A friend tells me that one of the biggest problems of our time is that we see everything in black and white, and have no respect for shades of gray. An example might be the ‘greens’ who in an attempt to ensure that New York City doesn’t sink beneath the Atlantic are working to instantly destroy life as we know it on our planet. The hysteria we see daily at meetings like the COP23 being held this week in the UAE, push a black and white agenda. You must do this ‘or else.’
Strangely, virtually none of the predictions made by COP conferences over the past 20 years have come to pass. In fact, in many cases exactly the opposite.
When I drive home from the office I pass a mural painted on the side of a strip center. Its shows a family of farmers, husband, wife, small child, holding up their hands to stop a freight train marked “GMO” plowing forth from an industrial mess of a city. The message: “stop genetically modified organisms.”
Not regulate, not consider, not ensure that all is OK, but full Stop. Black and white.
They don’t consider what genetically modified rice has done in preventing blindness in kids in southeast Asia, that genetically modified wheat enables farmers in sub-Saharan Africa to grow food for their families, what genetically modified vegetables here in the US allow us to grow crops without the use of pesticides and grow enough to feed most of the world. And more cheaply. The poor amongst us can purchase fruit and vegetables for up to 30% less that so called “organic” food.
But the artist who painted the mural on the strip center was living in a world of black and white. All or nothing.
I’m sure that GMO is one of the reasons that the percentage of people on the planet living in starvation has reduced from 90% to 20 % in the past century, even though the number of people on earth has increased what, 10 fold.
These are just a few examples of how black and white thinking stops most progress. We don’t need to shut everything down, just take some time, consider all the aspects, and then mix a nice happy medium, a nice shade of gray.
JVH
