Global warming: Ignorance and Hypocrisy...

ESB

ESB

Active member
I am what many would consider to be a radical left-wing environmentalist (although I prefer not to put myself in any too-easily labeled box). But although the current global warming "hooplah" has succeeded in significantly changing a lot of things (for example, advertising campaigns for oil companies and the rhetoric for anyone who wants to be elected to an office), I have continually failed to see any real change in our collective and individual perceptions of how "the way of life" in most developed countries is profoundly anti-environmental and damaging to local and global ecosystems.

The gist of what I'm saying is that "the global warming camp" has become a bandwagon, and as often happens with bandwagons, everyone has jumped on so quickly and is now making so much noise that WE CAN'T HEAR THE BAND ANYMORE, the band that is telling us that in order to truly stop the massive damage we're doing to the environment, we need to rethink and re-adapt some of the fundamental aspects of our lifestyles: how we think about waste and consumption, how we design our products, how we transport those same products and ourselves, how we secure our food, how we build our homes, how we regulate energy usage et cetera.

Instead, we have politicians throwing blame around, news reports hyping doomsday theories, and a whole lot of people making money on their global warming books (printed on paper of course) and their global warming speeches (they fly from speech to speech of course), while meanwhile the United Nations FLIES EVERYONE TO BALI on private jets and loads them up in limos at the airport for their high-falutin' CLIMATE CONFERENCE... anyone see what I'm getting at here?

Instead of doing what needs to be done, and using this "climate crisis" to force fundamental change and save ourselves from the upcoming oil crisis and our terrifyingly destructive system of consumerist hedonism, we've merely changed the title of the book, not re-written anything. So now we can all buy our anti-global warming t-shirts, and get in our SUVs to drive to the climate protest, and yell and shout about how the government needs to regulate the pollution of big business while we continue to mindlessly and wastefully consume their products. In two words, Ignorance and Hypocrisy.

Does anyone share my sentiments, or have some insights to share that might alleviate my hopelessly negative view of the situation?

 
I agree with absolutely every word you wrote.

Unfortunately I don't think there is much I can add to to it.

..I may just be overly cynical, but I've recently begun to feel like people don't actually care about global warming; it's more about 'supporting a cause' to look good, and that isn't going to get us anywhere.
 
i didnt read what your wrote cause its to long buttttt... to an extent glob warming can be true obviously we are fucking up the environment but weather graphs over thousands of years show the temps getting hot then cold hot then cold..
 
sorry i cant really understand english all that well so reading it is tough but i do understand global warming.
 
the problem is that global warming is advertised as something that we can buy our way out of. we can just Buy cleaner cars or Buy organic clothes/food, whatever. The literature thats coming out of a lot of journals in the states has really tried to move away from using the word 'conservation' because it implies that we might have to change our lifestyle. they (whoever 'they' are) are trying to make global warming a minor inconvenience, something that might require a change in our consumer habits...not in our actuall consumption. No Al Gore, global warming will not be stopped by changing a few fucking lightbulbs. actually, there is a whole bunch of proof that if we reduce all the shit we are putting in our atmostphere now, it will create a chain reaction that will actually increase the rate of warming. as an answer to your question though, yes, there are other people who agree with you
 
ok well i just read what you wrote ummmm ya maybe a little bit is global warming and shit should be done to stop it but weather graphs over thousands of years tell the tails of the world getting hotter and then cold again. i mean global warming must have been the cause of the massive amounts of snow the western pa received at the end of november which never happens..... doesnt seem to warm to me.

about the united nations flying people on private jets and taking limos... are you serious these are people that cannot just fly on commercial planes and walk to these meetings, there are people in the world that want to kill them kidnap them and such maybe for good reason maybe not but you cant risk these peoples lives just so they can say hey i walked to work today i saved the environment.

a start to you saving the world should be you getting off the computer because well the computer uses energy, it is built with things that are bad for the environment and well newschoolers servers are running 24/7 which means they are using energy 24/7 so ya your just adding to the problem.
 
i honestly believe that this whole deal is way blown out of proportion but driving down the road and seeing exaust fumes coming out of all these cars including mine does get me to think. i know there's being damage done and i do agree with everything posted about change but its going to be a long time for you to see major change done. for now look at the smaller shit such as the public transportation systems. at my college, and in burlington, the buses are now running on bio diesel. yes there's still a lot of work to be done but dont freak out because there is change happening. its going to be a snowball effect, you just watch.
 
I'm roughly in the same boat as you Kami...similar views and similar disappointments. Unfortunately, thats how our world works and until the masses care enough (until it is brought to their font door) no one will give a damn.

I thinks its going to take a global catastrophe to force a paradigm shift in how we think about our planet and I know thats going to come later rather then sooner. We have a tendency as humans to be more of a reactive species rather then a proactive one and this fatal flaw in my opinion is why nothing is being done on a large enough scale.
 
Well put. Whenever I get on that subject I attempt (poorly) to say what you've posted...

The whole issue depresses me because it's definitely a bleak outlook unless something changes.
 
julia roberts drives a massive suv and parks in handicapped spots, but is a huge global warming advocate. ok, the handicapped part doesnt relate, but i just hate julia roberts
 
Its despairing. I've been driving down the washington, oregon, california coast the last few days. I'm only in crescent city, CA but I can't even count how many trucks i've seen going both ways on the road, there are just too many of them. Not just semis. I'm talking like huge pickups. The number of vehicles I've seen that get less than 12miles to the gallon is rediculous. Makes me happy we have teh honda fit.
 
Great post, I always complained that the politicians are constantly complaining about global warming but do nothing to stop it. The problem is the people, like smoking, we know its harmful, but we dont want to change habits. Its sad really. Even if the hydro companies jack up the prices, nobody would cut back, we would just complain about it. We pump the gas prices up, we complain but never let go of that 2nd or 3rd car. I guess change is up to us...

 
you lie. lifted pickup trucks getting 10 mpg do not exist. only SUVs waste gas. we must continue to rally around SUVs as the enemy.
 
great post...i really am not sure about man made global warming. The video "The Great Global Warming Swindle" was excellent, able to make anyone question the source. Either way we gotta stop fucking this world over. But yeah welcome to global warming era. I see girls on facebook starting groups to combat Global Warming when they in fact drive an SUV. Pathetic. Well who knows what will happen, but as of right now, nothing major has changed. Welcome to politics.
 
Righteous. Whether or not humans are influencing global climate is and will continue to be debatable. Irregardless, the environment is being slapped around greatly the human races lifestyle and culture. But let's not delve into all that rhetoric and debating in this thread.

Basically, the hypocracy and status quo will remain until something FORCES people to change. It's a whole lot easier to champion environmentalism by slapping a sticker on the back of your unneeded 4WD SUV in an urban area, than it is to actually make changes to your lifestyle.
 
I ride a bicycle in the winter time. and when I'm not riding the bike or on a bus, I drive a diesel. beat that you hybrid daily driving advocates!
 
Well I guess I could.. but then that would be all the extra money involved, having to deal with all the shitty drivers Colorado has to offer, and the fear of having a deer jump in front of me on the highway.. I like my way
 
Sounds like quite a few of us feel the same way. I firmly believe that most people will stay stuck in their ways until catastrophic events force them to change.

What's really funny though, is that I think what with all the hooplah about global warming, perhaps we're all precipitating the real catastrophe to come...
http://lifeaftertheoilcrash.net/

 
algore_office_may07.jpg


i agree about pretty much everything you said, just look at al gores office, its pretty hypocritical
 
I completely agree Kami. No matter what you believe about Global Warming's validity, the cultural identity it has assumed is beyond disappointing.

Also, for future and past fuckheads, this isnt a thread about if Global Warming is real or not, so please go fuck yourselves with your pie charts and scientific opinions.
 
Every one of these fuckers pisses me off. The fact that they have the nerve to tell me my way of life is wrong just because my mom drives an SUV (we live in Park City), and that I use plastic bags. Fuck that shit. For the world to survive with humans, we would have to endure total socio-economic shift. People would start having to farm their own food and rely on the land, but people aren't willing to let go of their fucking dildos long enough to realize that. People are unwilling to sacrifice the good life, even if it means the destruction of the planet.
 
But at the same time, you don't even have to sacrifice the good life for change. There are plenty of things you can do around your house or change in vehicles that would greatly benefit the cause.

I don't think it's that people are afraid of sacrificing the good life. You really aren't sacrificing anything, your quality of living doesn't decrease. I think people are just too set in your ways.

Metaphorically speaking, it takes a greater force to get an object moving than to keep it moving. Once people are willing to make that initial push things will get going and stay that way, the problem is it will take a big effort on everyones part to make any sort of change.
 
People have been trying to get that global ball moving for years with no avail...it could happen...but everyone needs to want it.

And the good life as we know it is what is killing us. No amount of making better cars, or more recycling programs is going to fix this. We need a paradigm shift in the values we hold dear to us. We value materials now, we need to value a holistic view on life if we are to ever achieve a sustainable culture.

I dont see that happening short of a global catastrophe...We will slow our journey to the end, but we won't avoid it.
 
Actually, it was the Republicans that made it a big political deal. Here's why:

Since Al Gore was the Democratic candidate in 2000, He was the poster boy of the Democrats for a while. Since he Also was the Vice President of the USA, he also had people's respect, and they listened to him about this.

Al Gore was putting this out as an environmental issue, not a political issue, and showed it in his movie. I will say though, one mistake that Al Gore made was putting how he lost the 2000 election in The Inconvenient Truth, that might have sprung up a political issue.

The Republicans (Bush Admin.) saw this and thought that the Democrats were putting it against them for not taking action on this issue, and the Republicans (George W. Bush) took the other side and called it a fraud, which would ultimately cause unnecessary spending.

Also, why is it un-conservative to worry about the environment? This is the thing about neo-conservatism that bothers me. Neo-conservatism has many conservatives, who are "being loyal to their party", believing ideologies that force them to do everything political in contrast to the liberal party. This is what is tearing up our country today, and is currently being a detriment to our environment today as well.
 
Exactly. And ironically, what people don't realize is that what they don't want to do—start farming and living off the land again—is, actually, the good life after all.
 
Our identities as human beings, our entire way of life is based on how much wealth and property we can aquire in our lifetimes. This is virtuous to us. That is what is disgusting about humans, we take all that we can, and have twisted our logic to believe that this is a positive thing. What we don't realize, is that even though you may have money to buy 6 cars and a private jet, you are taking way more than your share, and you don't deserve more than your share, regardless of how much money you make. So, we either need to use less, and thats never going to happen, or figure out a way to power our cars and homes with renewable energy and then convince the rest of the world to do it also, which is probably never going to happen either, but I guess we'll see.
 
the thing that bugs me is this: some friends of mine are of a rather right wing political view... some think that since this global warming thing has become a political issue that people who are generally lefties have sided with that they must necessarily come down on the opposite side. it gets kind of absurd really. it becomes a knee jerk reaction. they may hear "global warming is a problem" but what they interpret it as is "liberal hogwash".

now, im no liberal by any means, but whats the big deal about being a little conscientious about the envorinment? The next car im gonna buy is definaly going to be a hybrid, (theyre more economical anyways) and i dont mind recycling, or turning the lights off or whatever.

i also believe that we should not sacrifice any kind of economical edge (or anymore than we already have by other means) to china and india, who have no intention of doing anything on a national level about their emmissions, but that is on a national level. really, when you think about it, the individual has more power to make changes anyways.

I guess my point is that taking care of the planet shouldnt be a political issue. it should be something that we as individuals take upon ourselves one at a time. to politicize this is to ensure that about 50% of the nation (who are political at least) come down against it.
 
how about.... a used hybrid!? (the bigger reason for wanting one is to save on gas fill ups... and riding in the carpool lane all the time...)
 
i heard an interview with... i think it was the mayor of san antonio? something like that... a texas politician anyway of reasonable power, who shared your sentiment. its just a responsibility that needs to be taken.

on the other hand, if anyone wants mroe reading, i found this article really interesting and im reading Schumacher right now.

http://www.orionmagazine.org/index.php/articles/article/267

http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Small_Is_Beautiful
 
lets not forget the "live earth" concerts and, how much power it took to produce all that music, the private jets and limos for all the performers..
 
The problem is people think they can consume their way out of this when its consumerism that got us here. BUY GREEN! No retard, just stop buying things you don't need.

Honestly. this stems to a fundamental problem with how just about every aspect of our society is destroying the planet. We ship products from half way across the world when we could make them just down the road. We work in jobs we dont want to pay for things we don't need. We have taxes on the Earth itself so you can't live on a piece of dirt without pumping petrochemicals into the ground and sucking the life out of the topsoil to grow genetically modified food in large surpluses.

How are we supposed to not destroy the planet when there is no widely managable alternative in this country to consuming to survive?
 
has anyone ever considered that the earth temperatire fluctuates naturally? and that maybe its not completely the fault of the human race? i do agree that we should try our best to protect the enviroment, but we can't expect to completely reverse what has already happened
 
just admit it, were all hypocrites!!!!! but that dosent mean we cant change. theirs alot of talk about change, but never actually is their change!
 
log off NS, turn off your computer, go outside, and hold your breath (don't fart).

now you're finally not polluting. good luck.
 
Want even more proof of this? My cousin is starting his own small business, it's pretty sweet. Anyway, he has done alot of research on packaging, shipping, so on and so forth for his new product. One area he looked into alot was bottled water, shipping, packing, etc. He found out some crazy stuff.

You know the company Fiji? That bottled water one. They import their bottled water from Fiji, obviously. For every 1.5 liters of water they import, it takes 2 liters of oil to ship it to the States. 2 liters of oil for EVERY BOTTLE. How the hell is this company still in business?
 
It seems insane that people would believe that water imported from Fiji is somehow better than the water coming out of their sink. its just water.
 
Well, bottled water is slightly different. It is purified differently. Tap water is purified with chlorine, making it taste slightly different than bottled water. But in all actuality, there are more laws and stricter policies in place on tap water than bottled water. You could have water-borne pathogens in your bottled water that were never tested for.

Anyways. On top of that, one of the largest problems facing the people of Fiji to date is a lack of clean water. Go figure.
 
no, nobody has EVER considered that. Come on, you know its not true. There is no fucking way that humans are having no effect on the warming of our planet. I really dont understand how people can say this. CO2 is proved to be a greenhouse gas. Humans emit WAY more CO2 than volcanos, so that argument is full of shit too. Does 1+1 not equal 2? 

"Scientists have calculated that volcanoes emit between about 130-230 million tonnes (145-255 million tons) of CO2 into the atmosphere every year (Gerlach, 1999, 1991). This estimate includes both subaerial and submarine volcanoes, about in equal amounts. Emissions of CO2 by human activities, including fossil fuel burning, cement production, and gas flaring, amount to about 27 billion tonnes per year (30 billion tons)"
 
^^what i said is not COMPLETELY, i do agree with u that humans are a major contributor to global warming, but whose to say it wasn't going to happen anyways? and we just sped it up? im just putting it out there.
 
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