Environmentalism

Environmentalists assess genetic modification of crops, livestock, and potentially human beings with close attention to their effects on ecosystems and societies. They advocate for caution and responsible social governance in the face of high-risk technological innovation, including by regulating markets and corporations in order to ensure public health and well-being. Environmentalists pioneered the precautionary principle, an approach that assigns responsibility for demonstrating the safety of risky new technologies to those who would benefit from them, rather than those likely to be harmed. These tools of technical, policy, and social analysis hold important insights for understanding and evaluating human biotechnologies.


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No one is more important to the history of environmental conservation than John Muir — the “wilderness prophet,” “patron saint of the American wilderness” and “father of the national parks” who founded the nation’s oldest conservation organization, the Sierra Club...

Biopolitical Times
"Black-footed Ferret Kits" by USFWS Mountain Prairie is licensed under CC BY 2.0 The New York Times published on February 18 an enthusiastic article about a black-footed ferret, hailing it as “the first of any native, endangered animal species in North America to be cloned.”
Biopolitical Times
We recently co-hosted a lively and thought-provoking conversation between john a. powell and Bill McKibben about heritable genetic modification, climate change, and how the two issues are connected.

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Photo by Markus Spiske on Unsplash

Gene editing causes drastic unwanted effects in gene-edited plants including severe deformities, a new...

A person suited in bioharzard gear, examines a sample of corn in a field.

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A woman of color holds a circular glass object in her opened left palm.

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Several black chess pieces are positioned side by side, standing upright.

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A pale hand holds an unlit light bulb.

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Close up photo of a yellow winged moth against a white background.

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Black and white photo, in bug's eye view, looking up at a person balancing on a tightrope.

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Bird's eye view of a cutting board, displaying vegetables and an uncooked salmon. A bowl of peppercorns are plated to its side.

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