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Name the Most Important Happening(s) of the Past 50 Years

Discussion in 'Fred's House of Pancakes' started by dbermanmd, Jul 10, 2006.

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  1. dbermanmd

    dbermanmd New Member

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    <div class='quotetop'>QUOTE(SSimon @ Jul 10 2006, 03:46 PM) [snapback]284006[/snapback]</div>
    Below is the reference and a review. You might find it interesting reading. The editorial looked at HIV/AIDS , the # of humans infected, the costs related to the infection and calculated the benefit of trying to cure it and got a ROI - even the halting of the disease process gave one a ROI... You will find the author to I believe be a believer in global warming - only not that we should invest a disporportionate amount of limited resources in it at this time.

    In The Skeptical Environmentalist Bjørn Lomborg challenges widely held beliefs that the global environment is progressively getting worse. Using statistical information from internationally recognized research institutes, Lomborg systematically examines a range of major environmental issues and documents that the global environment has actually improved. He supports his argument with over 2900 footnotes, allowing discerning readers to check his sources.

    Lomborg criticizes the way many environmental organizations make selective and misleading use of scientific data to influence decisions about the allocation of limited resources. The Skeptical Environmentalist is a useful corrective to the more alarmist accounts favored by green activists and the media.

    "... probably the most important book on the environment ever written."

    review in The Daily Telegraph, UK, 27-8-01

    "This is one of the most valuable books on public policy - not merely on environmental policy - to have been written for the intelligent general reader in the past ten years. ... The Skeptical Environmentalist is a triumph.

    review in The Economist, 6-9-01

    "The Skeptical Environmentalist is the most significant work on the environment since the appearance of its polar opposite, Rachel Carson's Silent Spring, in 1962. It's a magnificent achievement."

    review in Washington Post Book World, 21-10-01
     
    #21 dbermanmd, Jul 10, 2006
  2. Godiva

    Godiva AmeriKan Citizen

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    Polio Vaccine

    Man walking on the Moon

    MRI

    DNA/Gene mapping

    Internet

    And of course the Prius and it's descendants.
     
    #22 Godiva, Jul 10, 2006
  3. airportkid

    airportkid Will Fly For Food

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    The civil rights movement. The abolishment of apartheid in South Africa. The (bloodless!) dissolution of the Soviet Union as it caved in to civil rights pressures. The formation of the EU. Formal international recognition of genocide as a "crime against humanity" to which perpetrators can be held criminally accountable, and similarly for the war crimes legal precedents established by the Nuremburg trials.

    The rise of environmental movements capable of decellerating, even halting, raw, heedless economic expansion; the growing recognition what man can wreak can have planetwide consequence.

    Plastics. Made limitless material invention possible (wonderful); also made planned obsolescence (e.g. "disposable") a trillion dollar opportunity (less wonderful).

    Television. Its effects are various and profound. It's made the whole planet immediate and local. It's also sharply skewed what we rank as important, so much so that image matters more than context. It has made us not just susceptible to propaganda, but dependent on propaganda (our economy would collapse utterly were advertising outlawed except for print ads limited to statements of fact).

    Those are what stand at the top of mind, and in general rank of importance.

    Mark Baird
    Alameda CA
     
    #23 airportkid, Jul 10, 2006
  4. Jeannie

    Jeannie Proud Prius Granny

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    <div class='quotetop'>QUOTE(dbermanmd @ Jul 10 2006, 10:16 AM) [snapback]283793[/snapback]</div>
    You're going back more than 50 years.

    If you extend that '50' to '75' I'd add:
    The computer
    The personal computer
    The Xerox machine
    The Civil Rights movement
    The Women's movement.
    The Space Race
    The fall of the "Iron Curtain"
     
    #24 Jeannie, Jul 10, 2006
  5. hv74656

    hv74656 Member

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    Interstate Highways. They are good because they allow people and goods to get to other places relatively quickly. They are bad because they killed main streets and downtowns across the country and take jobs away from residential areas.

    And because I work for Disney, I have to add Disneyland to the list, which is celebrating its 50th anniversary. Now I feel sick. :wacko:
     
    #25 hv74656, Jul 10, 2006
  6. Mystery Squid

    Mystery Squid Junior Member

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    MY birthday biatches!
     
    #26 Mystery Squid, Jul 10, 2006
  7. Salsawonder

    Salsawonder New Member

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    I agree with the development of plastics and similar items. Without this field we would be in a world of hurt. I can still remember sterilizing a glass syringe and needle for my grandmother's B12 shots.

    Without the internet you can survive but you have to work a lot harder. I am learning Italian, I plan trips, buy items, talk to my daughter in Italy, (could talk to a number of people (guys) but I'll pass on Mikel from Egypt, etc.)

    Any Rights' movement is important. Treating any population as less because of a physical difference is wrong and limits the ability of a society to develop. Homosexuality is a physical difference, not a choice.

    Treatment of Mental Illness has come a very long way since the development of Thorazine in 1955. We still have a ways to go.

    Development of new methods of transportation, improved fuel and fuel usage are an absolute must.

    Maintaining an active research community is necessary and something we should all support. Your life may be the one saved, changed, improved by the next great discovery.

    And yes Squid, your birthday is very important to many people....
     
    #27 Salsawonder, Jul 10, 2006
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