A UK publication, Corporate Watch, has an interview with Jim Thomas of the ETC group. The piece raises some interesting development dilemmas – is it better to open cast mine copper in Zambia, or is the alternative the replacement of copper by carbon nanotubes. Highly unlikely in the short term, we know, but if groups such as ETC ate forced to choose between environmental benefits or African unemployment which way will they jump?
Perhaps more chilling is the final paragraph. Corporate Watch is currently launching a new project to map the nanotechnology industry, and providing campaigners with individual corporate targets. There are parallels with animal testing here, as the Corporate Watch home page warns that The Earth is not dying, it is being killed, and those who are killing it have names and addresses.
Given the misguided arguments thus far both for and against nanotech, can we expect a repeat of the confusion amongst angry mobs in the UK who started attacking paediatricians offices, mistaking them for paedophiles?