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Produced & Maintained by Idaho Mountain Express, Box 1013, Ketchum, ID 83340-1013 
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Copyright © 2001 Express Publishing Inc.
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For the week of December 12 - 18, 2001

  Opinion Columns

Why not leave it 
to the experts?

Commentary by DICK DORWORTH


Remembering the forgotten promises of yesterday’s experts is always a good exercise in historical perspective and an object lesson in current civics.


Only a few decades ago nuclear scientists promised mankind an unlimited source of power from nuclear energy. They said it would be safe, clean and cheap and that the world would be a better place for it. A few reputable (or, at least, highly knowledgeable) nuclear scientists even proposed in all seriousness the use of atomic bombs as a construction tool for jobs like blasting out harbors in Alaska and canals in central America. Many people even believed them, for they were experts. If the citizenry can’t believe the experts, who can they believe? And who wouldn’t want to believe in a cheap, safe and clean source of power?

But it turned out that the experts didn’t have it quite right, or, conceivably, weren’t telling it quite the way it is. Actually, they still aren’t. We now know that nuclear energy is neither cheap, safe nor clean; it is expensive, dangerous and its waste products are so unclean as to beggar all normal human concepts of foul matter and toxicity, not to mention longevity. We know that no one, including the experts, fully understands the biologic action of radiation.

To give the nuclear experts whatever benefit is conceivable to such a very large doubt, maybe they simply didn’t know as much about nuclear power in the world as they thought they did. Possibly they knew a lot about the mechanics of creating nuclear power but not much about, for instance, the effects of radioactivity on a human cell or gene. Or perhaps the experts only tweaked the truth a tad in the interests of the aims of their government and nuclear industry employers. Even experts have been known to ignore the consequences to the rest of the world of their actions and knowledge, as well as the ethical mandates of truth, in the interests of job security. Stranger things have happened.

Remembering the forgotten promises of yesterday’s experts is always a good exercise in historical perspective and an object lesson in current civics.

It’s difficult for non-experts, both skeptics and the simple, to know when and when not to believe the experts; but there are usually a few red flag indicators that should draw the interested layman’s scrutiny. Chief among these warning signs is the cloak of secrecy covering the machinations of power and money, which, of course, all too often go together. Few if any legal industries have ever in history operated with as much secrecy as nuclear merchantry.

For the past several years a different crew of experts have been touting the future benefits to mankind of GMOs, or genetically modified organisms. Think of that, an organism whose genes have been modified by an expert or experts to make the world a better place. Radiation, too, randomly modifies genes, but according to the experts the modifications in GMOs are scientifically controlled and understood. There are no random side effects, they say.

Most people have heard of (and eaten, often without knowledge of what they were eating) foods the skeptics call "Frankenfoods," victuals like strawberries containing fish genes that will more easily resist cold, allergy-producing corn and trademarked (and sterile so they can’t reproduce naturally without buying the next generation from the trademark holder) soy beans with a genetically inserted pesticide. GMO foods are with us now. Misbegotten 500 pound Chinook salmon are on the way. Those who sell GMO foods to the citizenry—corporations and the people who speak for and represent them—have done all in their considerable power to keep their products from being labeled as what they are … GMOs. If GMOs are so wonderful, why shouldn’t the public know when they are buying them? What are the experts afraid of?

As mentioned, secrecy covering the machinations of power and money is, or should be, a red flag indicator. When big government and big business team up behind the cloak of secrecy, as happened with the development of the nuclear industry and is happening now with the proliferation of GMOs, the bountiful benefits of public inquiry are smothered.

The same secrecy surrounds the new industry of what might be called GATs (genetically altered trees), but which skeptics call "Frankenforests." GATs include both fruit trees and forest species—plum, cherry, grapefruit, aspen, eucalyptus, cottonwood and several species of pine. Among the corporations pushing for GAT plantations are Alberta Pacific, Boise Cascade, Fort James, Georgia Pacific, International Paper, Nippon Paper, Potlatch, Westvaco, Weyerhaueser, Shell and Toyota. Transgenic trees are entirely new species and no one, not even the experts, knows what immediate or cumulative threat they present to the infinitely complex lacework of life that is a forest ecosystem. In the U.S. the agency in charge of approving Frankenforests is the USDA’s Animal and Plant Health Inspection Service. On the APHIS application form for approval of genetically modified organism the specific transferred gene and its source species can be answered with the acronym "CBI": classified business information. This eliminates public scrutiny. International trade in transgenic trees will be regulated by the World Trade Organization, a secretive body known for destroying international environmental standards on behalf of large, multinational corporations.

Frankenfoods and Frankenforests, like nuclear power, are an unacceptable risk to the integrity and health of the natural world on which all life depends. Don’t take the experts at their word. Educate yourself. Don’t buy in. Remember the wise words of Ed Abbey: "Resist much, obey little."

 


The Idaho Mountain Express is distributed free to residents and guests throughout the Sun Valley, Idaho resort area community. Subscribers to the Idaho Mountain Express will read these stories and others in this week's issue.