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Nature: It’s Out to Kill You and Your Children

  • Broadcast in Education
The World Transformed

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Hosts Phil Bowermaster and Stephen Gordon debate the proposition that nature is hostile to life.

 

We begin with a tweet from David Frum.

Nature wants 5 of your 7 children dead. It wants you dead by 50. Everything better than that is brought to you by science and technology.

True or false?

 

Nature is full of carnivores and parasites, relying on them to make the whole system work. Does that mean nature wants us dead? On the other hand, it has enabled us to evolve intelligence to take on the challenges the natural world presents to us.

 

  • Does it make sense to say nature “wants” anything?
  • Can technology really be called “natural?” When beavers build dams, that’s nature. When humans build dams, it’s not. Huh?
  • Why does respect for nature often create anti-human sentiments?


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