It's hard to imagine a day when I'll be thrilled to see the rapid growth of urban sprawl. Or embrace pesticides and go out of my way to buy Frankenfoods. (Except for the ones that I already like, of course.)

But according to Stewart Brand -- one of the pioneers of the green community -- this is the future of environmentalism.

The New York Times has a great profile on Brand, who, among many other projects, founded the Whole Earth Catalog in the '60s and kicked off the environmental movement. Today, he's viewed as genuine heretic because of his willingness to challenge many of our "romantic" (his word, not mine) ideas about the environment.

His ideas don't mesh with popular green concepts. In fact, they seem to be just the opposite. Nonetheless, his take on the issues -- which turn most of my present ideas on their head -- really are exciting to ponder.

Let's take genetically-modified foods. Stewart has embraces them as a way to protect the environment. After all, these crops are engineered to thrive with less pesticide in smaller fields. They can create microbes to protect ecosystems against invasive species and produce fuels.

How about the megacities which are exploding throughout Asia and India? Stewart speculates that as the farmers will naturally gravitate to opportunities in large cities, allowing farms to revert back to forests or nature preserves. I have to admit, I don't entirely follow his reasoning on this one, but he goes into more detail in an article in Technology Review.

Given our climate crisis, he is convinced that most environmentalists will put aside the risks of nuclear power and begin to champion it as an alternative energy source. As we've seen, that trend has already started to build among environmentalists.

I'm not sure what to think about many of these ideas, but I do welcome the chance to reconsider my own views and perhaps, expand my (admittedly limited) horizons. Clearly, he's willing to stir things up. What do you think?