Frankenforests: GE Trees Threaten Ecosystem Collapse

Frankenforests: GE Trees Threaten Ecosystem Collapse

By Dara Colwell, AlterNet. Posted August 2, 2007.

Across the U.S. and the world, the timber industry is driving research behind genetically engineered forests. But environmentalists worry that it will open an ecological Pandora's Box.

In China over a million poplar trees have been planted since 2002 to combat deforestation. But the move has not been widely applauded by everyone. The poplars, which are genetically engineered, are China's first foray into the world of transgenic forestry -- or "frankenforests" -- and other countries are not far behind.



The Crash of 1929: Are We on the Verge of a Repeat?
By Scott Thill
AlterNet

Thursday 26 July 2007

...If this is beginning to sound like a game of Monopoly built on fake money, that's because it is. By injecting so many invented shares into the market using naked shorting, hedge funds have not only created an economy in which they can manipulate the stocks of companies smaller than Microsoft and Wal-Mart, but they have also created a market in which there are more shares than actual stocks. And that's about as hyperreal as an economy can get...