Today as I read the headlines I realized that we are coming ever closer to the regimented and ignorant society depicted in Aldous Huxley's
Brave New World, featuring figures on the world stage straight out of Evelyn Waugh's most cartoonishly extreme political satires, with situational elements borrowed from the theater of the absurd. Samuel Beckett you ain't seen nothing yet!
We can start in Cannes, France with a story from Reuters:
A representative affiliated with "An Inconvenient Truth", a film about global warming involving former U.S. Vice President Al Gore, has stressed that the movie and Gore's tour to promote it are "carbon neutral". Last week, Gore and his team were seen driving the 500 meters or so from a hotel to the Cannes festival headquarters in several cars. The representative said that arriving at events like photocalls and news conferences in cars was normal practice in Cannes. And Gore walked the shorter distance from another hotel to the festival for the movie's screening.
This hit a nerve because I have sorta been wondering lately about Mr. Gore's campaign to save the earth and all of the carbon that he has to burn to get his message across about the dangers burning carbon poses to the inhabitants of our planet. How do you stay so sane when you're such a superior being Mr. Gore?
I myself burn far less carbon than Mr. Gore does, not because I believe that it is a bad thing to do, but because I only need to drive to town once a week, usually on my way to or from work at the Bit & Spur or to give a tour. Otherwise I prefer to stay at home for at least five days in a row and to keep my car driving to the barest minimum. My electric bill is usually less than $40 dollars a month (for two buildings) and I fill my propane tanks once in the fall for about $500. I do admit to burning Kingsford charcoal to prepare my tasty feasts, but that is probably not very much carbon production compared to Mr. Gore's privately chartered jet. Oh-oh there goes another glacier Mr. Gore.
I find it ironically funny that I actually practice what he preaches and don't give two shits about global warming. The whole human race is always better off when they are thinking about ways of lowering their material desires. This keeps us focused on the land, the sky, each other and the comforts derived from a balanced awareness of what existence really is. From Buddha to Christ it has always been the same message: reduce, shed, discard, donate, just desire less and then, and only then, may you begin to realize your full spiritual potential as a sentient being.
As for people like Al Gore, a limousine liberal hypocrite, they come in all shapes and sizes. God put them here on earth to amuse and entertain us in these latter days of decline and fall.
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The largest bomb blast in history, code named Divine Strake, has been indefinitely postponed by the U.S. government. Let's all thank each other for the noise and stink raised about this dangerously stupid military folly. It also brought a lot citizen groups together on a vital issue of public health and safety. I ask again, would a private citizen or company ever be allowed, by this same government, to pollute the atmosphere in such a signifigant way?
Beamis said "I ... don't give two shits about global warming," and yet quite a bit of space on this blog has been devoted to contesting the phenomenon's very existence and/or denying human beings' contributions to it. If Al Gore were being hypocritical about some other topic, I doubt we'd be reading about it here.
Anyway, I was wondering if you'd seen a copy of the speech given a few months ago by one of your heroes, Walmart president Lee Scott. Here's an excerpt (italics mine):
"... We are looking at innovative ways to reduce our greenhouse gas emissions. This used to be controversial, but the science is in and it is overwhelming.... We believe every company has a responsibility to reduce greenhouse gases as quickly as it can."
When even the big corporate CEOs are recognizing it (because it's impacting their bottom lines), do we get to say "I told you so" yet? Or shall we keep waiting?
3:52 PM
Stumpy it's still too big for us to know anything about.
There are more things in heaven and earth, Horatio,
Than are dreamt of in your philosophy.
I'd be way too optimistic and naive to believe that mere humans could obtain such cosmic certainty about a subject so elusive and ephemeral. The very limited set of intellectual capabilities possessed by homo sapiens just ain't powerful enough to really "know" this type of information. That such charlatans as Al Gore spout it as fact should make one ever more doubtful to its veracity. That it is also the current global cause du juor in Hollywood and the upper West Side makes me even more suspicious of its factual underpinnings.
We can't say with any certainty that recent volcanic activity isn't just as much of a factor, if not more, for current weather patterns, than we can say that the noxious fumes emanating from the Santa Monica Freeway represent the hellish path to a carbon induced planetary meltdown. Which is benign, which is a danger? Who decides? Doesn't Al Gore just use a helicopter to get to his Malibu fundraisers, rather than risk being late because of a tie up on this famously clogged artery, backed up way past Robertson and the 405 interchange?
Ants fart a lot, and they also happen to equal us in biomass (which I just read in a recent National Geographic at the dentist's office). Termites also emit gases, the ocean emits gases, cows, chickens, horses and turtles emit gases, life and shit happens and then it decays....into more gases. Existence is a gas man!
I think our planet is way okay and will stay that way Stump.
We as humans got bigger fish to fry than fretting about the state of the heavens. It is not our place to decide or exalt leaders who will save us from the "gases".
Want less. Always be lowering the bar on material consumption. Learn about your spirit. The earth will be fine. We all be fine. Hotter days to come? Your guess be good as mine.