Bizarre stuff from The Atlantic, though it seems even Bill McKibben is panning him and when you can’t sell Bill McKibben on crazy, well, you’ve entered a whole new plane of crazy. Me? I welcome our new smaller climate optmized green cat-like overlords. – Anthony
How Engineering the Human Body Could Combat Climate Change
By Ross Andersen The Atlantic
From drugs to help you avoid eating meat to genetically engineered cat-like eyes to reduce the need for lighting, a wild interview about changes humans could make to themselves to battle climate change.
…
One human engineering strategy you mention is a kind of pharmacologically induced meat intolerance. You suggest that humans could be given meat alongside a medication that triggers extreme nausea, which would then cause a long-lasting aversion to meat eating. Why is it that you expect this could have such a dramatic impact on climate change?
Liao: There is a widely cited U.N. Food and Agricultural Organization report that estimates that 18% of the world’s greenhouse gas emissions and CO2 equivalents come from livestock farming, which is actually a much higher share than from transportation. More recently it’s been suggested that livestock farming accounts for as much as 51% of the world’s greenhouse gas emissions. And then there are estimates that as much as 9% of human emissions occur as a result of deforestation for the expansion of pastures for livestock. And that doesn’t even to take into account the emissions that arise from manure, or from the livestock directly. Since a large portion of these cows and other grazing animals are raised for consumption, it seems obvious that reducing the consumption of these meats could have considerable environmental benefits.
…
Your paper also discusses the use of human engineering to make humans smaller. Why would this be a powerful technique in the fight against climate change?
Liao: Well one of the things that we noticed is that human ecological footprints are partly correlated with size. Each kilogram of body mass requires a certain amount of food and nutrients and so, other things being equal, the larger person is the more food and energy they are going to soak up over the course of a lifetime. There are also other, less obvious ways in which larger people consume more energy than smaller people—for example a car uses more fuel per mile to carry a heavier person, more fabric is needed to clothe larger people, and heavier people wear out shoes, carpets and furniture at a quicker rate than lighter people, and so on.
And so size reduction could be one way to reduce a person’s ecological footprint. For instance if you reduce the average U.S. height by just 15cm, you could reduce body mass by 21% for men and 25% for women, with a corresponding reduction in metabolic rates by some 15% to 18%, because less tissue means lower energy and nutrient needs.
…
In your paper you suggest that some human engineering solutions may actually be liberty enhancing. How so?
Liao: That’s right. It’s been suggested that, given the seriousness of climate change, we ought to adopt something like China’s one child policy. There was a group of doctors in Britain who recently advocated a two-child maximum. But at the end of the day those are crude prescriptions—what we really care about is some kind of fixed allocation of greenhouse gas emissions per family. If that’s the case, given certain fixed allocations of greenhouse gas emissions, human engineering could give families the choice between two medium sized children, or three small sized children. From our perspective that would be more liberty enhancing than a policy that says “you can only have one or two children.” A family might want a really good basketball player, and so they could use human engineering to have one really large child.
“We figured that if everyone had cat eyes, you wouldn’t need so much lighting”
Read the whole bizarre thing here: How Engineering the Human Body Could Combat Climate Change
Kate at Small Dead Animals has a poll
A couple of comments refer to Paul Ehrlich’s work on population. What they neglect to mention is that John Holdren, Obama’s science czar co-authored with Ehrlich. He also worked with the people at the Climatic Research Unit (CRU) as disclosed in the leaked emails to discredit Soon and Baliumas in the effort to support Mann’s hockey stick. His behaviour in this at Harvard is deeply disturbing.
http://drtimball.com/2009/john-holdren/
Holdren was questioned about his views on population control, summarized below from an article here, http://zombietime.com/john_holdren/ when he was before Congress, but said he no longer held them.
• Women could be forced to abort their pregnancies, whether they wanted to or not;
• The population at large could be sterilized by infertility drugs intentionally put into the nation’s drinking water or in food;
• Single mothers and teen mothers should have their babies seized from them against their will and given away to other couples to raise;
• People who “contribute to social deterioration” (i.e. undesirables) “can be required by law to exercise reproductive responsibility” — in other words, be compelled to have abortions or be sterilized.
• A transnational “Planetary Regime” should assume control of the global economy and also dictate the most intimate details of Americans’ lives — using an armed international police force.
Nerd says:
March 13, 2012 at 10:01 am
You forgot about widespread vitamin D deficiency no thanks to idiotic Sun Scare thing. Vitamin D gets converted into powerful steriod hormone that acts as DNA repair and regulator… Ever wonder why we are seeing more and more autism cases? All austitic kids have very low vitamin D level that most medical doctors are overlooking!
http://www.ncbi.nlm.nih.gov/pubmed/17920208
Dr. Cannell noted that once autistic kids corrected their severe vitamin D deficiency, they started to function better!
____________________________
Nerd, Thanks!!!
I knew about the vitamin D deficiency but I was unaware of “… Dr. Cannell noted that once autistic kids corrected their severe vitamin D deficiency, they started to function better!…”
My favorite Cousin’s boy is autistic and I sometimes encounter autistic kids so I will pass that on. (One parent I talked to found wheat was a trigger BTW)
BBBaz says:
March 13, 2012 at 1:02 am
BBBaz above last line should read, Google “factory grown meat”
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I propose “websearch” as the non-proprietary alternative to the verb “Google”. It’s only two syllables and leaves open the idea that web searches can be done with something other than the lying, cheating, free-speech denying Google/NSA!
The BBC have been pushing this brazen eugenics stuff for years:
“Evolutionary theorist Oliver Curry of the London School of Economics expects a genetic upper class and a dim-witted underclass to emerge.”
http://news.bbc.co.uk/1/hi/uk/6057734.stm
The meat aversion plan reminds me of Alex’s therapy session in A Clockwork Orange.
Tim Ball says:
March 13, 2012 at 11:03 am
….. What they neglect to mention is that John Holdren, Obama’s science czar…
___________________________________
Thank you Dr. Ball those guys are really scary!
Holdren along with the Ehrlichs wrote in their 1973 book Human Ecology: Problems and Solutions.
“A massive campaign must be launched to restore a high-quality environment in North America and to de-develop the United States…”
How the heck did we ever end up with these blatant traitors in such positions of power?
Gail Combs [March 13, 2012 at 11:49 am]
“…How the heck did we ever end up with these blatant traitors in such positions of power?”
Oh that’s an easy one. Idiots voted them into power.
The Media hid any issues that many people would have had with the candidates and marginalized anyone who had a contrary opinion.
A corollary to the Peter Principle is that you get what you vote for.
Gail Combs says:
March 13, 2012 at 11:49 am
“How the heck did we ever end up with these blatant traitors in such positions of power?”
Elections.
johanna says:
March 13, 2012 at 9:01 am
“DirkH says:
March 13, 2012 at 8:23 am
Liao has completely missed the obvious. You just mix some genes from Elysia Chlorotyca into the human genome and we will be able to stop working, stop eating, and process our own CO2 after we’ve eaten some algae.
————————————————-
Unless they find a way to substitute chocolate for algae, it ain’t gonna fly, that dog’s not gonna hunt, etc.”
Johanna, did you look up Elysia Chlorotyca ? Also called the eastern emerald elysia.
http://labs1.eol.org/pages/450768/overview
With the acceptance of eugenics by the progressives, will the science of phrenology be returning to it’s rightful place in academia too?
Alright, I have been kicking around about whether to post this or not, I didn’t want to seem insensitive to people of Asian decent…
But, yet another brilliant idea that was brought to bear… was the Gaussian Coupola, to the risk calculations of the bundled mortgage instruments.
It was a way of getting a handle on rating just how dangerous a particular instrument was and let you determine what sort of yeild it should have.
At least in David X. Li’s defense, he stated “The most dangerous part is when people believe everything coming out of it.” So.. at least he was pragmatic about it and didn’t fully buy into his own idea.
Too bad the financial decision makers didn’t heed his advise.
“Recipe for Disaster: The Formula That Killed Wall Street”
http://www.wired.com/techbiz/it/magazine/17-03/wp_quant?currentPage=all
It says in the article/interview something really stupid about patches to help you not eat meat. Unbelievable.
And what do we get from the BBC today? Only red meat really increases your cancer risk:
“Red meat increases death, cancer and heart risk, says study”:
http://www.bbc.co.uk/news/health-17345967
Ever get the feeling the whole global media is totally controlled and singing from the same (satanic) hymn sheet? Bit of synchronicity going on here, but not the proper, natural kind?
Certainly as regards the US mainstream “news” media, this clip is a beaut at illustrating the point:
Wait, didn’t they try that already with the New Soviet Man?
Have you ever noticed how some pet owners turn their pets into people? and that others turn people into pets?
An excerpt form a letter from Aldous Huxley to George Orwell in 1949 after reading the latter’s book:
There seems to be this very well intentioned totalitarian impulse built into the human brain, to propose systems of complete control over the individual as the only rational solution to whatever the problem of the day happens to be, maybe THAT is a candidate for removal by ‘human engineering’, something that actually makes us more human, rather than turns us into somebody else’s pets.
W^3
Just a small note on the size thing. Smaller creatures often have higher metabolisms not lower metabolisms.
DirkH says:
March 13, 2012 at 12:18 pm
johanna says:
March 13, 2012 at 9:01 am
“DirkH says:
March 13, 2012 at 8:23 am
Liao has completely missed the obvious. You just mix some genes from Elysia Chlorotyca into the human genome and we will be able to stop working, stop eating, and process our own CO2 after we’ve eaten some algae.
————————————————-
Unless they find a way to substitute chocolate for algae, it ain’t gonna fly, that dog’s not gonna hunt, etc.”
Johanna, did you look up Elysia Chlorotyca ? Also called the eastern emerald elysia.
http://labs1.eol.org/pages/450768/overview
—————————————————-
Yeah, it’s a little perpetual motion machine, eh? But unless chocolate is the starter culture, it will never catch on.
You have to wonder at the distance between a guy who would gladly build a car (given the opportunity) to feed his family while living under a river bridge in California and some bunch of parasitic academics who met on some taxpayer funded jaunt to a tropical island and, during the monday bongfest, decided to write a joint ‘paper’ about ‘possible solutions to non existent problems’.
This thieves paradise will end soon and I hope, when it does, that Liao finds himself living under the same bridge. He can explain his theories in excruciating detail to those he has robbed. Good luck with that prof…click click
Well, North Korea has a rather brutal head start on the make the subjects smaller.
No pills required – just let the meat spoil. Reduces need for refrigeration as a side benefit!
Meowing mad!
Everywhere I’ve ever debated warmer trash, the ‘we must sterilize the ‘unwanted’ – you know what that means – B.R.O.W.N. people’ before we all die’ class of kooks has come out.
At first I was apalled. Then I learned the ORIGINAL Magic Gasser, was a Eugenics expert who sterilized Sweden’s mentally ill, and taught the leadership of the actual, Sprekkin Zee German Nazi party, before they kicked off the party called WW2.
You think it’s wrong for me to point this out? GO to a WARMER SITE and LOOK: you are going to see ‘STERILIZE the UNWANTED PEOPLE so WE don’t have to SUFFER’ all over the place.
I come from many years of law enforcement talk with my pop who drove up to many a melee so crazies don’t give me the mental meltdowns they do most people, but if you want to see the most evil in the most modern guise, the FIRST place I’d suggest is WarmerVille.
One of the good comments on the Atlantic article:
“We need a drug to make us resistant to worthless research papers.”
Nerd says:
March 13, 2012 at 10:01 am
Gail Combs says:
March 13, 2012 at 9:34 am
Meat Eating is essential for brain development in infants BTW. Darn I can not find my original source… Here are some others that have been watered down.
===============
You forgot about widespread vitamin D deficiency no thanks to idiotic Sun Scare thing. Vitamin D gets converted into powerful steriod hormone that acts as DNA repair and regulator… Ever wonder why we are seeing more and more autism cases? All austitic kids have very low vitamin D level that most medical doctors are overlooking!
http://www.ncbi.nlm.nih.gov/pubmed/17920208
Dr. Cannell noted that once autistic kids corrected their severe vitamin D deficiency, they started to function better!
========
How Sunlight Can Save Your Life
Part 1
By Oliver Gillie
The Independent – UK
It’s the great cancer cover-up. Panicked into avoiding sunlight by health experts, we are now dying in our thousands from diseases linked to deficiencies of vitamin D. But still the exaggerated warnings come. Oliver Gillie reveals how sunbathing can save your life…
http://www.rense.com/general48/sunlight1.htm
================
And while I’m fetching –
THE IMPORTANCE OF CARBON DIOXIDE TO YOUR HEALTH
Also consider: we would die if we did not breathe in such a way as to retain very close to 65,000 ppm (6.5%) of CO2 in the alveoli (tiny air sacs) of our lungs.
http://theroadtoemmaus.org/RdLb/11Phl/Sci/CO2&Health.html
This guy needs a whole term to describe him – umm: a Climacootie? or a Warmanaliar? (Homer dialect) or a CatastroCastro?
I suggest reading Liao’s paper. He has been pushing the idea of genetically designing children for a number of years. This is his salvo to try to get the idea recognized by tying it to the climate change gravy train. found at http://www.smatthewliao.com/wp-content/uploads/2012/02/HEandClimateChange.pdf
johanna says:
March 13, 2012 at 1:18 pm
“Johanna, did you look up Elysia Chlorotyca ? Also called the eastern emerald elysia.
http://labs1.eol.org/pages/450768/overview
—————————————————-
Yeah, it’s a little perpetual motion machine, eh? But unless chocolate is the starter culture, it will never catch on.”
Should be no problem:
http://www.freepatentsonline.com/y2008/0317824.html
Judith Curry posted a link to another paper of similar vein by Philip Cafaro, a philosophy professor at Colorado State Univ. who claims to be a “Climate Ethicist” and has written a paper discussing how to reduce the population of the planet through coercive birth control policies in the developed world. I don’t think he knows how to do math, because if he did, he’d realize that without immigration, most of the Western world would be shrinking in population already.
His paper is here: http://docs.google.com/viewer?a=v&pid=sites&srcid=cGhpbGlwY2FmYXJvLmNvbXx3d3d8Z3g6M2FiMThhYWUyYmI1OTlhYw