3" <sals3@cox.net>
  • To: "permaculture" <permaculture@lists.ibiblio.org>
  • Subject: Re: [permaculture] Oil spill - solutions?
  • Date: Wed, 5 May 2010 22:09:35 -0700


----- Original Message ----- From: "Toby Hemenway" <toby@patternliteracy.com>
To: "permaculture" <permaculture@lists.ibiblio.org>
Sent: Wednesday, May 05, 2010 8:55 PM
Subject: Re: [permaculture] Oil spill - solutions?


On May 5, 2010, at 3:43 PM, jamesdavid Sneed wrote:

If a person says that the ends justifies the means, or if they say that gmo's may be acceptable, then they don't seem like a permaculturist.

Hmm. Doesn't sound like you really read anything I wrote. You've put words in my mouth that I never said. Stop it; please learn to read without projecting your fears onto me.

Can you entertain the idea that not every statement Monsanto makes is a lie? Yes, they are using those statements to justify doing stupid and destructive things, but that does not make them untrue. And if you are going to comment on the subject, you should learn something about it, like the difference between GE techniques and GMOs. I don't approve of GMO release; I never said I did. GE techniques, however, have been used to make cancer, blood disease, and arthritis medications that have saved or improved the lives of countless hundreds of thousands, and it's done without release of organisms. A number of my friends and family would be dead without them. If you can find one iota of ecological harm that's been done by the creation of those drugs, I'll gladly back right down.


what does curing cancer have to do with microbes that eat oil . anyway I'm glad we agree on the gmos release being bad. . sorry we misunderstood you . gmo microbes to help with oil spill that is what I see in the subject line so I can c how folks would think you were talking releasing gmos . you can't blame us for that. and do the gene jockeys lie and Monsanto and the Oil companies lie and deceive for money I would say yes. they are more powerful than governments and the blood shed for oil is still going on. and I think I seen them lie and I have seen them not be able to control what they release and not care. If someone wants to shot GMO in their blood and get rid of cancer and stop blood vessels from growing that is different than what we are talking about , oil in the gulf and solutions. I like your writings and am grateful for your wisdom so sorry I thought we were talking about GMO life forms eating oil and when the oil is gone what else do they eat . sure if I had cancer I may try these new drugs that stop the blood supply to the cancer. it may be better then radiation etc. but we are talking about oil in the gulf and how man has killed the gulf and the life in it for love of money and to stop the oil spill they may release something worse. I heard that the microbes that eat oil eat other things also. I'm talking about release of life forms not a shot in your blood stream that only effect you. but if you don't like GMOs like me good I glad because I know how influential you are . to me it just sounded like you were defending them with all that bs about what happen three billions years ago. hey every one is justified in their own mines eye. when I came on this earth monkeys were monkesy and are still monkeys and man is man and you can have all that evolutionary bs. I know what was here when I got here. to me they use that bs to justfy their wickness they use your arguments about how its just another way to breed crossing what ever with what ever. its wicked to me anyway sorry for the misunderstanding.even those that make the cancer stopping drugs are getting paid and =those with the money live and those without die what is it about 100000 a pill . they charge a lot for the life they are selling you. some only live a few weeks longer but in the end folks will give all their money and when the money runs out the treatment stops. hehe. plus I feel they probalby give us the cancer with their science . the subject was oil spills.that the subject not what someone says happen first three billion years of life. bs
.
Back to the subject: There was a great article about a year ago in the NY Review of Books by Freeman Dyson that pointed out that horizontal gene transfer--the transfer of genes between wildly different organisms--was the main source of evolutionary change for most of life's existence. There was no such thing as a species for the ; no real barriers to gene exchange. The evolution of sex and the species barrier is relatively recent, only in existence for a small percentage of life's tenure, and only for a relative few organisms. Dyson went on to speculate that the advent of easy, available genetic engineering kits--like chemistry sets for kids--would mean the end of the brief window of individual species. Horizontal gene transfer would again be the norm, but this time directed by humans. I found that last a pretty frightening thought, but I appreciated his pointing out that horizontal gene transfer is the rule, not the exception.

I just had the thought that maybe our fears of GMOs are similar to the largely groundless fears that the natives-only crowd have about exotic species: they'll take over; they'll ruin everything. Superweeds may be bad for farmers; who knows if they are harmful in any larger sense. I'm not sure that I'm ready to start thinking like that, but it's worth considering.

Toby
http://patternliteracy.com



On May 5, 2010, at 3:43 PM, jamesdavid Sneed wrote:


If a person says that the ends justifies the means, or if they say that gmo's may be acceptable, then they don't seem like a permaculturist. The refrain of "I am a geneticist" and that Nature does it anyways is straight out of testimonyby Monsanto I've heard countless times at hearings and in reviewing eis filings.
Are even permaculture gurus subject to losing their focus?

From: toby@patternliteracy.com
Date: Tue, 4 May 2010 19:07:37 -0700
To: permaculture@lists.ibiblio.org
Subject: Re: [permaculture] Oil spill - solutions?

As a former geneticist, I want to point out that nature transfers genes between species, between families, even between phyla and kingdoms. It was viruses that taught geneticists how to do it; viruses move genes between the most distantly related organisms with great frequency and ease, making the genetically engineered tomato with a fish gene look like child's play. Nature is far ahead of us in the breeding world, and is doing things we can barely dream of.

It makes no more sense to condemn genetic engineering itself than it does to condemn a hammer or a computer. It's a tool. A permaculturist doesn't rule out a tool simply because of its origin; if we did we wouldn't use hammers, computers, or anything else that's a product of an unsustainable culture. The techniques of genetic modification are not evil; it's the godawful stupid things they do with them that are the evil. If we can talk about using technical solutions like hair mats and mycelium to clean up oil spills (with all their pluses and minuses), then we ought to include GMO microbes that eat oil in the toolkit. None of them is going to solve the oil problem, but while we work on the technical level, we work on other levels too.

My sense is that activism, even Jensen's violent kind, isn't going to bring civilization down--and I like Derrick a lot, and I speak as an activist. The elites are much better at violence than anyone else. I think oil will just get too scarce, and the crash will solve a lot of those problems. I just hope it happens soon enough.

Toby
http://patternliteracy.com



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