Luddites: They raged against the machine and lost

today's luddites are the anti-nuclear knobheads, GMO protesters and climate change sectarians.

Jerobeam: can we burry nuclear waste under your house? Monopoly on seeds and suing anyone being polluted with GMOs? Climate change is not happening or isn't man made? Which is it?

Jerobeam: can we burry nuclear waste under your house? yes you can. With proper shielding I wouldn't mind at all. Monopoly on seeds and suing anyone being polluted with GMOs? Communication used to be free (bush drums), now you pay for your telephony. Superior technology costs money. Trading empires of the past also used to have monopolies on technologies that were violently protected (read about the glass/mirror makers of Murano, Venice, or the dutch spice monopoly, or how Henry Wickham stole the rubber tree seeds 1876. Only communists can think that after large sums invested a developed superior technology should be free for all to steal and use without compensation. Climate change is not happening or isn't man made? Which is it? are you one of those that doesn't know that the climate ALWAYS changes (because solar activity, which is nuclear btw, always changes), and that the atmosphere contains 0.04% of Carbon? I question the sanity of anyone that thinks that the carbon content of the atmosphere (especially the tiny fraction that can be attributed to human activity) has any macroscopic short-term influence.

jerobeam: I dare you to go live on the top of a nuclear waste site or to give your address as a possible dump site.

The GMOs, telephony, rubber trees, etc is comparing oranges and apples. While GMOs have a big potential for us, but the risks are to great for a little bit more of money. You can find some pros and cons on the "Food and Agricultural Organization of the United Nation" for example. Also note that we are wasting about 1/4 of the food we produce is wasted.

About climate change, human has changed some ecosystems already. Like rain patterns in Brazil with forest cuts, desertification and also ozone depletion is man made. Believing that humans can do all what they want will have grave consequences for us all.

I already work on top of radioactive waste so living over it would not be any different. The dose rate in my office is at background level since it's all properly shielded. I would rather live near a disposal site for long-lived radionuclides than a regular dump site. A shielded source is no threat, and especially the long-lived waste is mostly harmless.

What difference does it make whether my body digests proteins and lipids from "regular" corn or an engineered corn which does not require pesticides and uses half the water to grow, all by providing much better crop yields? The planet definitely benefits.

There is a difference between cutting down rainforest and changing local rain patterns and believing that burnig coal and oil (carbon that was previously atmospheric anyway) will bring about armageddon.

To sum up once again, these 3 categories of people (those raging against nuclear, GMO, CO2 with foam on their mouths) are basically (just as the luddites) uninformed and manipulated idiots (should we pity them like Lord Byron or be disgusted since in this age all the knowledge is so easily accessible like in no age before us and there is little excuse for moronism?) that think that technologies invented to benefit mankind should be destroyed because ... well they don't really know why but the essence is they MUST be destroyed - and don't try to reason with them.

I wish we could be governed by reasonable men, and troops could be sent out like the English did against the luddites. Unfortunately their anti-science has become mainstream - with very real grave consequences for us all, and especially the poorest in this world.

jerobeam: I can deduct you are working for the nuclear industry. Nobody is living on on next to a nuclear waste site. Sounds like BS to me...

Using less pesticide and herbicide? Well, no. Farmers have to use more and more pesticide and herbicide for their corn, canola and cotton. Read books and watch documentaries about it.

We are changing our environment and our carbon footprint is getting more and more important. CO2 in the atmosphere is increasing at a higher rate than in the past. I find interesting how anti-man made climate change people are trying to turn the tables and call scientists (a majority of them) backing with evidences for highly probable man made climate change as anti-science and should have the army sent after them.

You will be proved wrong on all above points.