For example, witness what is happening to the Ontario nuclear industry. A few years ago, nuclear power was widely viewed as the obvious future source of electricity for a province deficient in fossil fuels, but with lots of uranium. The rationale for nuclear power generation is probably stronger in 1998 than it ever was, given growing concerns about greenhouse gas emissions. But years of mismanagement and deception have taken their toll. Ontario seems destined to move away from nuclear energy, even though the alternatives may be worse from perspectives of both environmental quality and human health.
Faulty communications can have enormous consequences.
Yet public distrust of pesticides now prevails, even though the benefits remain as large as ever, and even though the alternatives to pesticide usage are often more damaging to the environment and ultimate human well-being than the technology which they replace. The same fate may await agricultural biotechnology. For, just as with pesticides, there are risks as well as benefits. Weeds will eventually become resistant to Roundup and Liberty. Murphy's law prevails.