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by BEN-PETER
TERPSTRA
A global hysteria
TIME Magazine believes that former US
vice-president Al Gore and “global warming” sermons are a great
combination.
That is why their environmental doctrines are so very bizarre, I
guess.
How bizarre? Try reading the magazine’s “Global Warming Survival
Guide” dated April 9, 2007, and the “51 Things You Can Do to Make
a Difference”.
Rule 26: “Plant a bamboo fence”, because it feels good?
Unprecedented levels of idiocy aside, there’s plenty to laugh
about.
Indeed, I was so moved by the weirdness of it all that I wrote to
TIME:
“Your comically unbalanced cover story on ‘global warming’
reminded me of why, I, for one, am not a believer. ‘If droughts
and wildfires, floods and crop failures … and images of drowning
polar bears didn’t quiet most of the remaining global-warming
doubters,’ claimed the hysterical Jeffrey Kluger, ‘the
hurricane-drive destruction of New Orleans did’.
“Actually, it didn’t. Many scientists have said to blame Hurricane
Katrina on global warming is absurd.
“In Australia’s case, we have had more devastating droughts
before. As for ‘wildfires’, these have more to do with arson than
global warming. Could TIME please consider the other side of the
story?”
My letter, to the editor’s credit, appeared in the Inbox section
under the subheading “Global Hysterics?”
But what really made me laugh was the fact I had to remove my
magazine from its plastic wrapper to read the damn thing. (States
Rule 24: “Just say no to plastic bags”.)
Meanwhile, even the politicised United Nations freely concedes
crop harvests are booming.
Just analyse the satellite images. TIME must employ lazy
reporters.
Allowing to the public to question “man-made global warming” is
often discouraged, and for good reason.
Why admit you are wrong when you can make money from scaring
Sunday school children? Global warming is the new hell on earth.
Most dramatically, the “discovery” of drowning polar bears is
cited as “proof” that the end is nigh.
This ignores the fact that some habitats are growing colder.
Instead bury the truth that polar bears can swim, or there is a
“problem” with thriving populations. Instead embrace hysteria.
“Al Gore offered a computer-generated bear flailing about for icy
salvation in his movie,” writes Christopher C. Horner in the witty
“Politically Incorrect Guide to Global Warming”.
True. “Claims of the imperiled polar bear run the gamut, from
drowning in water to which they are unaccustomed (not true, they
encounter it every summer), to starvation induced cannibalism,” as
one sensational Associate Press report breathlessly announced.
For argument’s sake, let us say the polar bear is drowning in the
“warm” seas.
Would reason not suggest that an autopsy is in order?
Does science not ask us to question, and verify?
Or, do we embrace wild conclusions because we “feel” there was a
magical “climate stability” age in the pre-Cinderella period?
Naturally, fake global problems require socialistic “solutions” in
an Orwellian climate.
Therefore, the answer to saving the computer-generated bear from
drowning requires the public to make enormous sacrifices.
There could be a thousand reasons why the bear died.
Yet, when it comes to complex solutions to sensationalised
problems, nothing works like a bit of snobbish hypocrisy.
TIME, for instance, even tells readers to “Ditch the McMansion”.
Remember Rule 6 folks. “Oversize houses aren’t just
architecturally offensive; they also require more energy,” one
writer sniffs.
Gore, on the other hand, is free to live in a 20-bedroom,
eight-bathroom mansion. Sounds reasonable. We must live like
hobbits.
But do I own an “architecturally offensive” McMansion to ditch?
No.
Nor do I own a BMW, but apparently many elites do.
Rule 22 is snobbier. “Skip the steak”.
States TIME: “Which is responsible for more global warming: your
BMW or your Big Mac? Believe it or not, it’s the burger.”
Really? Believe it or not. This is propaganda.
Rule 41: “Fill’er up with passengers,” TIME advises.
Yes, we hobbits have to carpool too. Still, would it not be
healthier if Gore and Bill Clinton were told to “jetpool”?
Then again, why would they believe their own fairy tales?
Says Horner: “An Inconvenient Truth conveniently omits that
Greenland, one star of Al Gore’s melting ice-show, was as warm, or
warmer, in the 1920s than it is today, and that it was heating up
faster then.”
Yes, feeling is knowing, and to know is to feel righteous.
Gore can fly in a private jet. We must carpool because Greenland
is “melting”. – onlineopinion
Note: The author is a freelance writer.
 
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