Contents: Preface. 1. Biotechnology, Genetic Manipulation. 2. Environmental Risks of Biotechnology. 3. Biotechnology and Ethical Problems. 4. Hazards of Genetic Engineering. 5. Biosafety and CBD. 6. Convention on Biological Diversity. Bibliography. Index.
“With recombinant DNA technology it is now possible to snip, insert, recombine, rearrange, edit, programme and produce genetic material. We are creating new combinations of living things just as our ancestors were able to heat, burn, melt and solder together various inert materials creating new shapes, combinations and forms of inanimate matter. The transition from the Age of Pyrotechnology to the Age of Biotechnology is the most important and disturbing technology change in recorded history.
With this new-found ability to manipulate the very blueprint of living organisms, we assume a new role in the natural scheme of things. For the first time in history we become the architects of life itself. We become the creator and designer.
We begin to reprogram the genetic codes of living things to suit our own cultural and economic needs. We take on the task of crating a second genesis, this time a synthetic one geared to the requisites of efficiency and productivity. The short-term benefits of this extraordinary new power are seductive.
Yet, if history has taught us anything it is that every new technologies revolution brings with it both benefits and costs. The more powerful the technology is at expropriating and controlling the forces of nature, the more exacting the price we are forced to pay in terms of disruption and destruction wreaked on the ecosystem that sustain life. Certainly our recent experience with both the nuclear and petro-chemical revolution bears out this truth.
Genetic engineering represents the ultimate tool. It extends humanity’s reach over the forces of nature as no other technology in history, perhaps with the one exception of the nuclear bomb the ultimate expression of Age of Pyrotechnology.
This Book will be of immense help to all those contemplating to acquire an expert knowledge of risks related biotechnology and genetic engineering.”(jacket)
