Bald Eagles, Scotty, Monarch Butterflies, Bumblebees, Monsanto, and Bill Nye: The Sell-Out Guy?

[DonRocks]

Once a common sight in much of the continent, the bald eagle was severely affected in the mid-20th century by a variety of factors, among them the thinning of egg shells attributed to use of the pesticide DDT.

Bill Nye is changing his mind about GMOs after a visit to Monsanto.

[Thad]

1. What does GMO have to do with DDT?

2. I am no fan of Monsanto but GMO is the most misunderstood term in history. GMO is not bad. Being anti-GMO is as dumb as being anti-vaccines or denying global climate change.

[DonRocks]

1. What does GMO have to do with DDT?

2. I am no fan of Monsanto but GMO is the most misunderstood term in history. GMO is not bad. Being anti-GMO is as dumb as being anti-vaccines or denying global climate change.

Thanks for that information. I spent almost 25 years working with the Environmental Protection Agency, and had no idea that I was so ignorant.

MIT (Massachusetts Institute of Theology) on Roundup-Ready Crops, Developed in 1996

National Geographic on the 90% Monarch Decline since 1997

(Thad, I'm not posting this as website moderator; I'm posting this as just a regular old poster, so you're free to shoot me down as you see fit. I'm after the truth, whatever the truth happens to be.)

[johnb]

Thanks for that information. I spent almost 25 years working with the Environmental Protection Agency, and had no idea that I was so ignorant.

MIT (Massachusetts Institute of Theology) on Roundup-Ready Crops, Developed in 1996

National Geographic on the 90% Monarch Decline since 1997

(Thad, I'm not posting this as website moderator; I'm posting this as just a regular old poster, so you're free to shoot me down as you see fit. I'm after the truth, whatever the truth happens to be.)

Was the reference to the Massachusetts Institute of THEOLOGY a Freudian thing, or a deep sarcastic twist that I'm missing?

At great personal peril, I will once again foolishly wade into one of these discussions.

I read back through many if not most of the links above, and further links from them in turn.  Left me confused as to what Bill Nye's actual position on GMO's is or was, or for that matter what connection MIT or NG were claiming between GMO's and environmental degradation. even indirectly and certainly directly.  What is very clear to me is that what has been happening to the Monarchs is because their food supply has been greatly diminished.  It has been very popular to claim this in turn is due to Round-up and Monsanto.  This is grossly over simplistic.  A much better case can be made that (aside from Mexican wood-choppers) it's due to ethanol and Congressional policy, which has led to farmers planting corn from fence to fence everywhere, and eliminating milkweed in much of the Monarch's flyway in the process.  True they have used Round-up in so doing, but if there were no GMO's or Round-up they still would have done it, likely in ways that would have been more destructive to the environment than what actually did take place (much greater application of much nastier herbicides).  You just can't glibly blame everything bad on GMO's.

The science is still the science.  Nobody has found credible scientific evidence that GMO's are the great evil they are portrayed to be.  That's why so many credible scientific bodies have endorsed them.  Of course we don't and can't know what all the effects might ultimately be, but you can say that about anything new.  Progress and change IMO shouldn't and won't be stopped because of fears based on nothing more than feelings and guesses (and theology?) -- if that were how humans treated new technology, we'd all still be living on the farm and plowing behind mules, not sitting in front of computers posting on websites.

FWIW here are some time series data on the annual Monarch population.

[DonRocks]

"Exposure to Neonic Pesticides Results in Early Death for Honeybee Workers and Queens" on sciencedaily.com

[Ferhat Yalcin]

Monsanto; FUCK YOU! 

my regards,