Monday 11 January 2010

The Merry Prankster gets it right

Stewart Brand is that rare thing, a greenie who gets it right; in other words, he agrees with me....
One of Ken Kesey's Merry Pranksters of "Electric Kool Aid Acid Test" fame, the founder of the Whole Earth Catalogue of 1968 --- remember that, you sixties hippies?  That great big, floppy, black and white, somewhat puzzling "book", what was it for, to sell us stuff, or to sell us concepts, communes, in any case, to sell us the sixties hippies westcoastamerica grooviness -- Stewart Brand now talks about how he and the green movement has got it all wrong about GM and nuclear power.  And promotes geoengineering.
I came across him most recently in an article, of all places, in the Financial Times .  In the video below he talks  at a recent TED conference about his  four "heresies" (put aside 18 minutes to check it out):
  1. Urbanise
  2. Expand Nuclear Power
  3. Grow Genetically engineered plants
  4. Start Geo-engineering to keep us kool...

Hmmm.... the applause at the end, seems rather polite than effusive, don't you think?  They may not be ready for the message.  Why don't they look at the science?....