Sunday, July 01, 2012
Anti-Darwin at its best
The theoretical structure of orthodox Darwinism has lots of problems, but plain old natural selection is absolutely real and a crucial part of the larger feedback loops in the biosphere. As usual, the people who claim to be Darwinists end up whoring after fashionable 'biodiversity' shit and lose the basic point of the loop.
Nice example here.
So far so good. A rarely expressed understanding of the plain fact that current CO2 levels are a return to typical, not an unprecedented jump into disaster. Plants evolved with a much better food supply than they've had in the last few millenia.
Rational response should be: Let Nature run the loop. Let the plants adapt. Get out of the way of reforestation. Stop biofuels completely. Help African farmers to operate in a more effective and organized way, with GMO seeds, simple machines, and long-term storage, so they won't have to clearcut the forest to grow one year of high-priced corn on infertile soil. In short, do for African farmers what the New Deal did for American farmers.
But no. Rationality is unavailable to a Biodiversity Researcher. He needs to stop Nature in its tracks and break the loop:
Always trust the experts to find the stupidest and most destructive answer. ¶ 7:34 AM
Nice example here.
Experimental studies have generally shown that plants do not show a large response to CO2 fertilization. “However, most of these studies were conducted in northern ecosystems or on commercially important species” explains Steven Higgins, lead author of the study from the Biodiversity and Climate Reseatch Centre at Goethe-University. “In fact, only one experimental study has investigated how savanna plants will respond to changing CO2 concentrations and this study showed that savanna trees were essentially CO2 starved under pre-industrial CO2 concentrations, and that their growth really starts taking off at the CO2 concentrations we are currently experiencing.“
So far so good. A rarely expressed understanding of the plain fact that current CO2 levels are a return to typical, not an unprecedented jump into disaster. Plants evolved with a much better food supply than they've had in the last few millenia.
Rational response should be: Let Nature run the loop. Let the plants adapt. Get out of the way of reforestation. Stop biofuels completely. Help African farmers to operate in a more effective and organized way, with GMO seeds, simple machines, and long-term storage, so they won't have to clearcut the forest to grow one year of high-priced corn on infertile soil. In short, do for African farmers what the New Deal did for American farmers.
But no. Rationality is unavailable to a Biodiversity Researcher. He needs to stop Nature in its tracks and break the loop:
A worrying implication is that the grasslands and open savannas of Africa, areas with unique floras and faunas, are set to be replaced by closed savannas or forests. Hence it appears that atmospheric change represents a major threat to systems that are already threatened by over-grazing, plantation forestry and crop production.
Always trust the experts to find the stupidest and most destructive answer. ¶ 7:34 AM
