Comments on: Book review – The Wizard and the Prophet: Two Remarkable Scientists and Their Conflicting Visions of the Future of Our Planet/2018/06/20/book-review-the-wizard-and-the-prophet-two-remarkable-scientists-and-their-conflicting-visions-of-the-future-of-our-planet/Reviewing fascinating science books since 2017Fri, 26 May 2023 11:22:51 +0000hourly1http://wordpress.com/By: Book review – Abundant Earth: Toward an Ecological Civilization | The Inquisitive Biologist/2018/06/20/book-review-the-wizard-and-the-prophet-two-remarkable-scientists-and-their-conflicting-visions-of-the-future-of-our-planet/comment-page-1/#comment-9273Mon, 27 Apr 2020 10:11:43 +0000http://inquisitivebiologist.wordpress.com/?p=1824#comment-9273[…] These two philosophies have a long history of clashing with each other, see also my reviews of The Wizard and the Prophet: Two Remarkable Scientists and Their Conflicting Visions of the Future of…, and Techno-Fix: Why Technology Won’t Save Us or the Environment and my review of More from […]

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]]>By: Book review – More from Less: The Surprising Story of How We Learned to Prosper Using Fewer Resources – And What Happens Next | The Inquisitive Biologist/2018/06/20/book-review-the-wizard-and-the-prophet-two-remarkable-scientists-and-their-conflicting-visions-of-the-future-of-our-planet/comment-page-1/#comment-9265Mon, 27 Apr 2020 10:08:53 +0000http://inquisitivebiologist.wordpress.com/?p=1824#comment-9265[…] writes McAfee), plentiful synthetic fertiliser thanks to the Haber-Bosch process, and (thank you Norman Borlaug) the Green […]

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]]>By: Book review – Abundant Earth: Toward an Ecological Civilization | The Inquisitive Biologist/2018/06/20/book-review-the-wizard-and-the-prophet-two-remarkable-scientists-and-their-conflicting-visions-of-the-future-of-our-planet/comment-page-1/#comment-6595Mon, 11 Nov 2019 12:58:24 +0000http://inquisitivebiologist.wordpress.com/?p=1824#comment-6595[…] These two philosophies have a long history of clashing with each other, see also my review of The Wizard and the Prophet: Two Remarkable Scientists and Their Conflicting Visions of the Future of…, and Techno-Fix: Why Technology Won’t Save Us or the Environment and More from Less: The […]

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]]>By: Book review – A Matter of Taste: A Farmers’ Market Devotee’s Semi-Reluctant Argument for Inviting Scientific Innovation to the Dinner Table | The Inquisitive Biologist/2018/06/20/book-review-the-wizard-and-the-prophet-two-remarkable-scientists-and-their-conflicting-visions-of-the-future-of-our-planet/comment-page-1/#comment-3164Tue, 12 Mar 2019 12:20:29 +0000http://inquisitivebiologist.wordpress.com/?p=1824#comment-3164[…] pitting of nature against science has roots that can be traced back to the 1930s (see my review of The Wizard and the Prophet: Two Remarkable Scientists and Their Conflicting Visions of the Future of…). In the wake of Pollan’s book, many other phenomena such as locavorism quickly became […]

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]]>By: Book review – An Essay on the Principle of Population: The 1803 Edition | The Inquisitive Biologist/2018/06/20/book-review-the-wizard-and-the-prophet-two-remarkable-scientists-and-their-conflicting-visions-of-the-future-of-our-planet/comment-page-1/#comment-994Tue, 14 Aug 2018 13:14:13 +0000http://inquisitivebiologist.wordpress.com/?p=1824#comment-994[…] mentioned in my review of The Wizard and the Prophet, the contemporary discussion of how to tackle our environmental woes has split into two opposing […]

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]]>By: inquisitivebiologist/2018/06/20/book-review-the-wizard-and-the-prophet-two-remarkable-scientists-and-their-conflicting-visions-of-the-future-of-our-planet/comment-page-1/#comment-861Tue, 17 Jul 2018 09:09:09 +0000http://inquisitivebiologist.wordpress.com/?p=1824#comment-861Thanks Michael, I think that is a fair characterisation. Vogtians definitely stress curbing consumption and making sacrifices, whereas Borlaugians lean towards techno-fixes.

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]]>By: Michael van Dyk/2018/06/20/book-review-the-wizard-and-the-prophet-two-remarkable-scientists-and-their-conflicting-visions-of-the-future-of-our-planet/comment-page-1/#comment-860Mon, 16 Jul 2018 21:53:36 +0000http://inquisitivebiologist.wordpress.com/?p=1824#comment-860This is an excellent review. From afar it sounds like a primary difference between the two points of view is the value placed on human life. Where the Vogtian sees an insurmountable obstacle that must be met by reducing human consumption (and by extension human reproduction and luxury), the Borlaugian, putting human life above all else, refuses to see that as an acceptable compromise and strives to pull a technocratic solution out of the ether. I can see the former strategy as more practical in the short term, whereas the latter strategy makes for the stuff of heroes.

Am I mistaken?

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]]>By: Book review – Dinner with Darwin: Food, Drink, and Evolution | The Inquisitive Biologist/2018/06/20/book-review-the-wizard-and-the-prophet-two-remarkable-scientists-and-their-conflicting-visions-of-the-future-of-our-planet/comment-page-1/#comment-793Wed, 20 Jun 2018 09:00:42 +0000http://inquisitivebiologist.wordpress.com/?p=1824#comment-793[…] future of food. He summarises the first green revolution and role of Norman Borlaug (more on him in The Wizard and the Prophet: Two Remarkable Scientists and Their Conflicting Visions of the Future of…) and stresses the importance of genetic engineering of crops in launching the second green […]

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