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"Cynical" doesn't quite cover it
Gosh, I am ever so glad I've never bought in to those totally hysterical doomsday screechings of OMG if we don't do something about global warming the North Pole might be almost melted in summertime within 50 years and OMGWTFF what will we DO THEN?!! There could be hotter and longer and dryer droughts! And increased forest fires!! And stronger hurricanes and storms!!! Within our kids' lifetimes!!!
Arctic Ice Cap could be gone in summer by 2012, says NASA
Of course, this is NASA saying all of this, so really, what do they know. Buncha hippie faux-scientists and mouthpieces of the granola establishment.
There's this post I've written and rewritten in my head so many times in the last few months/years with every other news report. But I can't write it, it makes me too ill. Basically it's a explanation of why I'm no longer so proud to be Canadian. I'm pretty miserably ashamed of my country and my countrymen and women and my leaders. I can't think of us as the good guys any more.
I think history will judge us with the same baffled disbelief that we currently judge the people who came to the Americas and slaughtered millions in order to enrich their home lands; the people of Easter Island, who blindly destroyed their own ecosystem and their culture in the quest for bigger and grander statues; the slave traders who brought humans to be brutally used and discarded for their cheap labour. The disbelief of How the hell could you be so blind, how could you not see the harm you were doing, how could the pursuit of things make you so blind to the destruction and suffering you were causing to others - or even to yourself and your children?
How could you not see that? And when you did see, how could you not care?
Yeah I'll have to stop there. It's too fucking depressing.
Arctic Ice Cap could be gone in summer by 2012, says NASA
Of course, this is NASA saying all of this, so really, what do they know. Buncha hippie faux-scientists and mouthpieces of the granola establishment.
There's this post I've written and rewritten in my head so many times in the last few months/years with every other news report. But I can't write it, it makes me too ill. Basically it's a explanation of why I'm no longer so proud to be Canadian. I'm pretty miserably ashamed of my country and my countrymen and women and my leaders. I can't think of us as the good guys any more.
I think history will judge us with the same baffled disbelief that we currently judge the people who came to the Americas and slaughtered millions in order to enrich their home lands; the people of Easter Island, who blindly destroyed their own ecosystem and their culture in the quest for bigger and grander statues; the slave traders who brought humans to be brutally used and discarded for their cheap labour. The disbelief of How the hell could you be so blind, how could you not see the harm you were doing, how could the pursuit of things make you so blind to the destruction and suffering you were causing to others - or even to yourself and your children?
How could you not see that? And when you did see, how could you not care?
Yeah I'll have to stop there. It's too fucking depressing.
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True enough... but then, the world has actually gone to hell in a handbasket in some areas, a number of times. See above for examples. And each time there were clear indications that what was going on was wrong, and could and should be changed... but since changing, fixing, and averting disaster/gross injustice entailed making sacrifices, it was much easier to simply say, "We don't know enough to decide for sure" rather than actually do something about it.
but it isn't clear how much of a problem it is (as all predictions are based on imperfect models) or what the best thing to do about it is short of killing off 90% of the human population.
We'll probably have to agree to disagree on that one. It isn't clear how much of a problem it is, that's true - just like it isn't clear exactly how big a detriment to health is caused by smoking. Does that mean we shouldn't get into a tizzy and tell people to stop smoking until we absolutely know for sure that it's bad for them? Or can we say "We're not 100% sure exactly how bad it is, but all indications point to Really, Really Bad. So, um, stop. Now."
As to not knowing what's the best thing to do about it, you're right - we don't know what's best to do about it. But it appears that we take that and run with it and say that we just won't do anything. Or we do so little that we almost may as well not bother.
We know how to make cleaner cars. We don't make them, and to a large extent we don't buy them. We know that public transportation is a good thing. We don't invest in it. We know large cars are harmful to the environment, even when they're supposedly fuel efficient. We have no penalties for buying them. We know urban sprawl is a problem. We don't rezone. We know air travel is harmful. We don't make airlines and air passengers pay more to (inadequately) offset their pollution. We know how to make houses that use less power to heat/cool themselves. We don't pass laws to make using less power part of regular building codes.
Many other places in the world are doing all of the above, sometimes at some sacrifice to their own economies/comfort levels, based on the exact same access to scientific evidence for global warming that we have, because they choose to focus on the overwhelming scientific evidence of the considerable environmental cost of doing nothing. We choose to focus instead on the few credible scientists here and there who say there's very little/no problem, and the many politicians who tell us that doing something will likely cost us money/energy/comfort, and continue our business as usual.
That, to me, is shameful.