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| Norman Borlaug father of the Green Revolution | |||
| (Thursday, 01 May 2008) Written by greeniac13 | |||
| I'm completely in awe of the impact that this man has had on the world. Who is Norman Borlaug? Only the man widely credited as the father of the Green Revolution! Borlaug was awarded the Nobel Peace Prize in 1970 in recognition of his contributions to world peace through increasing food supply. As quoted from Wikipedia's entry about him. I especially want to share the text from the subtopic titled Criticisms and his view of critics: "As Borlaug's name is nearly synonymous with the Green Revolution, over the decades environmentalists, nutritionists, progressives, and economists have mounted many criticisms of the Green Revolution. Throughout his years of research, Borlaug's programs often faced opposition by people who consider genetic crossbreeding to be unnatural or to have negative effects.[23] Borlaug's work has been criticized for bringing large-scale monoculture, input-intensive farming techniques to countries that had previously relied on subsistence farming[24]. These farming techniques reap large profits for US agribusiness and agrichemical corporations such as Monsanto and have been criticized for widening social inequality in the countries owing to uneven food distribution while forcing a capitalist agenda of US corporations onto countries that had undergone land reform.[25] There are also concerns about the long-term sustainability of farming practices encouraged by the Green Revolution in both the developed and developing world.[26]" "Other concerns of his critics and critics of biotechnology in general include: that the construction of roads in populated third-world areas could lead to the destruction of wilderness; the crossing of genetic barriers; the inability of crops to fulfill all nutritional requirements; the decreased biodiversity from planting a small number of varieties; the environmental and economic effects of inorganic fertilizer and pesticides; the amount of herbicide sprayed on fields of herbicide-resistant crops.[27]" "Borlaug has dismissed most claims of critics, but does take certain concerns seriously. He states that his work has been "a change in the right direction, but it has not transformed the world into a Utopia".[28] Of environmental lobbyists he has stated, "some of the environmental lobbyists of the Western nations are the salt of the earth, but many of them are elitists. They've never experienced the physical sensation of hunger. They do their lobbying from comfortable office suites in Washington or Brussels. If they lived just one month amid the misery of the developing world, as I have for fifty years, they'd be crying out for tractors and fertilizer and irrigation canals and be outraged that fashionable elitists back home were trying to deny them these things".[29]" http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Norman_Borlaug posted by Gina Forsyth |
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| Working to attract kids to Green | |||
| (Friday, 04 April 2008) Written by greeniac24 | |||
| More and more parents, educators, and environmentalists are looking at getting the Nation's youth directly involved in the green movement, but how are they looking to do so? Some parents are seeking out children/family focused green festivals and expositions, taking eco-vacations, seeking out outdoor programs that teach youth about nature and the environemnt by emphasizing experiencing the outdoors rather than just reading about it. Now it seems the government and some organizations are viewing the internet as a means to attracting youth to green, creating "green games" online such as those found at http://airnow.gov/index.cfm?action=aqikids_new.main, http://www.eere.energy.gov/kids/, and same goes in Canada: http://www.ecokids.ca/pub/index.cfm So, is it working? Are "green games" on the internet the solution? |
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| Green Video contest extended: Think Green Live Green Challenge | |||
| (Wednesday, 27 February 2008) Written by greeniac24 | |||
| In an effort to get the nation acting on earth-inspired ideas, JuntoVenture, a non-profit environmental organization, is hosting a multi-media challenge entitled “The Think Green, Live Green Challenge.” JuntoVenture created the interactive challenge to build a community of dialog about the challenges of eco-friendly living. Fun and simple questions about eco-friendly living have been posted on their website at www.juntoventure.org. Participants are encouraged to submit their responses using a digital homemade video to win exciting prizes. The video submission deadline has now been extended to Earth Day, April 22, 2008. QuantumShift TV is now hosting the video contest. Prizes include cutting-edge eco-gadgets and thousands of dollars worth of sustainable products. The top entries will also have an opportunity to be featured in an upcoming interactive video series produced by JuntoVenture. |
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