Taking scepticism with a grain of salt
I've just been reading The Economist's Technology supplement (June 9th issue) and they have quite an extensive article on recycling, finding that it can produce real environmental benefits across a range of different types of materials.That put me in mind of a Penn & Teller episode which allegedly debunked recycling of just about everything except aluminium cans, saying there were no environmental benefits and in fact some environmental costs to most programmes.
Penn & Teller have apparently backed down (see Wikipedia link above) over a similar episode covering passive smoking, where they claimed there was no evidence that passive smoking did any harm. They say they will correct that in a future episode, so good on them for that.
But will they have to do the same on recycling? And where will it end? God, they could even be wrong on climate change (or feng shui, ESP and fad diets!).
posted by Rob O'Neill at 4:28 PM
5 Comments:
They completely had me the other night with a good job on the 12-step programmes, although I fell asleep so I don't know how they did on the follow-through. Certitude can take you a long way in television. Truth, of course, has always been slow on lacing its boots.
Anyway, that's by the by. You've been getting stingy on the lollies lately, Rob. What's the story?
Yes, agreed, sorry about that David. (I know, you only read it for the articles). Truth to tell Lollies has become something of a chore, and blogging shouldn't be a chore.
I'm not sure if their claims about recycling are true or not, but either way that episode was one of the most entertaining I'd seen in a LONG time.
The Economist begs to disagree.
I think.
hmmm jewish god .... sounds familiar
Post a Comment
Links to this post:
Create a Link
<< Home