So Castro is an expert on Biofuels now? What are you going to link to next, Kim Jong Il's musings on String Theory?

The only thing more pathetic than an aging, dying Stalinist are the dwindling numbers of people who still consider him relevant.

I would encourage people to read Castro's thoughtful remarks. Although he mentions bees, it's sort of an after-thought in this particular speech. But he does make excellent points about our newfound enthusiasm for ethanol, the impossibility of growing enough crops for ethanol production, how rising demand for food crops to make ethanol raises food prices for everyone, and other good points.

Well, ethanol is a different topic from this thread. Castro's comments about bees in this speech is rather brief.

Comrade-Primo Castro, and in all honesty pretty much everyone else, fails to grasp that ethanol engines will burn methanol just as easily, and paper and saw mill wastes can be used to feed microbes that will produce more methanol per pound than can be dreamed of with an equal quantity of sugar.

Can we apply those microbes to our daily garbage? So much waste.

Yes, it appears that superweeds may currently be in 'production'... inadvertently.

An article by Tom Clarke in the British magazine, Nature, says the problem is apparently cropping up with the wild relatives (weeds) of the GM crops. The pollen of one of the GM crops, yellow-flowered oilseed rape (Brassica napus) seems to have gotten into the atmosphere and pollinated a few wild relatives, bargeman's cabbage (Brassica rapa) in England, a place that has never allowed GM crops.

From the article:
"Opponents of transgenic crops in Britain and much of Europe fear that genes for herbicide tolerance or insect resistance in yet-to-be-introduced strains might spread in pollen to form invincible weeds... How human-inserted genes move, and whether they persist in the environment, are the ultimate questions... It is a single piece in a very large jigsaw..."

The problem is that GM crops were planted, forced onto other countries, and put into commercial use without any information WHATSOEVER as to their consequences.

Wouldn't it be amusing to discover that our ignorant scientists and politician have engineered the eventual end of mankind?

How do you prepare for THAT?

The problem with the geneticists and their approach is that they have a very simple view of the world. Many of the geneticists who are effectively randomly (although they would state otherwise) replacing genes in living organisms believe in evolutionary biology. They regard a gene as a component which can be manipulated so that the gene can be transplanted from one organism to another so as to give a desirable profitable attribute. They believe that because a gene or set of genes in the first organism provided a useful attribute, they can transfer these attributes into another organism. They then believe that the have created a new useful organism which suits their companies profit and loss sheet and have also generated intellectual property, which can then be protected under corporate law. They do not believe that there are any consequences in the very complex biological interactions which occur within the biosphere because of this genetic modification or transfer.

What the geneticists and evolutionary biologists do not want to comprehend is Professor James Lovelock's theory called the Gaia hypothesis. This hypothesis basically states that the planet we all inhabit is essentially one large organism which is self regulating and is therefore in a state called homeostasis. The evolutionary biologists do not like (radically oppose) this hypothesis because a fundamental principle of the Gaia hypothisis states that an organism or group of organisms can change its environment to suit their own genetic propagation - this is fundamentally opposed to the principles behind their believes of the laws of natural selection whereby the organisms propagation of genetic material is dictated by the environment. They think that by controlling the environment in which the new organism exists they can control the genetic propagation of the organism.

By forcing a change in any organisms genetics, through the process of transgenics, goes directly against the fundamental principle of the natural laws which regulate the Gaia. The 'collective intelligence' of the Gaia may respond to the new genetics within the organism in ways which are unpredictable and consequential to the other plant, animal and human species. The consequences are unknown and could potentially be so profound that the Gaia may be forced into a different homeostasis set point.

Bee Colony Collapse Disorder may be a consequential process of GM release.

*nods* Paper and wood waste, they feed on cellulose. The left over fibers can then be dried and used for wood pellet-type heating systems at any scale or recycled further.

Bentirran,

Um, so what you/Lovelock are saying is Mother Gaia is purposely wiping out innocent bees (and every plant/animal depending on them!) in an attempt to kill mankind?

Sounds like several women I know...


-Blast

I could have been criminal mastermind but no, I wanted to use my gifts to help people. And this is the sort of thanks I get?

That's it. Time for the sharks with frikkin' laser beams attached to their heads!

-Blast, a scientist who now realizes all his sacrifices have been wasted.

Sounds more like "for every action there is an equal and opposite reaction". I don't know about this Gaia stuff, but when an equilibrium is upset, there are consequences.

You break it, you own it.