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]]]]]]]]]]]]]]]]]] POTPOURRI [[[[[[[[[[[[[[[[[[
Compiled by Oleg Panczenko (2/16/1990)
(Freeman 10602PANC)
SECULAR THEOLOGY: THE MISSION OF ST CARL ------------------------
The Following is from Nature 343, 398 (1 February 1990):
Sagan appeals to world religious leaders
Boston
Astronomer Carl Sagan and 22 other well-known researchers
chose Moscow as the unlikely venue for an appeal to world
religious leaders in protecting the global environment.
The appeal came at a recent conference on the environment
and economic development which attracted over a thousand
religious, political and scientific leaders from 83
nations.
Ironically, Sagan traveled to the officially atheist
Soviet Union to announce ``a religious as well as a
scientific dimension'' to the problems of global change.
Even more remarkable, the conference was sponsored by both
the USSR Academy of Sciences and the Russian Orthodox
Church.
The appeal states that ``efforts to safeguard and
cherish the environment need to be infused with a vision of
the sacred.'' Among those who have given their backing are
physicist Hans Bethe, evolutionary biologist Stephen Jay
Gould and former MIT president Jerome Weisner.
The appeal certainly reached a global audience. It, and
other parts of he five-day conference, were the first ever
to be televised with satellite time provided jointly by the
East and West communications networks Intersputnik and
Intelsat and reached an estimated audience of 2,000 million
people in 129 countries. Later at the conference, more
than 100 religious leaders joined to hail the scientists;
appeal as ``a unique moment and opportunity in the
relationship of science and religion''.
Seth Shulman
ENERGY: CAPITALISTS HAVE THE SPINES OF BANANAS ------------------
Nicolae Ceausescu knew how much electricity people really needed.
Too bad he's dead.
The Following is from Nature 343, 399 (1 February 1990):
Utilities see the green light
San Francisco
California's electric-power companies are making friends
with their long-time enemies in environmental and
consumer-protection groups and discovering the surprising
fact that there may be money in not generating electricity
-- or at least no more than is really needed.
In a new scheme proposed last week, cash rewards would
be paid to consumers adopting energy-efficient
technologies. The utilities see energy efficiency
benefiting them because they will have to invest less
capital in new power plants and purchase less electricity
from alternate sources.
The plan brings together most of California's big
electric-power companies, the Natural Resources Defense
Council and the consumer organization Toward Utility Rate
Normalization (TURN), as well as industry trade
associations and government agencies.
In submitting the plan to the California Public
Utilities Commission (CPUC) for consideration, backers
claimed that a $500-million investment over the next two
years would result in savings of more than $1,000 million.
Rewards would go both to the small and the large:
Pacific Gas and Electric, the largest US electric utility,
talks of rebates of up to $100 for the purchase of
energy-efficient refrigerators and air conditioners,
$15,000 for commercial customers installing more efficient
equipment and $300,000 for large industrial customers
building plants using the latest energy-saving technology.
Participants stress that the plan is not yet finalized.
Each utility has outlined different means of achieving its
energy-conservation goals and redistributing the cost
savings to shareholders and ratepayers. By the end of
March, CPUC is expected to establish several test studies
to determine which are more efficient.
Robert Buderi
THE GREENHOUSE: WE NEED THAT CO2 BLANKET! -----------------------
The Following is from Nature 343, 404 (1 February 1990):
Sir -- The study of the oxygen-18 content of the CaCO3
shells of marine organisms by, for example, Emiliani
(Science 202, 627; 1978) has shown convincingly that we are
living at the zenith of the present Interglacial. The
presence of an atmospheric CO2 blanket should therefore be
considered as a blessing for the coming 50,000 years.
A.J. Rutgers
Antw. Steenw. 915,
9040 Oostakker,
Belgium
FEMINISH: LET'S ENCOURAGE THIS AMONG FEMINISTS ------------------
The Following is from Nature 343, 497 (8 February 1990):
Sex selection continues in Maharastra
Bangalore
Legislative attempts to prevent the selective abortion of
female fetuses in India's western state of Maharastra have
failed, according to an Indian pressure group, the Forum
against Sex Determination and Sex Pre-Selection. In 1988,
Maharastra enacted India's strictest legislation on the
issue, banning the use of amniocentesis for fetal sex
determination. But the political will needed to implement
the act has failed to materialize and nationwide
legislation on the misuse of medical techniques in
sex-selective abortion is still lacking.
The Maharastra act lays down detailed procedures for
complaints. But in a recent test case, the forum found it
was impossible to get the government to take action against
a clinic that advertised sex determination services.
Radhakrishna Rao
ANIMAL RIGHTS: FROM THE ASS'S MOUTH -----------------------------
Richard D. Ryder introduced the word `speciesism' in his book
Victims of Science (1975), where he drew parallels with it and
racism. This crank has now written another book, Animal
Revolution: Changing Attitudes Towards Speciesism (Basil
Blackwell, 1989).
RULE BY EXPERTS: GOOD ENOUGH FOR US, GOOD ENOUGH FOR THEM -------
From David Asman, ``Panama's Hong Kong Vision'', The Wall Street
Journal, 15 February 1990, p. A14:3:
In 1965 U.S. Marines invaded and occupied the Dominican
Republic. While many Dominicans criticized the invasion
itself, few objected to a second invasion: the landing of
economists sent in by the U.S. Agency for International
Development to ``restructure'' the country's economy.
Restructure they did, and the result became the foundation
for a highly regulated economy -- one that has led to huge
public-se Go;n deficits, entrenched do-nothing bureaucrats,
a price-regulated market and the arrest for corruption of
many top bureaucrats, including a former president.
EMPLOYER'S RIGHTS: YOU MUST BE JOKING! --------------------------
An interesting article is David Orentlicher, ``Genetic Screening
by Employers'', Journal of the American Medical Association 263,
1005, 1008 (16 February 1990).
GREENHOUSE: WHO'S AN EXPERT? ------------------------------------
Stephen H. ``Greenhouse'' Schneider's PhD is in Mechanical
Engineering (Columbia University, 1971), according to American
Men and Women of Science, 1989-90.
* * *
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