[ExI] homo sapiens as endangered species

[spike]

In 1973 the US passed a law that protects endangered species, but in
retrospect it may have been the biggest victory for the oil companies.
Reasoning: every alternative energy source that I know of could be slowed to
a stop by various camps of greens, some perhaps employed by oil companies.
If for instance, we figure out a way cheap means of launching Keith's space
based solar, we still need an area of ground to set up a rectenna farm.  Any
yahoo could claim that is the breeding grounds of the rare Snarkleberry's
snivelfly, which no one has ever seen, proving its rarity.  By the ESA, that
would meet the definition of a species, and so off we go to find a different
place, which is in turn stopped by a different endangered species.

 

It looks to me like the deck is stacked in favor of the NIMBYs and some
subset of the greens, because it is a lot easier to stop a project than it
is to start one.

 

spike

 

-------------- next part --------------
An HTML attachment was scrubbed...
URL: <http://lists.extropy.org/pipermail/extropy-chat/attachments/20110530/c2311888/attachment.html>