[AGL] Joe Ben Clark recommends An Inconvenient Truth the movie

[Gerry]

The various scenarios of our changing planet and its future are nothing new. I don't see how anyone with average intelligence who stays fairly well informed can have missed all of them. The planet is over-populated. This is causing all kinds of environmental problems, any one of which could doom our species in the not so distant future. We (the USA) are the worst polluters, altho the Chinese are catching up fast. Our culture is built upon unsustainable practices which are stripping the planet in ways that are certain to bring an ultimate failure of natural processes we depend upon. So, what else is new? We don't need the Kyoto Protocol, we need individual responsibility.

How do we react to this "news"? Has Al Gore sold his car and moved into a small, solar powered home in the wilderness? Raising his own food? Recycling all his waste? Of course not. And neither have 99.5% of the informed population, Liberal Progressives included. So the problem is not that we are in deep doo doo, the problem is that we refuse to alter our way of life in the face of all the evidence that it is killing us and the planet. Will a movie change things? Perhaps for a few. It will not likely cause any kind of mass movement. But if you are waiting for a mass movement to join, you are dodging the issue. It can be done if one at a time you start changing. All you really have to do is change yourself.

Having made the personal decision to make a small foot print on the Earth about 15 years ago, I react to the Al Gore's and most of you on this list the same way: you have to do more than talk about it. You have to change. If you are not personally focused on the small foot print, you are just a bunch of jiveassed "good germans" who know the truth but don't have the will to make the personal sacrifices which may bring about meaningful change. When I read you all a-twitter over the latest flick or headline or book or scientific evidence, I just cringe a little and shake my head. You are the problem. How much longer do we have as a tribe here on Earth? It's up to you. Do nothing and you can start counting the days. As for the sleepless nights, they tend to go away after you start making changes. 
G


  ----- Original Message ----- 
  From: Connie Clark 
  To: survivors' reminiscences about Austin Ghetto Daze in the 60s 
  Sent: Thursday, June 22, 2006 11:03 AM
  Subject: Re: [AGL] Joe Ben Clark recommends An Inconvenient Truth the movie


  Ok, Wayne.  I've had sleepless nights since hearing Gore's lecture and attending the movie, but here is an explanation of my comment.  He says scientists speculate that Greenland ice mass could slide into the ocean anytime in the next (outside 10 years), raising sea levels 20' or more, wiping out south Florida for one. Nobody knows for sure.

  So, I'm thinking we are basically doomed and the planet is on 'short time'.  But of course, Gore is saying that there is hope, and that we all need to pull our own weight, so to speak, by turning out lights, and using energy efficient this and that, and in particular better mileage on cars, and possibly get us back - he's figurin - down to the 70s level of the global warming trend. Anyway, the more people get the message (thru the movei), the more likely there will be a few more folks who will cut down on their fossil fuel consumption - thus reducing greenhouse gases.  Nothing you didn't already know, except that I believe our generation may not see very bad results of climate change (apocalypse?) - whereas the younguns most likely will.

  Connie


  Wayne Johnson <cadaobh at shentel.net> wrote:
    What do you mean "young people see this differently"?  How differently?  Is this a good thing or a bad thing?

    An explanation would reduce the panic factor among some of us (read: Wayne)

    Thanks. Wayne





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