The Copenhagen summit begins this week-and frankly, if I were over there I would be more interested in how I could get my hands on one of those government flyers.
However, I had the misfortune to read this headline from the Town Hall Harlot today:
These are 56 newspapers that you cannot trust on the issue:
Never mind that most of those papers have a better reputation than Malkin-who has all the truthfulness of a bar girl telling you her mom is sick.
From my view in the cheap seats-“Climategate” just isn’t a big deal. Even if, and the facts are still far from conclusive on the subject, that one scientist try to supress evidence of some cooling trends-the simple truth is that there is some kind of problem with the Earth’s ecosphere.
When I watch idiots like Beck and others trying to argue that global warming is just a hoax, I can’t help but laugh. Maybe New York is not flooding next week-but the intelligent person buried deep within me tells me that pouring tons and tons of non-oxygen into the atmosphere can’t be good for the planet. Nor is an economy where every one depends on gasoline powered cars to get anywhere. ( I also happen to believe in the theory of peak oil-but that discussion should be separate from this one).
So I don’t understand the lather-except that I really do. Its about a selfish desire , because teabagger belief is at its heart, about real, bonafide selfishness, to not have to make any changes in the American lifestyle of conspicuous consumption.
The simple truth is that the major economies of the world need to make changes to halt the erosion in our environment. China and the US are ill positioned to do so-yet they are the worst offenders. China-because it values profit over progress. The US because it does not want to have to tell people that they have enjoyed too much for too long.
American houses are too damn big. American cars are too damn big. American public transportation needs to be bigger-and needs to be used by more people. Do Americans really need 3000 square foot houses with huge, chemically fed lawns? I know I don’t. Give me an apartment in the right location in [fill in the blank of nice neighborhood in Asia] and I can be quite happy.
Want to know how? Consider Japan. Japan has a population of 153 million in an area the size of New Jersey. Yet, their energy consumption is half that of the US. Differences? Decent public transportation, houses that are a lot smaller than their US counterparts. A population that is not full of fat women. The simple truth is that Beck and company just don’t want to pay anything at all in taxes or else to make the alternatives that the rest of the world has embraced happen. Might cut into Beck’s lifestyle-after all he makes more money in a day than 95% of humanity will see in their lifetime. But he doesn’t feel guilty about it all.
So. The sky is not falling. However, it is slowly but surely getting lower, and only complete idiots argue otherwise. That’s my thought anyway. But then again-when has the views of Malkin and Beck ever made any sense?
Save my planet for my children and their children. End “wars without end” and end the problems of ecosystem disturbance. Or write your children a note that says-you really don’t care about them. The choice is ours. I vote for a world that is more eco friendly if not as American.