Why Genetically Modified Food is good for the planet (and other counterintuitive ideas)

Stewart Brand’s Whole Earth Discipline discusses how dense cities, genetically modified foods, nuclear energy and engineered wildlife are necessary to save the planet.

What would we need to do to solve climate change? Move people to cities, add nuclear power stations and grow

Whole Earth Discipline: An Ecopragmatist Manifesto was written in 2009 by Stewart Brand, one of the most influential people in the 20th century for his magazine Whole Earth Catalog, “a book about the future”. Yet, despite being written over a decade ago, the book contains wisdom on issues that are widely controversial until this day even among environmentalists around the world.

I would urge anyone who considers themselves an environmentalist to read the book themselves. Yet because Whole Earth Discipline is not widely sold in bookstores and libraries around the world, in this article, I will summarize the key issues that Stewart Brand raised.

Synopsis

Stewart Brand argues for 4 controversial points:

• Cities are green.
• Nuclear power is green.
• Genetic engineering is green.
• Geoengineering is necessary.

All points were part of his overall thesis: We need to re-examine our perceptions on climate science and technology that are conventionally rejected based on…