Kedves Energetikus KORNYESZek!
A "Negawatt Power" konyv, a "Sustainable Energy Paths" konyvsorozat egyik 
legerdekesebb kotete, egy 40 oldalas osszefoglaloval vegre megtalalhato a 
halozaton.  Aki szamszeru, reszletesen elemzett bizonyitekokat szeretne 
latni arrol, hogy mennyivel gazdasagosabb az energiahatekonysag, mint sok 
uj eromu epitese vagy az elektromos ipar deregulalasa, mindenkepp nezze 
meg. A teljes konyv, a sorozat mas tagjaival, megtalalhato a CEU 
konyvtaraban.

Diana

---------- Forwarded message ----------
From:
Subject: IPSEP Material Available

Dear friends and collegues,

Many of you have been intrigued by IPSEP's finding that agressive policies
to promote efficient use of electricity can save 2-4 times as much money as
pure deregulation of the supply sector.  Coaxed by your many requests, we
have updated our website to facilitate access to this research.  You now
can download our 40-page executive summary for the NEGAWATT report, which
contains a detailed analysis of the economics of electrical energy
efficiency in Western Europe, or view the short summary and several graphs
online.

Visit us at:
http://www.ipsep.org

___________________________________________________________
 INTERNATIONAL PROJECT FOR SUSTAINABLE ENERGY PATHS (IPSEP)
      7627 Leviston Ave, El Cerrito, CA 94530 USA
          Ph. (510)525-7530 Fax (510)525-4446
             e-mail:  
                 http://www.ipsep.org
Dr. Florentin Krause,     ~   Sarah Savage Davis,
    Director                    Publications
*********************************************************

>DEPARTMENT OF GEOGRAPHY & SCHOOL OF SOCIAL STUDIES 
>
>LECTURER IN ENVIRONMENTAL ISSUES IN EASTERN EUROPE
>
>Applications are invited for the above permenent post following the
>University's success in the 1996 HEFCE initiative on Eastern Europe.
>This post represents part of a major development in the study of the
>transformation of Eastern Europe at Nottingham and is in association
>with the University's long-established Institute for Russian, Soviet
>and Central and Eastern European Studies (IRSCEES). 
>
>Applications are welcome from suitably qualified candidates with
>backgrounds in geography or social and public policy. An interest in
>environmental issues in the former Soviet Union and/or  Eastern Europe
>is essential. 
>
>Salary will be in the range stlg16,045 - stlg21,016 per annum, depending on
>qualifications and experience.
>
>Informal enquiries may be addressed to Dr R Bradshaw, tel: 0115 951
>5433, Email:  or Professor N Manning,
>tel: 0115 951 6426, Email: .
>
>Further details and application forms are available from the Personnel
>Office, Highfield House, The University of Nottingham, University
>Park, Nottingham, NG7 2RD. Tel: 0115 951 3262. Fax: 0115 951 5205.
>Please quote ref.  SMM/170.  Closing date:  27 August, 1997. 
>
>
>
>Nick Manning.
>snail:     School of Social Studies, University of Nottingham, UK.
>voice:    0115-951-5426        
>fax:        0115-951-5232  
>www:    http://www.nottingham.ac.uk/~lqzweb/sochome.htm
>
>

-----------  ------------

Bastiaan de Laat
Centre de sociologie de l'innovation
Ecole nationale superiere des mines de Paris
60, bd. St.-Michel
FR - 75272 PARIS CEDEX 06
FRANCE
tel. +33.1.40.51.92.82
  or +33.1.40.51.91.91
fax. +33.1.43.54.56.28

NOs, alabb Dana szepen osszefoglalja a biotech-kel kapcsolatos
aggodalmait.  Sajnalom, hogy nem volt idom reagalni a multkor beindult
genpiszkalas-vitara; Meszaros Laci erdekeseket irt.  Akkor atadom Dananak
a szot -- bevallom, engem elegge meggyozott.  Megprobalkozik valaki
megcafolni vagy tompitani az erveit?
D

IS A BIOENGINEERED POTATO ORGANIC?

It's tempting for someone who has grown some carrots any old way to slap the
label "organic" on them and get a higher price.  Whenever there's real value
around, someone will come up with a counterfeit.

So farmers who raise their vegetables with the care that the word "organic"
implies have been working on certification programs with strict rules about
what is and is not organic.

For example, my farm is certified organic by the state of New Hampshire.  The
inspector came to visit us just last week, toured our place, asked detailed
questions about our soil-improvement plan, and made sure our fields haven't
been touched by a chemical fertilizer or pesticide within the last three
years.

Some states have strict rules and regular inspections.  Some don't have any
at
all.  So growers who ship and stores that buy across state lines are pressing
for uniform national organic standards.  The Department of Agriculture is
drawing up those standards now and running into one huge area of
disagreement. 
Most organic growers would never use gene-spliced crops.  Biotech companies
are
pushing hard to include them in the definition of "organic."

"Why wouldn't you grow our potatoes?" an insulted Monsanto scientist asked me
once.  Those potatoes carry a gene spliced out of a bacterium called Bacillus
thuringiensis, known to its friends as Bt (pronounced bee-tee).  Bt is a
natural killer of Colorado potato beetles.  If a beetle grub happens, while
chomping on a leaf, to ingest a Bt cell, that cell will multiply in its gut. 
Within hours thousands of Bt offspring will produce a poison that will kill
the
grub.  Then the bacteria will pour out of its body.  A potato beetle is Bt's
way of making more Bt.

Organic farmers spray Bt to control beetles.  It's not a poison; it's a
natural
enemy.  It doesn't infect bees or worms or birds or people or anything but
the
particular beetles that are its host.  

Monsanto has snipped out the gene that tells Bt how to make its beetle-poison
and has stuck it into the DNA of the potato.  Now the potato plant can make
the
poison in every one of its cells.  A grub takes one bite anywhere, and it's a
goner.

To my Monsanto friend this potato is a wonderful advance, saving organic
farmers the trouble of spraying Bt and conventional farmers the danger of
spraying insecticides.  He can't understand why organic farmers wouldn't
welcome it with praise and rejoicing.
 
Sigh.  The reasons seem so obvious to me.  In order of increasing seriousness
they are:

1. Food safety.  When I spray Bt on my potatoes, its poison gets made only
within beetles.  It barely touches the potato leaves, and it quickly washes
away.  The Monsanto potato has the toxin everywhere, even in the tubers we
eat.
 
We can't wash it out.  Everything we know says that toxin harms only beetles.

But we don't know everything. 

2. Pest resistance.  Whenever a pest comes in contact with a poison, it's
possible that a few of its multiferous, fast-breeding number can survive. 
Those resistant pests are the ones that produce the next generation.  The
more
exposure, the faster the whole pest population will develop resistance.  The
Colorado potato beetle is second only to the green peach aphid in its
acquired
resistance to hard-core pesticides.  But it is not yet resistant to Bt. 
Exposing the beetle to fields of potatoes carrying Bt toxin in every leaf
during the whole growing season is just asking for widescale resistance. 
Monsanto's potato will destroy both itself and a good organic crop protection
tool.

3. Company goofs.  Monsanto revealed recently (and quietly) that another of
its
biotech products, a gene-spliced canola seed, had been mistakenly sold with
the
WRONG GENE in it, a gene that had not been tested or licensed.  The problem
here is not that companies make mistakes -- of course they do.  The problem
is
that genetic engineering, like nuclear power, is not an arena where we want
mistakes to be made.

4. Further consequences in nature.  We don't know what ecosystems will do
with
genetically altered species.  Will the ability to make beetle toxin suddenly
show up in, say, wild nightshade, which is a relative of the potato?  (A
gene-spliced cultivated mustard has recently been shown to transfer its
bioengineered gene to wild mustards.)  Or could resistant beetles, no longer
held in check by wild Bt, wipe out the whole nightshade family (which
includes
tomatoes and eggplants)?  The worst nightmare of genetic engineering is the
gene that gets loose.  That isn't likely.  But it isn't impossible. 

5. Breaking the species barrier.  Nature doesn't normally mix the genes of
bacteria and potatoes, or frogs and lettuces, or pigs and people.  A species
barrier prevents sunflowers from mating with chimpanzees.  The barrier isn't
absolute, especially not with bacteria and viruses.  But, contrary to the
claims of biotech companies, moving genes from any species to any species is
not just a small extension of the age-old human practice of breeding new
varieties of roses or cattle.  It's a whole new twist in evolution.

6. The pace and the selection mechanism.  For several billion years evolution
has proceed very slowly, selecting species according to their ability to fit
into ever-changing ecosystems.  In the hands of biotechnicians, the rate of
evolution speeds up enormously, and species are selected by their ability to
fit into economic markets.  This is no minor change.  Its sends the most
fundamental adaptation mechanism of life off at a breakneck pace in a whole
new
direction.

I can't imagine anything more incompatible with organic agriculture than
genetic engineering.  Organic growing is about learning from nature, dancing
in
harmony with it, using its forces gently to further the health of people and
ecosystems.  It is based on caution and deep humility.  Genetic engineering
is
about playing God, dictating to nature, shaping it for human purposes -- and
not always the noblest of human purposes.

It's a good thing that there will be federal guidelines for organic
labelling. 
We need them.  They should not permit a genetically engineered crop to be
labelled organic.  

(Donella H. Meadows is an adjunct professor of environmental studies at
Dartmouth College.)