But they're the bad guys!

The education system in the United States could very easily be renamed the "Liberal Indoctrination System".  As a college student at a fairly conservative university, I don't see a lot of the socialist, liberal blather that seems to plague other schools (I'm looking at you, IU).  Even from my classmates and professors, I don't hear much of it.  Being a geology student, I do get earfuls of climate change, but I wouldn't describe it as the alarmism that marks the type of people who use the #sandy hashtag on twitter.

I just started taking classes in the Natural Resources and Environmental Science department.  All I have to say is that I found the socialists.  Apparently, the best (only?) way to take care of our environment is by government regulation and the dismantling of our economy.

But Vol, you say, doesn't the government just screw everything up that they stick their dirty little fingers into!?  I agree, wholeheartedly, but apparently, the future environmental policy lawyers and environmental remediation technicians don't.

The incident that sparked this little discussion happened in a lecture that I attended this morning.  In a class of about 50 students, the lecturer showed several video clips detailing the use of an agricultural herbicide called atrazine.  On one side, we had Syngenta, the company that markets atrazine based herbicides to U.S. consumers. The other videos followed the research of Tyrone B. Hayes at UC Berkeley, who is studying the effect of the chemical on frogs.

Without going into the chemistry and biology of the situation, I'll give a brief overview of the class discussion.  I'll list the information presented to the class.

1. Atrazine is banned in Europe, but not the U.S., U.K., Australia and Canada.
2. Dr. Hayes' study has shown that atrazine affects the hormonal chemistry in frogs, causing demasculinization.
3. Dr. Hayes used to be funded by Syngenta, but when he initially criticized use of the chemical, he was effectively fired.
4. Syngenta funded two privately conducted studies in two different countries on the effects of atrazine on animals.
5. In the EPA's review of atrazine, no human epidemiological studies were considered because of variability in the causes of human conditions.
6. Ultimately, the EPA approved the use of atrazine in the U.S.

The class discussion centered around whether atrazine use should continue, be banned, or continue with heavy regulation.  Multiple students voiced concern that Syngenta was only looking to turn a profit, didn't care about the people or agricultural production, etc.  I was trading comments (or arguments) with a young woman across the room, when I was interrupted by a guy at the table next to me.  In front of the entire class, he exclaimed, "but the corporations are the bad guys!".  All I said was "thanks for showing your inherent bias", and I turned back to my legitimate conversation.

Seriously, these people are looking at the issue from the standpoint that every single corporation is out the get us.  Sure, guys, lets let the government take over and while we're at it, lets go back to till farming and all it's great erosionary benefits.