An Inconvenient Proposal

At Ricochet, Pat Sajak (yes indeed, the veteran TV host) has a simple solution for those obsessed with the manmade issue of manmade global warming. Oh sure, it sounds good in theory, but it really falls apart at the end:

Let’s assume that a third of the world’s population really believes mankind has the power to adjust the Earth’s thermostat through lifestyle decisions. The percentage may be higher or lower, but, for the sake of this exercise, let’s put it at one-third. Now it seems to me these people have a special obligation to change their lives dramatically because they truly believe catastrophe lies ahead if they don’t. The other two-thirds are merely ignorant, so they can hardly be blamed for their actions.

Now, if those True Believers would give up their cars and big homes and truly change the way they live, I can’t imagine that there wouldn’t be some measurable impact on the Earth in just a few short years. I’m not talking about recycling Evian bottles, but truly simplifying their lives. Even if you were, say, a former Vice President, you would give up extra homes and jets and limos. I see communes with organic farms and lives freed from polluting technology.

Then, when the rest of us saw the results of their actions—you know, the earth cooling, oceans lowering, polar bears frolicking and glaciers growing—we would see the error of our ways and join the crusade voluntarily and enthusiastically.

How about it? Why wait for governments to change us? You who have already seen the light have it within your grasp to act in concert with each other and change the world forever. And I hate to be a scold, but you have a special obligation to do it because you believe it so strongly. Then, instead of looking at isolated tree rings and computer models, you’d have real results to point to, and even the skeptics would see the error of their ways and join you.

So start Tweeting each other and get the ball rolling. We’ll anxiously await results. See, I told you I had the solution. My work here is done.

Tweeting? That involves cell phones made with petroleum byproducts from Big Oil, and Internet servers in giant non-sustainable  air-conditioned Miesian office buildings. Let’s face it: anyone who’s concerned about global warming and still using the Internet* is strictly a second chakra-obsessed poseur.

Related: Thomas Friedman on global warming — he’s (at least) two pundits in one!

* Created by DARPA in 1969 at the height of their crazy Dr. Strangelove, gentlemen you can’t fight here, this is the War Room Mutual Assured Destruction nuclear war phase, after all. I mean really, Nixon was in power and everything!