Blinded by the Light

2013-03-22

The Guardian, by Jessica Aldred.

Thousands of cities and towns across the world, including major landmarks, to turn off lights to show concern for the environment

Earth Hour is here again, and WWF is calling on hundreds of millions of people in thousands of cities and towns around the world to switch off their lights for an hour at 8.30pm local time on Saturday 23 March to show their concern for the environment. (...)

Rep. Alexandria Ocasio-Cortez declared last week that “the world is gonna end in 12 years if we don’t address climate change.” The freshly minted congresswoman skewered anyone who’d want to talk about the cost of global-warming policies, given the looming doomsday. Yes, her full remarks made it clear she only meant that the world would begin to end in 12 years if we don’t act. But she was still wildly wrong.

A global food crisis is looming, so policymakers everywhere need to think hard about how to make food cheaper and more plentiful. That requires making a commitment to producing more fertilizer and better seeds, maximizing the potential offered by genetic modification, and abandoning the rich world’s obsession with organics.