It wasn’t just an acknowledgement of error. It was the recantation of an agenda.
On January 3, British activist Mark Lynas apologized to a gathering of academics at Oxford for his staunch opposition to the production and distribution of genetically modified organisms (GMOs). Lynas cogently detailed a number of reasons why he was both wrong and wrongheaded in the role he played spearheading the anti-GMO movement in Europe. Wrong, because of specific factual errors and oversights. Wrongheaded, for choosing passionate advocacy over disinterested science.
Some environmental activists have been publicly and predictably apoplectic over Lynas’ conversion. “It is a measure of the sorry state of many environmental debates that such a calm statement before a polite audience of academics would cause such a ruckus,” wrote one commentator.
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Actually, the reaction by the activists is totally understandable. They know that a public conversion like Lynas’ is potential dynamite. It creates celebrity where there was none before. Lynas, famed in Europe, was relatively unknown in the U.S until this current controversy and the significant media attention and social media commentary that were subsequently garnered stateside.
View the full article here: ‘I Was Wrong:’ How One Activist’s Apology Changes the GMO Debate
