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Originally Posted by Torka
the greens despite having economic policy I like are anti-science and full of the sort of munters who believe in homeopathy
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This is why I didn't vote for them until 2008. I'm still not entirely happy with their views here, but TBH I think I was overstating just how anti-science they are compared to other parties. On the one hand you have support for "alternative medicines"*, nutty ideas about restricting EM radiation and cellphone tower scaremongering.
Then you have their anti-GM stance, which is presented in a decidedly anti-science way but actually if you look at their policies regarding GM they're not that bad. New Zealand's ecosystem is unique in the world and we already have loads of problems with foreign organisms of all types destroying our indigenous life, it makes sense to restrict the introduction of new types of plants/organisms, regardless of whether they're GM or not. At least until the science around GM has been matured to the point where we can accurately judge how they will interact with our environment. I think GM/GE could be the most important scientific field mankind has ever researched, but I'm fine with confining it to a lab for now, at least in NZ.
The thing is, all these points are small fries compared to the big kahuna, Climate Change. Bottom line is governments have dragged their feet over this issue for far too long. As far as judging parties based on the impact their understanding of science will have on society, the biggest anti-science party out there is ACT, not the Greens, and National have shown that they're mainly interested in slowing down progress in this area.
EVEN IF you don't think the Greens policies are the best way to combat it, the fact is that National and even Labour are not doing enough, and the more support the Greens get the more resources and effort the larger parties will put into actually solving the problem.
Overall, despite what anti-science positions the Green party has, they're still the best pro-science choice available, because of their positions on climate change and sustainable living.
*Tim Minchin on "alternative medicine"
http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=HhGuX...eature=related