I wonder if I am alone in thinking that Al Gore’s trumpeted “environmentalism” is counter-productive, turning more people off than it inspires, and not just because of the endless hypocrisy. For most of my life I have considered myself environmental in my outlook. I don’t remember when I first joined the Sierra Club, but I suspect it was around 1970 when I used to go backpacking on the John Muir Trail. I did my best to “take only pictures, leave only foot prints” as the saying went then. But I didn’t think there was something special about me. Most people who went hiking in the Sierras in those days treated the wilderness well, trucked out their own garbage, etc. It seemed the natural thing to do.
And that’s the point. Gore and his acolytes have taken what is natural decent behavior and turned it into a self-righteous cause. It becomes about him – and not the environment really. Personally I fee1 hectored. It makes me suspicious of his “facts” as well. In the end, Al Gore makes me want to buy an Escalade and pitch Big Mac wrappers out the window. (Of course, I didn’t. I bought a Prius. But it sure wasn’t because of Gore.)
Roger,
You’ve hit on an extreme pet peeve. Since early childhood, I’ve been careful never to litter or otherwise harm the environment. I practice conservation and promote the same with my children.
I absolutely detest the hypocrite Al Gore.
I’m seeing more and more “green” products for sale- from home cleaning products, to clothes, to home furnishings. If at all possible, I avoid these products. I don’t want them. They make me mad.
Al Gore is doing a tremendous disservice to us all. I pity anyone who believes him, and the rest of us who may suffer because of him.
The hypocrisy levels are amazing. A local library is currently featuring posters made by kids (about 4th grade, from the look of them) on “how to save energy.”
The lobby of this library, where the posters are displayed, is lit by about 3 kilowatts of overhead lamps, all of which were ON at around 1 PM on a fairly sunny day.
It’s like anything else. Zealotry really does consist of redoubling your efforts when you have forgotten your aim. Anti-cruelty to animals – a reasonable point of view – has been taken to the extreme to the point that animal life has become considered equivalent to human life – that’s PETA, etc; and that’s just insane. Wanting clean air and water – who doesn’t? – has become a way for people like the Goracle to get rich and feed their egos, also it gives Earth First-types the excuse to destroy property and endanger people with the fires they set.
It’s best just to tune it out and live your life using your own good judgment. In other words, “screw them.”
It’s like anything else. Zealotry really does consist of redoubling your efforts when you have forgotten your aim. Anti-cruelty to animals – a reasonable point of view – has been taken to the extreme to the point that animal life has become considered equivalent to human life – that’s PETA, etc; and that’s just insane. Wanting clean air and water – who doesn’t? – has become a way for people like the Goracle to get rich and feed their egos, also it gives Earth First-types the excuse to destroy property and endanger people with the fires they set.
It’s best just to tune it out and live your life using your own good judgment. In other words, “screw them.”
See that, by accidently double-posting I have contributed to global warming and ruined Roger’s web environment. I’ll log off and sit in the dark for awhile and think long and hard about what I’ve done.
“I’ll log off and sit in the dark for awhile and think long and hard about what I’ve done.”
Well, I hope you’re listening to a Lightnin’ Hopkins album. My personal favorite might be “Mojo Hand.”
Yes. I’m a Republican from an old ranching family. I and many of my peers are heavily involved in programs that directly conserve endangered species habitat, watershed, ag land, and all the other benefits that open space (both privately and publicly owned) confers on society.
Even if AGW turns out to be an actual problem, I don’t think it’s as urgent as the environmental issues I’ve dedicated much of my life to dealing with. To me, at best, it’s a distraction from what we’re trying to do==it sucks away money and publicity.
At worst, it’s actually harmful to wildlife habitat, as we’ve seen with the massive destruction of native grasslands and tropical rainforests caused by biofuel production.
As a wildlife habitat conservationist, I’d generally prefer to see a nuke plant or a well- situated set of gas wells than a biodiesel palm oil plantation or a wind farm. In fact, where I live, oil and gas production on private lands is directly funding most of the best conservation programs. It’s counter-intuitive, but when I see a rancher with a new energy lease, I see a rancher who won’t have to graze the land quite so hard to make a living, and one who now has the wherewithal to support conservation programs with his dollars, as well as his land.
“Well, I hope you’re listening to a Lightnin’ Hopkins album. My personal favorite might be “Mojo Hand.” ”
Since the ol’ Marantz runs on power I better just get out my guitar – the acoustic, of course.
Gore and his acolytes have taken what is natural decent behavior and turned it into a self-righteous cause.
Actually they have made it into a religion. If I hear one more commercial telling me how buying their product is going to save the world from climate change I am going to freak out. I feel like I am in an Islamic country where the state religion is being forced on the populace every minute of the day.
It’s not helping when so many companies run endless advertisements about the glories of wind & solar power, without bothering to point out the limitations of these technologies. The endless stream of hype causes people to believe that wind/solar are more broadly applicable than they in fact presently are, and thus to be easy prey for irresponsible leftist politicians.
Oil companies: It’s nice for customers to have a warm and fuzzy feeling about you, but it won’t do you much good if you get slammed with “excess profits” taxes and ever-tightening drilling restrictions.
General Electric: Yeah, you can make $ on your wind turbines, hybrid locomotives, et al, as well as getting warm and fuzzy perceptions. But again, it won’t do you much good if you help to feed a national zeitgeist in which all types of energy development are looked upon with hostility.
I’m generally supportive of extremists–a full public debate needs to hear from all views and you cannot push the limits of the possible unless there are people out there demanding we go further. Doesn’t mean I want them to win, but I do want them to be heard.
That said, Gore and his ilk are testing my patience and I find that I am turning against the environmental movement despite, as with so many here, living an environmentally aware, reduced impact lifestyle. They’re so obnoxious I consider them to be an impediment to sound environmental policies and green living.
My favorite definition of a neo-con is a liberal who believes liberals are a greater threat to liberal ideals than are conservatives. I’m a neo-environmentalist.
I joined the Sierra Club in 1954 as a life member, and have been taken for some shocking rides as it was hijacked by an anticapitalist, urban imperialist membership cashing in on people’s justifiable hopes of a decent environment to grab and maintain political power to usurp property rights and demonize the businesses that provide the goods, services and amenities that they take wholly for granted.
Extreme environmentalism has metastastasized to such a point that its political branch now has power to veto some research grants which might support studies considered heretical by the Al Gore crowd. Note the British Royal Society’s plea for exactly that action last year – this once scientific body has abandoned the foundation of skepticism that science rests on, to take up the Byzantine regalia of true believers, as if scientific discovery was now to be decided by majority vote, and our future behavior were to be decided by stampeding, politicized ‘scientists’.
And no one exemplifies the corrupt priesthood of environmental extremism better than one Al Gore, with his monster ‘carbon footprint’ of jet-set travels and the stupendous domestic consumption of elecricity at his various mansions. It would take another Nikos Kazantzakis to describe in suffficient vitriol the behavior, as opposed to the preaching, of this overfed Gore.
Hey Lightnin’ – I second the motion, shut off the power and play it yourself. Who needs the output from a power plant to run some thundering amp, when the music sounds just as good at the volume of the instrument itself?
Agreed. Add to that having to wait in traffic while huge tractor trailer rigs lug full grown trees with big balls up to his house and it makes me want to not only buy an Escalade etc, but spit big wads of bubble gum on his driveway.