John Stossel Challenges the Doomsayers Warnings on Genetic
Engineering, Human Cloning and Global Warming, in a One-Hour Special,
Tampering with Nature with John Stossel, Airing Friday, June 29
In a one-hour special, ABC News Correspondent John Stossel
investigates the outcry over genetic engineering and human cloning and challenges
the dire warnings surrounding global warming and bovine growth hormone.
Why have recent advances in science been met with fear, protests, even
acts of terrorism? Why is the industrial society that helped make our
comfortable lives possible treated with suspicion and contempt? Stossel challenges
the activists who say we're destroying the earth's ecosystem with
everything from genetic engineering to greenhouse gases. Tampering with Nature
airs FRIDAY, June 29, 10-11 p.m. ET on the ABC Television Network.
Greenpeace co-founder Patrick Moore, who has quit Greenpeace, says the
environmental movement has been hijacked by political activists.
"They're using environmental rhetoric to cloak agendas like class warfare and
anti-corporatism that, in fact, have almost nothing to do with ecology,"
Moore tells Stossel.
Lately, the greenhouse effect and global warming have been all over
the news. But Stossel interviews climatologists who say there is no
consensus that global warming is harming the planet. They point to the
often-overlooked fact that huge piles of federal funding are at stake.
Says Pat Michaels of the University of Virginia: "Let's imagine
there's a senate hearing, and the senator who disburses the funds goes to the
administrator of NASA and says, 'I've heard global warming is the most
serious problem confronting mankind. Can your agency use another $2
billion a year to study this thing?' What's he gonna say? No?"
Moreover, Stossel points out that even if greenhouse gases were restricted, at a
cost of trillions of dollars to U.S. taxpayers, it is estimated that
this would prevent a rise in temperature of only a fraction of a degree.
Despite great improvements in the U.S. environment, schoolkids are
often given one-sided presentations about the horrors of industrial society.
Some educators and activists are enlisting students to protest the
Bush White House as part of their school curriculum, and are delivering
presentations that leave some kids fearful about the fate of humanity.
"If we don't stop [global warming]," says one student, "we could all
die."
Stossel then turns to cloning and interviews Dr. Panos Zavos, who
hopes to clone human beings soon with new technology. "It's a marvelous thing,"
says Zavos, a reproductive specialist who wants to help infertile
couples have babies. "We have more than 1,000 couples that want to be cloned,"
he says. Anti-cloning activist Rev. Patrick Mahoney disagrees, asking
what will become of deformed children created by this new technique. "Who
takes care of that child?"
Stossel reports that genetic engineering is already saving lives
through cutting-edge medical treatments, despite activists' fears. Biotech is
also helping to make food more plentiful, as with bovine growth
hormone that increases milk production. But as Stossel finds out, even though
the World Health Organization, the FDA and the AMA all say milk from cows
given bovine growth hormone is perfectly safe, activists condemn it,
one New York protester even likening it to "crack for cows."
Many of us romanticize the simple life of groups like the Pilgrims,
but life without modern technology is tough-often fatal. Half the
Pilgrims died. That's something to keep in mind when people insist that we
should never "tamper with nature." Stossel concludes that we alter our
environment not to destroy but "to make our lives better in a hundred
ways."
ABCNEWS.com, the 24-hour news service of ABC News and part of the Walt
Disney Internet Group, will provide companion programming to the
broadcast.
Victor Neufeld is the senior executive producer of Tampering with
Nature, Martin Phillips the executive producer, and Deborah Colloton and Mark
Golden the producers.
Engineering, Human Cloning and Global Warming, in a One-Hour Special,
Tampering with Nature with John Stossel, Airing Friday, June 29
In a one-hour special, ABC News Correspondent John Stossel
investigates the outcry over genetic engineering and human cloning and challenges
the dire warnings surrounding global warming and bovine growth hormone.
Why have recent advances in science been met with fear, protests, even
acts of terrorism? Why is the industrial society that helped make our
comfortable lives possible treated with suspicion and contempt? Stossel challenges
the activists who say we're destroying the earth's ecosystem with
everything from genetic engineering to greenhouse gases. Tampering with Nature
airs FRIDAY, June 29, 10-11 p.m. ET on the ABC Television Network.
Greenpeace co-founder Patrick Moore, who has quit Greenpeace, says the
environmental movement has been hijacked by political activists.
"They're using environmental rhetoric to cloak agendas like class warfare and
anti-corporatism that, in fact, have almost nothing to do with ecology,"
Moore tells Stossel.
Lately, the greenhouse effect and global warming have been all over
the news. But Stossel interviews climatologists who say there is no
consensus that global warming is harming the planet. They point to the
often-overlooked fact that huge piles of federal funding are at stake.
Says Pat Michaels of the University of Virginia: "Let's imagine
there's a senate hearing, and the senator who disburses the funds goes to the
administrator of NASA and says, 'I've heard global warming is the most
serious problem confronting mankind. Can your agency use another $2
billion a year to study this thing?' What's he gonna say? No?"
Moreover, Stossel points out that even if greenhouse gases were restricted, at a
cost of trillions of dollars to U.S. taxpayers, it is estimated that
this would prevent a rise in temperature of only a fraction of a degree.
Despite great improvements in the U.S. environment, schoolkids are
often given one-sided presentations about the horrors of industrial society.
Some educators and activists are enlisting students to protest the
Bush White House as part of their school curriculum, and are delivering
presentations that leave some kids fearful about the fate of humanity.
"If we don't stop [global warming]," says one student, "we could all
die."
Stossel then turns to cloning and interviews Dr. Panos Zavos, who
hopes to clone human beings soon with new technology. "It's a marvelous thing,"
says Zavos, a reproductive specialist who wants to help infertile
couples have babies. "We have more than 1,000 couples that want to be cloned,"
he says. Anti-cloning activist Rev. Patrick Mahoney disagrees, asking
what will become of deformed children created by this new technique. "Who
takes care of that child?"
Stossel reports that genetic engineering is already saving lives
through cutting-edge medical treatments, despite activists' fears. Biotech is
also helping to make food more plentiful, as with bovine growth
hormone that increases milk production. But as Stossel finds out, even though
the World Health Organization, the FDA and the AMA all say milk from cows
given bovine growth hormone is perfectly safe, activists condemn it,
one New York protester even likening it to "crack for cows."
Many of us romanticize the simple life of groups like the Pilgrims,
but life without modern technology is tough-often fatal. Half the
Pilgrims died. That's something to keep in mind when people insist that we
should never "tamper with nature." Stossel concludes that we alter our
environment not to destroy but "to make our lives better in a hundred
ways."
ABCNEWS.com, the 24-hour news service of ABC News and part of the Walt
Disney Internet Group, will provide companion programming to the
broadcast.
Victor Neufeld is the senior executive producer of Tampering with
Nature, Martin Phillips the executive producer, and Deborah Colloton and Mark
Golden the producers.