8 January, 2017

"Frankenfoods" (GMOs) and the unfortunate Keith Kloor @keithkloor



Keith Kloor has taken huge criticism for his brave stand that "frankenfoods" (GMOs) are safe and beneficial.  He has a long article outlining that here. It is far too long for me to reproduce on this blog.

Suffice it to to say that he thought his credentials as an established environmentalist would protect him from criticism and cause his arguments and information to be heard.  It did not. He was demonized with all sorts of false allegations and his erstwhile friends on the Green/Left deserted him.  The only friends he ended up with were people at Monsanto, the plant breeders who are arch-villains to most of the Green/Left.  He concludes that you cannot blame journalists for failing to expose  popular anti-science beliefs.  The backlash if you do is too awful.

Something that he uses to cling on to respectability is his criticism of Donald Trump and his support for global warming. Trump is an easy target because of the loose way he speaks so that does not earn Kloor much kudos.  It is global warming that  is his reputational lifeline.  If he rejected that he would be sunk in just about every possible way.  His only friends would be people he has spent much of his life opposing.  Rather awful!

So there are good reasons why Kloor clings to the global warming theory.

But it is nonetheless a wonder that he cannot see that Warmists do exactly the sort of thing that the anti-GMO brigade do. They rely heavily on appeals to authority, "ad hominem" abuse and easily refuted "science".  If he would just read all sides of the debate on the key issue of climate sensitivity, he would see that Warmist claims are at least highly speculative if not built entirely on sand. But he is a journalist so perhaps that is too complex for him.  With climate science, he too relies on appeals to what passes for authority.

Keith is halfway up the hill leading to the broad sunlit uplands of truth.  He should complete the journey.  Global warming is dead anyway.  Trump will see to that.






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