Day By Day

Tuesday, July 03, 2007

More Transhumanist Idiocy


Here's the latest from the transhumanist perspective -- humans are greedily using too much of the sun's output.

The Sydney Morning Herald reports:

HUMANS are just one of the millions of species on Earth, but we use up almost a quarter of the sun's energy captured by plants - the most of any species.

The human dominance of this natural resource is affecting other species, reducing the amount of energy available to them by almost 10 per cent, scientists report.

Researchers said the findings showed humans were using "a remarkable share" of the earth's plant productivity "to meet the needs and wants of one species".

To which I respond, "So what?" The observation might be accurate, but unless we assert the moral equivalence of all species and posit a natural "right" of each species to an equal share of the energy issuing from the sun, it is meaningless.

This, however is interesting.
They [the scientists] also warned that the increased use of biofuels - such as ethanol and canola - should be viewed cautiously, given the potential for further pressure on ecosystems.
I suspect that they, however, would not countenance the continued use of fossil fuels.

And this from my nominee for "Twisted Twit of the Month".

An agriculture professor at the University of Melbourne, Snow Barlow, said the paper showed humans were taking up too much of an important natural resource.

"Here we are, just one species on the earth, and we're grabbing a quarter of the renewable resources … we're probably being a bit greedy."

Read it here.