"Cynical" doesn't quite cover it

[ciroccoj]

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.

Comments

[ciroccoj.livejournal.com]

I think the argument can be made that those people in Bangladesh, Darfur and certainly in New Orleans were the victims of political mismanagment and/or government corruption not global warming.
It could, and it has. I don't buy it. My opinion is it was unhealthy doses of both. And I can't see governments suddenly becoming un-corrupt any time soon, especially when it comes to helping people deal with these types of crises.

Which is why I can't see most people faring terribly well through the changes that are going to keep happening; Ottawa's, and Canada's, government might be able to pull up its bootstraps and dig us out of most messes, because we've got the cash and the political will. Most African governments? Most southeast Asian or Pacific governments? Most impoverished inner cities? Not enough money to deal, not enough infrastructure to withstand disasters, not enough commitment to social welfare of all (not just the ruling class), not enough impetus to help from the rest of the world.

They're poor and powerless and nobody will care if they get wiped out through mismanagement or war or climate change. And we'll just shrug and say it wasn't our fault for heating up the planet, but their own for not knowing how to manage themselves.

[daf9.livejournal.com]

I think our basic disagreement here ciroccoj comes about because I'm more of a cynic than you are. I give to local and international charities and do a number of things to reduce my carbon footprint (the fuel efficient car, the warm in summer cool in winter house, using compact fluorescent light bulbs, energy efficient appliances, walking or public transportation when feasible, recycling etc.) but I see that stuff more as paying lip service to a social conscience than an effort that will significantly ameliorate the world's woes - particularly not those of the Third World.

Anyway I have no doubt said more than enough on this topic already.

My best wishes to you and your family for a happy holiday.