Thom Hartmann: Climate Change vs. Professional Wrestling

[thomhartmann]

Run time: 07:36 https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=V90HFDvYcis   Posted on YouTube: June 24, 2011 By YouTube Member: TheBigPictureRT Views on YouTube: 138   Posted on DU: June 24, 2011 By DU Member: thomhartmann Views on DU: 690

 
Right now - sea levels around the world are risng at a faster rate than at any other time in the last 2,000 years. That’s just the latest inconvenient truth coming from the world’s leading environmental scientists And it’s clear this is a result of man-made global warming - because for much of the last 2,000 years - sea levels were stable or rose at a fraction of a millimeter each year.That was until the turn of the 19th century - when we found a way to harness ancient sunlight like coal and oil for energy - and spew billions of tons of dirty greenhouse gases into the atmosphere. Since then - sea levels have been rising at more than 2 millimetrs every year - and speeding up. This conclusion comes on the heels of a new report by leading oceanic scientists who warned that thanks to gloa warming and pollution - the oceans are turning more and more acidic and threatening to wipe out half of all aquatic life around the world - an extinction not seen on the planet in the last 55 million years. So given all these dire warnings of a rapidly changing planet that could kill or displace billions of people around the planet - why are our politicians not doing anything about it? And more importantly - why is our news media not holding them accountable for this inaction? Al Gore knows why. In the most recent edition of Rolling Stone magazine - Gore penned an essay titled, “Climate of Denial” on why it is that global warming is still questioned in America - and not viewed here as a fact of life as most other nations on the planet see it. And the analogy Gore uses is spot on - and it has to do with professional wrestling.

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[damntexdem]

1. I'm sorry, but I deny that professional wrestling exists.

Sure, there's a natural occurrence of people following scripts to throw each other around in rings, but it's all the cycle of nature.

[Gregorian]

2. There is another reason which I believe is more applicable.

No doubt our corporate media is not making this the issue that it actually is.

But my experience with watching Americans, especially, is that unless it affects us personally, we don't care. There are exceptions. Gay rights doesn't affect the people who make the most noise about it. Nor does abortion. Nor did killing hundreds of thousands of human beings in the Middle East. Incredible. But until gas prices go up, or until sea level goes up enough to devalue property, this thing called global warming isn't an issue.

Most people are not responsible people. Look at the mortgage disaster. Part of the problem was the suckers who opted for no document loans. No verifiable income loans. When people start to feel the effects of the carbon emissions that were being produced from the 1980's, which is coming soon, the sentiment regarding global warming is going to take a very different degree of seriousness.

[Stumbler]

3. Sorry, Thom. Today's America isn't spelt w/ "we," only "me" and "I"

In the eyes of an average American, a crisis isn't really a crisis until it effects "me" or "I." As others have noted countless times, "we" don't react until "we" are in real danger.

That's the real crux of the climate change "debate": Who cares if there's 20k dead from a drought in 'X' or 100k refugees fleeing a record flood from 'Y'? So what if there's no sanitary water in 'Z'? Unless there's an immediate, undesirable consequence on my life today, then the issue is moot and most likely a lie conjured up by the 'librul media' to make Al Gore wealthier....

(Edited for spelling)