Giving a kook a platform

By Pat Tigges

During the past few years I have been on several programs that also

included "green advocacy kooks". It is beyond my comprehension as to why ag

includes them on programs. When I have asked, the answers range from

"getting them to hear our side" to "opening a dialog", to "being fair".

Are we nuts? Giving them a platform, especially on a technical program,

gives them creditability. It also gives them press. Newspeople always run

the story on the controversy or the "different opinion".

Green groups don't want a dialog. They most certainly aren't interested in

"our side" and they don't care about the truth. Those things don't raise

money, and if they don't raise money they don't have a job! As for being

fair, no one ever said the world was fair. "Nice guys finish last!"

Pesticides are unnecessary

by Pat Tigges

Untrue! Pesticides, whether made by man or Mother Nature, or genetically

engineered into plants, will always be necessary. Organic gardening is chic

for the affluent but not a single study shows that its methods could

produce enough food for the world. If everyone in Washington planted an

organic garden we still couldn't feed the people in Seattle.

Children need to know the choices. All pesticides, including Mother

Nature's 'organic toxins', have small risks, but those tiny risks must be

compared with the enormous risks of not using them. Those devastating risks

would include using more land for food and less of wildlife, using more

water for less food, more soil opened to erosion, more air pollution, and

less food for export. The latter would assure plow down of the world's

remaining wildlands in developing countries as they struggle to feed

increasing populations. Students should also learn that natural toxins are

often more dangerous than the synthetics we use to control them.

Just who do we trust

by Pat Tigges

People get medical and health advice from Meryl Streep, Robert Redford and

Oprah. They trust a butterfly specialist (Paul Ehrlick) to set policy on

population growth. They obviously believe that Vice President Gore, a

lawyer-turned-politician, knows more about climatology than NASA and

world-renown scientist. Don't people ever wonder where these 'second hand'

experts got all that information?

What others say

by Pat Tigges

Frank H. Knight says: "The worst troubleis not so much ignorance, but that

people do not know they are ignorant; they know so much that is not true.

People who assume that, since they watch television news, they know all

that is worth knowing about everything, "do not know they are ignorant."

These people seem to believe that, by watching the evening news, they are

not just combating boredom, but actually acquiring knowledge.

Andhave a great poster from the National Anxiety Center (bet you never

heard of it) that is headlined "The Earth is Fine! Save Yourself!" It's a

17x22 wall hanging that contains wonderful irreverent things about the

green movement and their outrageous claims. I've sent for a price on

quantity discounts and might have some later this fall to sell. Following

are a few notable facts I picked off the poster:

"-Clean Water is what comes out of the tap from one end of the nation to

the other. Enjoy it."

"-Clean Air is precisely what we breathe full-time in America. Yes, in some

cities, given huge quantities of people and vehicles, plus the proximity of

mountains that trap noxious vapors they emit, the air isn't that great, but

no one is dying from it. Today's automobiles contribute very little to

so-called air pollution. Environmentalist want you to stop driving. You

won't. You don't have to."

"-Pesticides are one of the reasons more people are living longer,

healthier lives than ever before in the history of mankind"