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Because Al does not have a monopoly on caring.
April 22nd, 2008
In other words, Happy Earth Day fellow earthlings! I know that I have said disparaging remarks about Al Gore before, (I mean come on the guy said he invented ….. the interwebz, how can I respect that?), but there is one thing that I do commend him on. He has made a wider spectrum of our population at least think about our planet. End commendation, wait for it……..now.
So you may already know this, but Hey You is a card carrying Republican. How Republican you ask? I have worked for a Republican U.S. Senator, I was the Vice-President of our college Republicans, and I still think that Richard Nixon was one of the best Presidents we have ever had (seriously y’all, do you really think we would have such a good relationship with China without him?). One way I think the Republican Party has been wrongly portrayed is that they are uncaring about the environment. I think that realistic is a much better adjective for my good Ole’ GOP. You would be hard pressed to find a modern Republican (meaning one who is not busy in bathroom stalls, or over 90) who would publicly pronounce “Global warming is a bunch of horse biscuits!”
The left side of our country (literally and figuratively) has made billions proclaiming that their products (almost always more expensive) are “green” and are marketing them to make we overachieving, guilt fueled, over indulged Americans feel better about ourselves. “So River and I just bought a new Hybrid! We are soo doing our part to help save the polar bears. Those fuel guzzling SUV’s can just kiss my hemp covered ass, the one held up by my hairy legs, with feet adorned in my Rosie approved Birkenstocks.” Whatever peeps. The truth of the matter is that just the INCREASE in coal that China will burn by 2020 will send as much CO2 into the atmosphere as 3 billion (that b-b-b-billion) Ford Expeditions, each driven 15,000 a year. So the increased burning of ONE source of energy by ONE country is equal to the to the CO2 emissions by 3 billion massive trucks. (Oh and it would take Ford 15,000 years to even sell that many.) On to the spirally fluorescent bulbs, even if every light bulb in America were replaced by these (which thehuckablog household does use FYI, they last a heck of a lot longer) thrn it would only reduce world emissions by .0003%. Also, did you know that the livestock industry accounts for 18% of ail greenhouses gases, from their, you know, breezes. So therefore any global warming activist who is not also a Vegan is a total hypocrite (and have you seen Al of late?). One more thing, just as with all politicians, they are unfairly swayed towards the groups that give them large amounts of money, and tend to ignore facts to the contrary. (I am not leaving the GOP out of this classification either, can we all say Halliburton?) Al Gore (and Hillary and Barack) all have been in the top 5 politicians to receive money from these “green” special interest groups. They cannot fairly analyze the real situation.
The truth is that while Global Warming is happening at an extremely slow rate, the numbers have been grotesquely overstated. The real numbers are much less sinister. Take for example the oceans rising that have been much touted by Mr. Gore and his homies. He said that the oceans will rise 240”. The UN IPCC (not exactly a right wing organization) says that the real truth is 15”. He is obliterating facts to sell movie tickets. And gets a Nobel peace prize. The congress (yes it was republican) voted down adapting the Kyoto treaty by a nail bitingly close margin of 95 to 0. Why? Listen up Beastie Boys, because even if we pretend for a second that everything that Global Warming activists say is true (its not), and the Kyoto protocols were fully implemented (not even close), the effect would be immeasurably small.
Let’s end with the cheery thought that most scientists say that “it is much too late to sweat global warming”, San Francisco Chronicle 2/13/2005. It is time for us to worry about the things that we can change. We can change pollution. We can stop annihilating the rainforests, we can stop poaching endangered animals, we can stop leeching chemicals into our ground water. We can leave a place cleaner than when we got there. We can choose to not be wasteful or greedy. We can plant trees, and educate our children; but not to stop, or even slow global warming. I will do these things to keep the beauty God has given us, to teach The Son to respect and treat his blessings kindly. I want my son, and his son, and his son, to be able to hike and see eagles, to be able to swim in lakes and to fish in the Gulf of Mexico. I cherish this earth for what it has given us, and will spend my time, and energy helping it in ways that make a difference.
And for sticking with me through my Earth Day diatribe, a reward! A picture of The Son!
I got a lot of this information from Glen Beck’s An Inconvenient Book.
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6 Responses to “Because Al does not have a monopoly on caring.”
O.K. so I’ve taken up the Gore bashing privately. Perhaps the reason Hey You has such strong political ideals is because she was raised in a mixed family; one republican, one democrat. Much political dialog ensued in our household discussions. Obviously it had an effect.
I confess that I’ve not gotten on the green bandwagon to much degree. We saw a similar trend occur in the 70’s when gasoline prices went high and there were threats of fuel shortages. People downsized vehicles, we saw solar panels on roofs, alternate fuel sources were sought. Once the fuel crisis was averted we have seen the huge oversized vehicles of today appear.
Now some people are giving up these oversized vehicles, which we never endorsed, and are returning to more sensible vehicles with lower fuel consumption, regardless of whether they are hybrids or not. (My husband, the car nut, says people should be thoroughly researching how much it costs to replace those hybrids batteries. He believes they are in for a huge shock to discover the enormous expense for replacement in a few years.) What I’m saying is that I’m not really green myself, but am a more sensible consumer of the planet’s resources than some of my fellow Americans.
I’m troubled by what I perceive as an arrogance of how much damage one country should do to the planet. If I merely walk around my home and count the number of light bulbs used by one home it is immensely greater than the number used by homes in the rest of the world. Yes, we are obviously the greatest consumers of natural resources in the world. On the other hand we already have many more governmental controls to control pollution than most countries do and are cleaner than most.
Just this month my company has been changing light switches to ones that sense movement and cause the light in a room to come on when someone enters it and go off when they leave automatically. I think this is a great idea, as are the new florescent light bulbs. We are also company wide going to timed thermostats, controlling the temperatures when the bank is closed. These small sensible things are wonderful ways we could be more responsible world citizens and I’m proud my company is being a good corporate citizen in its thousands of locations throughout the country.
I don’t know what I think about the polar ice melt. Obviously this globe has been covered by water before. Are we causing it, or is it some cyclical thing? It is something worth pondering.
Ok, I have to take issue with one statement that Grammy made:
“Yes, we are obviously the greatest consumers of natural resources in the world”
I have to point out that China is by far a greater consumer of natural resources, just by shear numbers, to Quote Hey You:
“The truth of the matter is that just the INCREASE in coal that China will burn by 2020 will send as much CO2 into the atmosphere as 3 billion (that b-b-b-billion) Ford Expeditions, each driven 15,000 a year. So the increased burning of ONE source of energy by ONE country is equal to the to the CO2 emissions by 3 billion massive trucks. (Oh and it would take Ford 15,000 years to even sell that many.)”
Perhaps I should have said, largest consumption per capita.
http://atlas.aaas.org/index.php?part=2
Maybe ole Al feels guilty for creating the Internet, thereby causing millions of people to use energy-sucking computers (and other computer-related items). Maybe that’s why he’s so big on going green. Or maybe he wants to create icebergs (oh, wait…that’s already been done too!).
I’m just kidding. I actually like ole Al, though I do think he’s gone a bit overboard…and stretched his statistics. Plus, I am a registered Democrat. Sorry.
Oh lordy. I’m just gonna ignore most of this and focus on your reading of Glen Beck. Ugh. My soul hurts.
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