"My instinct is to call Al Gore an SOB"

[noamnety]

(snip)

"Submit a 1-2 minute video(s) that demonstrates practical, easy and inspired ways to reduce your carbon emissions ..."

(snip)

The idea is, make something along the lines of An Inconvenient Truth, that doesn't challenge us to alter our consumer-bacchanalia, spend-and-squander ways as long as we, you know, use more energy-efficient light bulbs or start driving a Prius.

(snip)

My instinct is to call Al Gore a sonofabitch for promoting the comforting but dangerous notion that we can all just make a few slight course alterations within the trajectory of the present system and expect to come out OK. Dangerous fantasy is what that is. But who knows, maybe he had to tack on that "feel-good" ending to his movie just to gain any level of mainstream acceptance. Politicians understand this sort of thing well, obviously.

But I think now that the issue has gained credibility with most people, someone needs to make a real scare-the-everliving-shit-out-of-you film, to get people out of this putting-a-band-aid-on-cancer mentality. Because the truth is really fucking scary, actually, and not just "inconvenient." Funny, because the media never seems to have a problem with scaring the shit out of us; only in this case, doing so might cause us to snap out of our consumer-droid hypnotism, and that would be a BAD thing.

...

http://blog.myspace.com/index.cfm?fuseaction=blog.view&friendID=1806320&blogID=219057750&Mytoken=EEFED91A-ED66-40AD-95CDFE9ABD35B2928509530

Kudos to Gore for getting the issue into the public consciousness the way he has, that needed to be done, and shouldn't be underestimated. But I think James has a point here also, that it's a dangerous notion that the truth is merely "inconvenient" - we have to change a few light bulbs or put some extra insulation on our pipes and then we can feel good about ourselves, as if the changes won't actually require a change in our actual lifestyles, just the inconvenience of swapping bulbs or switching to driving a hybrid- the inconvenience of buying THIS instead of THAT.

[Kindigger]

1. it won't be long

until a big hunk of Greenland falls in the ocean. I think that's the only thing that may scare the beejebus out of anyone. :(

[Mortos]

2. It will only scare Greenlandians

Most Americans couldn't point it out on a map so it won't affect them one bit.

[lligrd]

3. No Oil In Greenland

I doubt it would get any notice at all.

[noamnety]

4. If it DOES fall into the ocean

People might realize they may have to do more than just change the lightbulbs in their homes.

They might have to change the ones at work, too.

[GreenEyedLefty]

5. How about the ones in their heads?

:-)

[kestrel91316]

6. Somebody didn't stick around long enough to watch ALL the

credits for the film, which were interspersed with info on what to do th make a difference................

[sweetheart]

7. corporatism believes it is the solution nt

[TheWraith]

8. Some people just aren't going to be happy until everyone is eating bark and living off solar power.

The base-line reality is that if you plot it on a graph, civilization pretty much exactly tracks with energy consumption. They go hand in hand. We can't run a modern society without power, and lots of it. One way or another, whether you like it or not, we're going to have to supply ourselves with energy. You can't just grossly reduce overall consumption the way some people seem to think.

[noamnety]

9. not sure I understand your use of the word "civilization"

Are you saying we are more civilized than, say, Native Americans prior to the European invasion - because we consume more?

Maybe we need to reconsider what "civilization" actually means.


Aside from that, I believe that is exactly James's point - that we are deluding ourselves if we think we can stop global warming without drastically reducing overall consumption, and it's a dangerous notion to believe otherwise.

[Nikia]

10. I read the book, not watched the movie

At the end, the suggestions include consuming less and buying things that last.
Overall, I think the book (and probably the movie) did a good job of explaining the problem and explained why it was in everyone's best interest to care and what we could do as individuals. I think that his message is more effective than the way he presents it.
You can alienate people if you just scare them.