Simplistic technical solutions to complex environmental problems
Nature
Complex environmental problems evoke ingenious technical solutions which can easily do more to exacerbate the problems, or others related to them, than to alleviate them. Such solutions may seem very attractive in the short-term, provided little attention is given to examining their longer-term effects or provided that the importance of such effects can be denied.
Incidence
Pesticides and fertilizers have provided quick cures to the uncertainties of agriculture. Fossil fuels have been treated as the cheap solution to bountiful energy (as wood had been treated in earlier times). Chemicals such as chlorofluorocarbons were thought to be ideal solutions to a particular class of problems. The deliberate introduction of species to counteract some pest has in many cases created even greater problems. In 1990 a solution to the global warming problem has been put forward which involves the dumping of large amounts of iron into the oceans to stimulate the growth of marine algae to absorb excess carbon dioxide -- neglecting the surprise effects if such a project were to go awry.
Counter-claim
Once you have exhausted all possibilities and fail, there will be one solution, simple and obvious, highly visible to everyone else.
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Type
(F) Fuzzy exceptional problems