The man who diffused the population bomb and fathered The Green Revolution, Dr. Norman Borlaug died last week. His professional accomplishments are astounding and easily lengthened and in some instances literally saved millions of people from starvation. A column by Gregg Easterbrook at the following link is most enlightening and helps provide the full measure of his accomplishments.
http://online.wsj.com/article/SB10001424052970203917304574411382676924044.html
Easterbrook's column elicited a Letter to the Editor defending the work of Paul Ehrlich (criticized by Easterbrook) which included a quote from Borlaug's Nobel Prize award speech which included the following, " But the frightening power of human reproduction must also be curbed; otherwise the success of the Green Revolution will be ephemeral only." What are we to make of this quote? From where I sit, absolutely nothing is gained from inferring anything from this quote. Dr. Borlaug like many others before him saw a need, starvation and the resulting human misery and used the gifts given him by God to set about to alleviate and reduce hunger and starvation. Whatever else he may or may not have thought about the problem of too many mouths for the available food supply, he spent his life creating an answer which did not include destroying the life he was trying to help. Western civilization is full of people of people who believe that life is a zero sum game with all new participants reducing the quality of life of those who proceeded them. Not so, the great characteristic of love is that it grows when watered with life. And vice versa. Here's to a life spent tirelessly working to better the human condition.
Eternal rest, grant unto them, O Lord,and let perpetual light shine upon them.
No comments:
Post a Comment