We've done it again... we figured out that something we thought was completely good was in fact bad. I'm talking about this article on Trees - or this one from the BBC. Everyone knows that deforestation is evil right? Well, think again. Did you ever think that we'd find out that whiping out all those trees may have actually been a good thing? Me neither. When I read this, I had two thoughts running through my mind. The first was that science can make mistakes. Even when we think we have it all figured out. I've had many discussions about things like this with people, on topics like geneticly engineered crops and such. No, I'm not against GE, but I think its arrogant and unwise to think that we know *everything* about *anything*. Maybe we're missing something in the genetic engineering, something which we just don't know about yet. Again, I'm personally not against GE, but meerly using it as an example. The other thought I had was, "God planned for the destruction of the Earth, and there's nothing we can do about it." Afterall, He didn't create the Earth to last forever.
Another not really related article, on the effects of abortions in India. Basically, the whole thing is about Sex selection. Although it's been banned in India for 10 years, the numbers tell a significantly different story. In 2001, 933 girls born per 1000 boys. Now, stop for a minute. That's *births*. This means the ratio of females to males aborted is significantly higher. Obviously trying to fix this evil by legislation didn't work. Maybe, just maybe, allowing abortions for any old reason isn't such a good idea.
First off, a true scientist would never admit that we know everything about something. And of course science can make mistakes - especially in biological related fields - it's full of dynamic systems and it is difficult to control for all variables.
About the trees/deforestation - it's all about moderation/equilibrium. In most cases too much or too little of anything is a bad idea. And until we build a time machine of some sort, we'll never fully know the long term effects of certain things (in your case, genetic engineering; not what I would use for an example - but I won't get into my GE/hybridization rant) until it's too late.
I love how so many people claim to be experts on the environment, or at least profess a knowledge of what we have to do to prevent global warming, save the ozone layer, prevent global cooling, or whatever the hot topic happens to be, but then we always find out something new (or sometimes just collect more data) and it seriously questions their premises. As an only tangentially related point, did you know that 2004 (I believe it was) had the cleanest air levels (in the U.S.) since the EPA started monitoring them? Not something you hear much about from the environmental lobby.
What I'd really wanted to comment on was the abortion, though. India (and China) are facing a major demographic problem, with males far outnumbering females. Doesn't bode well for stability in the region. However, not all of these are abortions. Mostly in rural India, baby girls are sometimes killed, and just not reported as being born. There's some of that in China, as well, very gruesome stuff. Also, in China, the government enforces its one-child policy through forced abortions and other barbaric means. It's all quite nasty.
I saw a documentary a few years ago on the problem of bride burning in India and they talked about this. They interviewed one doctor that said it was very common for there to be an ultrasound clinic and abortion clinic side by side. He said in the time he had been practicing, he had performed 3,000 abortions, only one on a boy baby.