Political foo: environmentalism

[alpharaposa]

The wretched scaremongers and their gulled shills cannot seem to learn the most basic fact: you do not need an imaginary bogeyman to sell people on the notion of clean water and air, pollution free beaches, litter-free highways and healthy, thriving forests. And NOBODY needs Junk Science, no matter how noble the cause used to justify it. - rhjunior

This has been bothering me, too.

I recall whole sections of environmentalism as a child focussing on recycling so that we save land from being used for landfills, or cleaning up the air and water so that we can breathe easier (literally) and go dabble our feet in creeks safely. Acid rain? You can see the results in the Smokies, and be motivated to do something about it. Litter? Anybody can be shown how much nicer a clean park is over one full of trash (or fish guts). Air pollution? I've felt the difference and recognize the importance of keeping our air clean.

Any of those causes would garner immediate support from a large section of people, but the big fight is over imposing more regulations to 'stop global warming'. Why? Is having clean water just not controversial enough?

Comments

[prester-scott.livejournal.com]

Limited problems inspire people to seek measured, limited solutions. Impending global catastrophes inspire panicked, drastic, desperate actions -- such as ending private property rights and granting supreme power to a cadre of self-proclaimed prophets.

[aefenglommung.livejournal.com]

Such as Al Gore.

[zeeth_kyrah]

I could name off a few self-proclaimed prophets, but they don't argue from a basis of science in the first place.

Al Gore

[elbanditorojo.livejournal.com]

Al Gore isn't trying to be a prophet, he was trying to show how drastic the environment has changed due to global warming and un-managed waste. What's wrong with trying to educate the public about the environment?

I agree that clean streams and parks sounds great, but the fact is - there are some companies that only care about money - they believe that imposing restrictions and limitations is going to hurt there bottom line. For now, restrictions are unfortunately needed, but research into cleaner energy also needs to be done so those restrictions aren't needed in the future.

El Bandito Rojo

Re: Al Gore

[stryck.livejournal.com]

I'm not up for an argument right now, so I'll just link an article:

http://www.telegraph.co.uk/opinion/main.jhtml?xml=/opinion/2006/04/09/do0907.xml (http://www.telegraph.co.uk/opinion/main.jhtml?xml=/opinion/2006/04/09/do0907.xml)