From: Eliezer S. Yudkowsky (sentience@pobox.com)
Date: Tue May 09 2000 - 09:14:41 MDT
Charlie wrote:
>
> On Tue, May 09, 2000 at 02:48:55PM +1000, Damien Broderick wrote:
> > SOURCE: 'The Mail on Sunday' May 7 2000:
> >
> > Dr Patrick Moore, the academic and renowned ecologist, was
> > a founder member of Greenpeace, and later became its
> > president.
>
> Firstly, the Mail on Sunday is the Sunday edition of the Daily Mail,
> probably the most right-wing (in a reactionary sense -- they're not
> exactly libertarian!) newspaper in the UK.
>
> Secondly, Patrick Moore, although a great media personality (and
> presenter of one of the world's longest-running weekly TV shows, "The
> Sky at Night", on BBC TV) is noted for being somewhat on the barking mad
> fringe, politically.
Well, I see several major claims in the document:
1) Patrick Moore exists, is a doctor, is a veteran of environmental
battles, was a founding member and former president of Greenpeace, and
now no longer likes them.
2) Greenpeace, until the mid-eighties, was based on scientific principles.
3) During the mid-eighties, Greenpeace was taken over by a bunch of
evil radical extremists with no respect for science.
4) "You could burn every forest in the world, never mind the Amazon,
and it would have an insignificant impact on oxygen levels in the atmosphere."
5) Statistics on deforestation are absurdly inflated by counting areas
that are harvested and reforested each year.
I'll probably believe (1) and (5) unless someone tells me otherwise.
I'm not sure about (2), since I recall that this war was being fought as
far back as _A Step Farther Out_. (3) strikes me as an interpretation
that may have been influenced by human political bias. (4) is possible,
and would be wonderful if it were true, but I'd want to see the numbers.
--
sentience@pobox.com Eliezer S. Yudkowsky
http://pobox.com/~sentience/beyond.html
Member, Extropy Institute
Senior Associate, Foresight Institute
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