Word: argument
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Dates: during 1980-1989
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...This argument sounds innocent enough at first, but as McKibben realizes, it has problems. Part of what McKibben loves in nature is his house and his garden in the Adirondacks. He acknowledges that in the interests of the entire globe he might have to give up such space and energy-wasting luxuries...
...hopelessly mired in anthropocentrism, but I find McKibben's argument a bit elitist. The people who would suffer most by a general cutback in technology are those who don't have a house in the mountains. Citizens of underdeveloped countries and America's own poor depend on technolgy as a means of providing food, as a gateway to better lives. Who is to be sacrificed so that the wealthy of today and tommorow can enjoy gardens...
There is no doubt that hidden faults generate earthquakes. What remains controversial is how large such quakes might be. For the residents of Los Angeles, this is no academic argument. A quake under the center of the city would do far more damage than a tremor of the same size on the San Andreas Fault. Until more is known about the destructive potential of hidden faults, the people living over them will have to remain constantly alert...
...unlawful." It's not unlawful to kill combatants in wartime, or even to kill noncombatant civilians in the course of a legitimate military operation. It is "self- defense" to kill a head of state who is masterminding terrorist operations that threaten the national security of the U.S., the argument goes. But if the assassination ban forbids nothing that is otherwise lawful, it forbids nothing at all. It is like a law that says, "No drinking in places where drinking is not allowed...
...heart of Gilder's argument is the notion that the breakthroughs in quantum physics in the early 20th century, which provided the theoretical basis for microelectronics, also laid the groundwork for sweeping changes in the world's economy. In the past, a nation's wealth sprang from its natural resources and its ability to fashion raw materials into manufactured products. But the computer has put a premium on information, not raw materials or manufacturing prowess...