Friday, June 02, 2006

Obligatory Space for Alarmism and Armageddonism

Kyle Smith has the latest in a string of columns pointing out, and making fun of, Al Gore's "An Inconvenient Pack of Lies." Here's a taste:

He implies that no reputable scientists dispute anything he says - basically, that the ice caps are melting and people on the 50th floor of the Empire State Building had better learn to swim. But there is wide disagreement about whether humans are causing global warming (climate change preceded the invention of the Escalade) and about whether we should be worried about the trends. Look carefully at Gore's charts and you'll see that the worst horrors take place in the future of his imagination.

Why does Al Gore need to make such wild assertions and employ fear-mongering to make people "wake up?" Because, as Greenpeace can tell you, making outlandish claims get people's attention. Unfortunately Greenpeace appears to be getting lazy and now just want us to take their word for it in recent press releases:

"In the twenty years since the Chernobyl tragedy, the world's worst nuclear accident, there have been nearly [FILL IN ALARMIST AND ARMAGEDDONIST FACTOID HERE]," the sheet said.

Greenpeace later said they were making "a joke." Greenpeace? Joking about the dangers of nuclear destruction? I guess they do think we're stupid.

Much more likely, some entry level environmentalist posted the press release before [FILL IN GENDERLESS DESCRIPTIVE HERE] could fill in the obligatory hysteria in the proper blanks. Later in the day, the release warned of "plane crashes and reactor meltdowns" in place of the blanket reminder to find alarmist rhetoric to justify their propaganda.

Apparently he/she found some. Seriously...do these people even try anymore?

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