Fox News… Straight From The Elephant’s Mouth (and a brief Global Warming chat)

It’s Christmas, so I’ve been around the family more. That means contact with a lot more of those folks who watch only Fox News because they are Christians and God told them to… or something like that. Anyway, the good folks at Media Matters came across a chuckler about the ol’ “Fair and Balanced” Fox News website. Apparently, rather than writing news stories, they just link directly to blogs of Republican senators:

http://mediamatters.org/items/200712220003?f=h_latest

And as we all continue to debate back and forth on whether or not Global Warming exists, to put it in the exact words of a relative, whether “it’s phony” or not, I still marvel at how politics have destroyed this issue. As I have said on this blog before, whether Al Gore’s cataclysmic scenario is true or not, pollution contributed by humans harms our environment and wasted energy costs money. At the very least, wildlife don’t appreciate gook-filled streams and landfills don’t smell nice. And I’m sure we’d all love to save a little money in the long run. It would seem that whether or not we fully agree with what Gore and many scientists are saying, we would still strive to better our environment to some extent.

Instead, I have noticed an alarming trend continue to worsen. The politicizing of the issue has created a situation where liberals are expected to be completely “green” and are criticized when they fly in jets to reach far away cities. Meanwhile, conservatives are expected to completely deny human pollution has any effect on the Earth and continue to waste energy while gagging ducks with plastic 6-pack rings. Just ask Rush Limbaugh, who at times encourages listeners to use as much energy as possible to stick it to Gore and the other global warming lunatics.

While the far end commentators continue to bicker, let’s try to find some common sense. Seriously, before An Inconvenient Truth, and the subsequent explosion of right-wing talk radio hosts, would we have ever thought helping the environment was a bad idea? It’s still not. Helping the environment is not helping Al Gore. Helping the environment does not make you a democrat. Helping the environment makes you a conscious, caring human being – for your present surroundings and for the future. It used to, anyway.

Let’s strive to save energy, if for nothing else to save money. Let’s strive to be “green,” if only for the ducks’ sake.

Live Earth sends an S.O.S.

7-7-07 was a special day for numerology buffs. Weddings were the thing (I emceed a reception that afternoon). Mothers induced labor to have their children on the supposed lucky day. Carlos Delgado of the New York Mets hit a homerun at 7:07 p.m., freaky. Also taking advantage of the triple 7’s was the former vice president turned activist turned rockstar Al Gore. Live Earth, a worldwide concert to raise awareness of the climate crisis, took the stage Saturday hoping to hit the jackpot.

Following in the footsteps of Live 8 and Live Aid, Live Earth was a simultaneous worldwide rock show, artists performing to raise awareness for an issue. Unique to Live Earth, all seven continents got in on the act. Even a group of scientists in Antarctica set up a stage and played. Probably not quite as popular as the bands playing in New York, London, Johannesburg, Rio de Janeiro, Hamburg, Sydney, Shanghai, and Tokyo.

The sheer scale of Live Earth was amazing to me. Organizers say 2 billion people were reached. No explanation of that exorbitant number was given. There were, however, 10 million viewers on MSN, making it the most watched webcast in the history of the Internet. 400,000 people were at the Rio de Janeiro beach stage alone. Stadiums full, millions and millions watching worldwide on television, millions more reached through media reports and word of mouth. 150 artists performing. It was massive.

Forget the cause for a moment; I love live music. John Mayer, Lenny Kravitz, and Dave Matthews were among my favorites. Madonna for her stage show; Shakira for her… well, as the song says, her hips don’t lie. Seeing the legends like Pink Floyd, Genesis, Duran Duran, and Smashing Pumpkins was also cool. But I was waiting for The Police. Naturally, they were the last performance on the entire planet. Sting and company closed it out by inviting Mayer and Kanye West for a rendition of “Message in a Bottle.” We could have done without Kanye’s off-rhythm rapping.

To segue between the music and the cause, I focus on Melissa Ethridge. Her set was a non-stop mix of song and rally cry.

“When I was in school, it was America,” Ethridge said. “People were doing things, people were standing up when it was an unjust war. I remember when we had a President who was a criminal. I remember America rose up and said uh-uh. Our democracy is sacred. What happened to us?”

Today, the critics unleashed upon Gore and Live Earth, calling it a failure and hypocrisy. The most common attack was the “hypocrisy” of promoting conservation of energy by flying artists around the world in jets to play on stages with elaborate lights where fans would pile up garbage. Gore was villainized for taking a train to the event. All of the stadiums had recycle bins for trash, in London, virtually everything was biodegradable, and grease used to cook food will be turned into biodiesel. And as for using fuel to travel, shall we teleport Foo Fighters to London? Shall Gore fly a french fry grease-powered helicopter? It definitively reached millions, possibly billions. It was worth the energy.

Critics also blasted the organizers of the Johannesburg site for blaming climate change for a poor turnout. This is stupidity searching for strings. The organizers blamed extremely cold weather for the poor turnout. The tongue-in-cheek comment, “Is it climate change?” came after the point.

What weak arguments. This is an issue that somehow got turned into Democrats vs. Republicans, which is ludicrous. President Bush and plenty of Republicans in Congress have realized the need to be green. Why do right-wingers insist on claiming climate change is liberal propaganda? What does it hurt to be environmentally conscious? Oh yeah, oil companies.

I won’t deny that Gore is a bit over the top in his global warming forecasts. Gore claims 20” of sea level rise, scientists say the number is closer to 14”. Apples and oranges – and it’s causing the big picture to be missed. It is some arrogance and more ignorance to think that all of the pollution humans put in our environment has no effect on our planet.

Even if it turns out that we are in a natural climate cycle causing warmer temperatures, humans still need to be more environmentally conscious. We need to find alternative, clean energy sources, if not because of global warming, because oil won’t last forever. We need to recycle, if not because of global warming, because it cuts production costs and eliminates landfills. We need to conserve electricity, if not because of global warming, because it saves households money.

Gore has gone from being the most boring man on Earth to a hero cheered like a rockstar and pleaded with to run for president. I am a full supporter of his cause, even if he turns out to be dead wrong. The scientific community suggests he’s right. We can argue details and potential extents of possibility to these theories that won’t play out for decades, but instead, let’s “answer the call.” At worst we improve our standard of life, at best we save our planet. Last time NASA checked, it’s the only one we’ve got.

 

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And believe me, the latest example of President Bush’s disregard for our nation’s laws is next up on the docket around here. Well, after a quick Bill O’ Reilly blast.