It is no Occident
Myron and associates are acting like rats whose tails have been bitten by a snake, over the release of the Republican Party appeaser Al Gore's movie An Inconvenient Truth. Unforgiveably, the title contains the word "Truth" in it.
On the one side of this manufactured debate we have the dire and quantitative predictions of a threat to the human species possibly more severe and less invisible than a meteor on a collision course with the Earth.
And on the other, there's Myron lying about the statistics, producing crap TV ads about the importance of neon lights and fat children in cars, and smearing the movie's main narrator.
Let's put this down straight. The attacks on Gore have been particularly feeble. For example, Myron says:
Now Gore's history of involvement with Occidental Petroleum is an utter disgrace, but Myron can't mention it because he would expose the fact that all oil companies are fundamentally evil, especially Exxon.
Likewise, Gore's spectacular betrayal of the majority of the country in the year 2000 also can't be mentioned, because it would remind people that the election was stolen.
So we're left with a weak yellow-eyed critique of the wastefulness of Al Sore's book tour. Said Myron:
On the one side of this manufactured debate we have the dire and quantitative predictions of a threat to the human species possibly more severe and less invisible than a meteor on a collision course with the Earth.
And on the other, there's Myron lying about the statistics, producing crap TV ads about the importance of neon lights and fat children in cars, and smearing the movie's main narrator.
Let's put this down straight. The attacks on Gore have been particularly feeble. For example, Myron says:
I've watched him for a long time. I don't know that he holds any surprisesThen he explains how much life deteriorate if we attempted to avert global warming rather than take its severe consequences:
Mr. Gore has always promoted causes that would require taking decisions away from the people and putting them in the hands of an expert elite. Mr. Gore's ideal would be to give each person a book of energy rationing coupons and every year put fewer coupons in the book. It is a program of mandatory energy starvation.Pathetic.
Now Gore's history of involvement with Occidental Petroleum is an utter disgrace, but Myron can't mention it because he would expose the fact that all oil companies are fundamentally evil, especially Exxon.
Likewise, Gore's spectacular betrayal of the majority of the country in the year 2000 also can't be mentioned, because it would remind people that the election was stolen.
So we're left with a weak yellow-eyed critique of the wastefulness of Al Sore's book tour. Said Myron:
While the CEI video pokes fun at Mr. Gore's profligate consumption of the world's petroleum resources, we don't begrudge his lifestyle that requires using as much energy as a small village in America or a medium-sized town in Africa. The mobility that jet fuel and gasoline provide is a good thing and the benefits of abundant energy should be available to all people, not just the elite. CEI calls on Mr. Gore to stop preaching against the petroleum products he uses so lavishly and instead join us in promoting access to energy. I also can't help but wonder how much energy will be wasted while showing An Inconvenient Truth in empty, air-conditioned theaters across the nation.This is no good. No good at all. Your children will die in the world you have fought to bring on, Mr Ebell. As long as you can drive them to school when they are young, you don't care what happens later.
posted by goatchurch Perma-link
7 Comments:
Dear Sir,
I do find it offensive the Mr. Gore is so willing to waste energy resources to promote his film while he is perfectly willing to sentence working class people of no importance, like myself, to lives without the glamour of travel, electricity, or cheap plastic goods. I find it exceedingly classist and elitist of both you and Mr. Gore to assume that I do not deserve a comfortable standard of living merely because I do not contribute anything to this Earth that my presence is destroying that is as valuable as his film or your blog.
I use resources, sure. But so do you. How much gas does your car use? How much electricity powers your house? Please do not hold others to energy use standards that you would not follow.
Julia
Dear Julia,
You just don't get it, do you? Obviously presenting information to you so far has been a waste of energy. You will understand about it late enough, I'm sure.
As serious climate change happens, working class people like you with your at present "comfortable standard of living" will die first. You will be be flooded, you will go hungry, you will get diseases; and so will the 2 billion people on this earth who are much poorer than you because they can't eat today.
I find your debate about the perceived fairness of the cuts in fossil fuel use that we all must endure exceedingly tasteless at this point. This ship is going down. Measures must be taken. You can fight for a the burden to be more equitably shared -- after the work has begun and it's real. Arguing about it like this beforehand is your way of preventing anything from happening until it's too late.
That's what you want, isn't it?
You, Julia are a peasant and should shut up and do what you are told. Mr Gore on the other hand is a leader and his use of energy is for the good of all. If you were not so ignorant you would understand this and be grateful.
That's the message, isn't it Goatchurch? Do you convert many people to your cause like that?
We can of course all make a difference to climate change through the energy we use at home, at work and in travel. But promoting low energy lighbulbs, high speed rail instead of air travel, bicycling short journies and dinky foreign automobiles over American SUVs dosn't quite fit with your agenda of restricting the freedom of the masses.
Travel is a human right. It is how we learn about other countries, cultures and lifestyles. This is why fascist and communist regimes are so keen to restrict it. But I can make the same journies in my efficient little car as I could in a 10mpg SUV. Far more with the same amount of fuel in fact. Did you know that the United Kingdom government has reduced the rate of car tax to zero for the most effecient vehicles and increased the rate for the SUV class to make up for it. I'm sure you'll join me in welcoming that move.
Remind us, how did you travel to China?
Dear Mr Anonymous Coward,
You are free to read whatever you like into my words. But when you say I support the idea that "Mr Gore... is a leader and his use of energy is for the good of all" you are lying.
I comdemn Mr Gore and everything he is and ever has been. But what the hell has he got to do with the emergency of climate change? Your attacks on the messenger make you blind to the message. What is it trying to achieve?
Don't you realize, whether you like it or not, the situation has now gone beyond low-energy light bulbs and high speed trains. Something has got to be done now, seriously, on a global level. It's frightening. This is not the time for more bickering. Those who want nothing to be done are warning us about how unfair it will be. They are lying. We can force the change to be as fair as we like.
I fully agree, travel is a human right. Fast, convenient, car travel is not a human right. Cars are not the only form of transport. Cars have displaced other forms of transport that would have been available to poor people who do not have cars. If you own a car, you cannot be poor; where did you get the money to buy that car?
I travelled to China for 6 weeks by plane. Ships no longer take passengers because it's uneconomical. It will become economical once again when plane travel -- which, believe it or not, is not the only form of international transport -- returns to its proper price.
Many of these ships will be wind-powered, like they used to be, only with much much better materials and design.
Dear Sir,
Your use of slurs bespeaks an illiberal mind that cannot convince, and so must insult. Really, you know nothing about my "comfortable standard of living", which I'll wager is much less ecologically intrusive than your own, unless you are using a hand pump generator to power your computer and modem. Lookit, if you find this so immediately important, why don't you start a MySpace? Then tweens everywhere might get the message.
Furthermore, it is extremely odd that you suggest that I want the Earth to... implode? melt? be overrun by mutant ants? I love this planet because it provides a place for human activity. We are the most important thing here, sir. What exactly are you trying to save Earth for if not for people like me and the gentle anonymous?
Please do think about why you want to preserve Earth since you obviously do not care about unteachable ignorant troglodytes like myself. And maybe make yourself a cup of tea. You seem to be rather tightly wound.
Julia
What are you talking about? What slurs?
Look, if you love this planet, fine. How do you know it loves you and thinks that human activity is the most important thing in the world?
The planet is okay. The planet does not need to be saved. The planet is going nowhere. WE, on the other hand, ARE SCREWED. The planet's environment is changing to something which we cannot live with comfortably. And by comfort, I mean not being able to grow enough food to eat. Do you know what going hungry feels like?
The other thing you are evidently mixed up about is the difference between "Using much less" and "Using none". This would account for why you said I should be using a hand generator to power my computer. I am sure that the refridgerator and having lights on at night, when I could go to bed early and get up with the dawn, would make a bigger difference.
This entire comment post has been nothing but an insult, in case you don't bother to read it. Carry on as usual. Thank you.
"Julia" sounds like Myron Ebell's 21 year old daughter. Please, Julia, have the courage to out yourself. Scary that Myron Ebell's pseudo-intellectual babel snowed his family. What would the Ebells do without daddy's handsome salary from the oil companies.
Sam
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