 |
|
|
|
|
|
|
|
|
|
|
|
 |
 |
 |
 |
 |
 |
 |
 |
 |
 |
 |
|
July 14, 2006
Re-branding the issue
I recently saw an interview of Al Gore, former US Vice President. He is peddling his new book and film, both titled 'An Inconvenient Truth'. They examines global warming, but encouragingly, not from the point of view of 'Save the Planet'. It goes to heart of the issue, one that I have been ranting about for yours.
The issue of global warming isn't one of killing trees, insects and pandas. Its one of killing the human species. As one of my favourite comedians of all time, George Carlin, likes to say:
This is the absolute truth of the matter. Our problem as a species is three-fold:
1) the religous people assume that their god will not let us kill ourselves - that 'it' will come and rescue the chosen ones long before the rest of us have had a chance to kill them, and then the rest of us will be left to our fate as apt punishment.
2) the athesits believe that our great scientists will come up with a way to defeat nature no matter what it throws at us, all evidence (Golden Staph, AIDS, TB etc) aside.
3) the vast majority of people - well they just don't think about such stuff, so they don't particularly care.
I'm still waiting to see the film, but the book is definately worth reading - if you want to be aware of some of the issues surrounding what will probably be the end of our existence, have a look.
Or, you could just pump some money into scientific research into cryogenic freezing and deep-space travel and hopefully get off to another planet. I know what I'm doing. Now who do I make the cheque out too?
In the meantime, I'm really looking forward to when the Earth reaches a tipping point, a la 'The Day After Tomorrow'. Shit film, but I can't wait to see how the media/right wing/Big Oil try to paint it. Thats gunna be the spin-doctoring episode to end all others.
