Month: January 2013

Caution Thomas Midgley Jr. is well known for having "more impact on the atmosphere than any other single organism in Earth’s history".  Midgley’s team was responsible for CFC refrigerants, and the introduction of tetraethyl lead as an antiknock agent in gasoline.  The CFCs have had both good and bad effects, the identification of the bad ones, ozone depletion, and the calculus is irrelevant at this point with the Montreal Protocols and the availability of adequate substitutes.  Tetraethyl lead is another story and a report in Mother Jones today provides a useful platform from which to view the introduction of GMO technology. The Weasel has posed seven questions, but even he admits that there are two core ones 4: Can we really be sure that GM crops are safe — for our fellow creatures in the environment at large; or for consumers – whether livestock or people