The Catskill Chronicle

By Mort Malkin

Two hundred thousand years ago or so, Nature invented Homo sapiens. It took 175,000 years more before mankind invented the bow & arrow, the atlatl, and the Frisbee. Then finally, at about 10,000 BCE, s/he learned how to plant wheat & barley and make beer.

Now in the 21st century, we take most technology for granted – the wheel, the plastic hula hoop, and drills that can bore two miles into the seabed of the ocean in mile-deep water. Why, I myself, an admitted Luddite, make frequent use of the Internet and occasionally send e-mail messages. OK, I still don’t know where a paragraph that I have highlighted and clicked “copy” resides.

So, here at the second decade of the 21st century, invention and technology have accelerated to where we have: railroads, automobiles, airplanes, electricity, TV with remote-control gizmos, laptop computers, WD-40 and duct tape. Wall Street has invented derivatives: credit default swaps, collateralized debt obligations, strangle options and iron butterfly spreads.

Humans think themselves #1 among all life forms of the earth. Indeed, the Bible tells us that we have been given “dominion” over all the creatures of the air, the land and the sea. Lately, though, scholars have disputed the translation from the Aramaic. They have interpreted the original scrolls to say “responsibility,” not “dominion.” No matter, we surely are the most advanced creatures that evolution has ever created. We each have a conscience (despite some notable exceptions); we can plan ahead long term (except for multinational corporations which are interested only in the present profit line); and we can fire cruise missiles at nations in the Middle East from 620 miles at sea.

Well, let’s see about the “humanity” of some other species. Elephants, apes and dolphins can recognize themselves in the mirror. Elephants mourn their dead. Otters play by sliding down snowy slopes, just for fun. Gorillas and bonobos can “speak” by pointing to words on paper to express conceptual thought, even though their vocal chords cannot pronounce the words. Many animals cooperate in various activities.

A true story involves a group of researchers who had designed an experiment to assess tool use among “lower” animals. They attached a bunch of bananas to a ceiling hook in a cage with smooth sided walls, placed a long stick on the floor, and then led a chimpanzee into the enclosure. The chimp took one look at the bananas, at the ceiling, and the stick on the floor, then promptly balanced the stick on end and climbed up to grab the whole bunch. Primitive scientists.

As to intelligence of members of the Plant Kingdom, maple trees draw water from the soil through their roots, CO2 from the air through their leaves and, using solar energy, make maple syrup. It’s simple chemistry for them — 6H2O + 6CO2 = C6H12O2 (glucose) + 12O2. No human laboratory can do that.

Moreover, mankind monkeys with things that are best left untouched. Man was never meant to split the atom. Not for bombs, nor for boiling water to make steam that turn turbines to make electricity for flashing the strobe lights of our disco clubs and heating the water of our hot tubs. Nuclear power plants may be less dangerous than nuclear missiles, but not by so much. Just ask Wall Street. The investment houses refuse to raise money – not even speculative funds – for new nuclear plants. The insurance companies won’t insure them unless the government provides uranium-clad guarantees backed by the full faith and credit of the United States. Big Finance may not make obscene profits from solar panels, wind turbines and tide driven turbines, but those paths to power don’t melt down in chain reactions.

Man was not meant to fracture the bedrock of the Earth with hydraulic pressures of 10,000 pounds per square inch just to collect the “natural” gas that was trapped a mile deep in small bubbles and tiny pockets within dense shale rock 400 million years ago. It is especially risky because the drillers must bore right through the aquifer at 400 feet or so and, when they reach the shale, inject a mixture of toxic chemicals and super pressurized water. Better to leave the gas for some yet to be discovered, really valuable use instead of burning it to heat our homes.

Other forbidden fruit include trying to improve on the very structure of life – the double helix. Nature has arranged that if a horse and a tortoise fell in love and mated, a child of such a union would be sterile (if not impossible), not a fleet-footed terrapin. Genetic engineers should not be combining genes in outlandish ways, in fact, not at all. As always, beware the goddess of unforeseen consequences. An already example is the genetically engineered (GE) corn that has been planted in Mexico, the home of untold different types of corn. The newly introduced GE corn spread to nearby fields and hybridized them. There went the neighborhood.

Only a step away is the technology of cloning. No, the conception of Jesus was not an example of cloning which we are thereby encouraged to follow. Modern Homo technologus, in adolescent rebellion, has produced Dolly, the sheep by cloning, and now Big Beef is salivating over the possibility of producing calves without the intercession of capricious bulls. Would you knowingly eat a hamburger made out of cloned beef?

Now, they are talking about geo-engineering the entire planet at one swell foop. If we are responsible for spewing out too much CO2 with the result that planet Earth is overheating, the fixers have a few silver bullets. In the interests of cutting costs they propose low orbit clouds of aluminum sequins to reflect the sun’s rays back into outer space. A second scheme is to fertilize the oceans with nitrates to create enourmous algae blooms that will absorb the extra CO2 from our cars and coal-fired power plants – a truly green solution. Don’t they know that Murphy’s Law is invoked whenever we think we’re clever enough to devise a fix for an iatrogenic problem instead of addressing the cause of the problem directly? Don’t they know that good planets are hard to find? The Earth is sacred, just as life is sacred. Both deserve a little awe, and caution.