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Martian · 07-10-2007, 09:15 PM

The beauty of global warming... no, the sheer, sublime genius of global warming as an issue is the time scale of it.

Think back to Y2K. Woe betide the politician who campaigned on the issue of Y2K, because it was an issue with a timer. There was the same doomsayers telling us that the world was going to end, except they were pinning it to a specific time, down to the second. And yeah, some people bought it, while the IT sector as a whole quietly laughed at them. And then, a few patches later, the big event came and went. Nothing happened, we collectively shrugged our shoulders and moved on; in five years, nobody will even remember the term anymore.

So imagine, now, that you're a politician. You need an issue to champion. It has to be something that will get people riled up, something that you can ideally use against your opponents. It also has to be feasible; you need to be able to advance an agenda in support of your issue and it shouldn't be something with a best before date. Global warming fits all of the criteria and it works perfectly from all angles. If my party decides to campaign on global warming, I can trot out a bunch of scientific-looking figures and charts and say, 'this is what we need to do now! Not for us, or our children, but our children's chlidren!' In ten years if things get worse, I (or my party, by that point) can change stance a bit and claim that 'we need to do more! Children's grandchildren, dammit!' If, on the other hand, things get better, we can say 'look at our legacy, and what we've left for our uncle's niece's children!'

I'm not saying that global warming isn't a legitimate issue. It's just that it's one that we know very little about. Most of our really solid information comes from the last century or so, which in terms of a geological timescale is less than the blink of an eye. How can we hope to pull any truly meaningful information regarding global climate trends out of that?

Personally, if I ever have an opportunity to get my hands on a '74 'Cuda, I'm not going to stop a single picosecond to consider global warming. I'm going to buy the damn car and drive it and love it and not care a bit that it farts out more carbon oxides than all the Priuses of the world put together. But that's just me.

07-10-2007, 09:15 PM	#16 (permalink)
Martian Young Crumudgeon Location: Canada	The beauty of global warming... no, the sheer, sublime genius of global warming as an issue is the time scale of it. Think back to Y2K. Woe betide the politician who campaigned on the issue of Y2K, because it was an issue with a timer. There was the same doomsayers telling us that the world was going to end, except they were pinning it to a specific time, down to the second. And yeah, some people bought it, while the IT sector as a whole quietly laughed at them. And then, a few patches later, the big event came and went. Nothing happened, we collectively shrugged our shoulders and moved on; in five years, nobody will even remember the term anymore. So imagine, now, that you're a politician. You need an issue to champion. It has to be something that will get people riled up, something that you can ideally use against your opponents. It also has to be feasible; you need to be able to advance an agenda in support of your issue and it shouldn't be something with a best before date. Global warming fits all of the criteria and it works perfectly from all angles. If my party decides to campaign on global warming, I can trot out a bunch of scientific-looking figures and charts and say, 'this is what we need to do now! Not for us, or our children, but our children's chlidren!' In ten years if things get worse, I (or my party, by that point) can change stance a bit and claim that 'we need to do more! Children's grandchildren, dammit!' If, on the other hand, things get better, we can say 'look at our legacy, and what we've left for our uncle's niece's children!' I'm not saying that global warming isn't a legitimate issue. It's just that it's one that we know very little about. Most of our really solid information comes from the last century or so, which in terms of a geological timescale is less than the blink of an eye. How can we hope to pull any truly meaningful information regarding global climate trends out of that? Personally, if I ever have an opportunity to get my hands on a '74 'Cuda, I'm not going to stop a single picosecond to consider global warming. I'm going to buy the damn car and drive it and love it and not care a bit that it farts out more carbon oxides than all the Priuses of the world put together. But that's just me. __________________ I wake up in the morning more tired than before I slept I get through cryin' and I'm sadder than before I wept I get through thinkin' now, and the thoughts have left my head I get through speakin' and I can't remember, not a word that I said - Ben Harper, Show Me A Little Shame