Al Gore, Climate Change, Dynamite and Dollars. Lots of Dollars.
Glen's post reminded me that I wanted to post on Al Gore's Nobel nomination, too.
I cannot think of a more perfect nominee for the Nobel Peace Prize than Al "The Rest Of You Are Ruining My Planet" Gore. As I'm sure most people are by now aware, this prize is given in honour of Alfred Nobel. Nobel, a scientist, left the bulk of his fortune to be used in the giving of these prizes. He made that fortune by inventing dynamite.
Dynamite.
You know, the stuff used right here in Tennessee to tear down mountains so that roads can carry emissions-belching cars in a straighter line? The stuff used to make railroads that criss-crossed the world. Yeah. That stuff.
Basically, Nobel invented a way to blow stuff up easier, kill lots of people quicker and generally cause havoc. He then felt bad about it. So bad that he gave away all the money he made from dynamite's invention to the betterment of the world. After he died and couldn't enjoy it anymore, of course.
This dovetails perfectly with Al Gore and his "environmentalism" in so many beautiful ways. Like Nobel, Gore is excited about the wealth to be found in tailoring the world to his personal liking.
the commercial venture that excites Gore most these days is Generation Investment Management, his global fund. As governments begin imposing carbon caps on businesses, Gore says, free markets will reward companies that practice environmental sustainability. The result: reductions in emissions of carbon dioxide and other greenhouse gases responsible for global warming. "As soon as business leaders get global warming or the environment at large," he says, "they start seeing profit opportunities all over the place. There is so much low-hanging fruit right now, it's just ridiculous." ...
Though Generation invests in a wide range of companies, Gore and his team are especially bullish on the energy sector. We're on the verge of "a real gold rush" in renewables, conservation, and software for identifying and eliminating waste, he says. "The whole economy is going to shift into a much more granular analysis of which matter is used for what, which streams of energy are used for what. Where does it come from? Where does it go? Why are we now wasting more than 90 percent of it?" Gore shakes his head. "The investments in doing it right are not costs - they're profits."
I have absolutely nothing against capitalism. I love it. I think the true earthly salvation for humans lies in one form of capitalism or another. What I do rail against is the current media depictions of Gore as some sort of genial saint concerned only for the welfare of Mother Gaia, angry at what the rest of us breathing, eating and farting humans have done to her.
Al Gore has done nothing more than find his brand. The brand of Al Gore 3.0. He is no longer the Fortunate Son waiting in the wings for his turn to run the free world. He is no longer the wigged-out frustrated lumberjack finding himself on the campus of MTSU. He is now Mr. Gaia, pimping that love-of-earth for all the dollars he can wring out of the thing. You do know that the Nobel Peace Prize is accompanied by a cash award, right?
Like Nobel, Gore is content to pursue wealth and feelgoodism for the upper classes while ignoring the strife his methods cause to those on the lower economic rungs of society. Do you think Nobel truly cared about the thousands of Chinese who died handling dynamite to build the railroad? Do you think Gore truly cares about the many poor people in America who are kept out of better, higher paying jobs because they cannot afford a car which passes emissions tests?
I have no doubt that Gore has found an inner peace for himself as he pursues this new avenue to increased fame and wealth. Yet somehow I wonder if he cares who gets blown up in the way...
Oh well. It's Nobel's prize. May as well give it to a like-minded fellow.
posted by Kat Coble @ 11:06 AM
10 comments
10 Comments:
Excellent post Katherine, very well written.
The difference between Gore and Nobel though is this. Nobel was an engineer, a thinking man, an inventor. He was part of that class of human being that produces wealth and increases the standard of living of all.
Al Gore is a looter. He hasn't created or engineered anything. All he has ever been is a govt. employee. His business was to take from people like Nobel and redistribute their wealth to others, all the while attempting to make people like Nobel feel guilty for being wealthy. Also he helped create class envy for the lower classes.
The Nobel's of the world can do without the Gore's. In fact, they would do better without them. But the Gores of the world could not survive without the Nobels. That is because the Gores of the world are nothing but leeches, parasites looking for a Nobel to latch onto and live off of. The Gore's of the world know this and it tears them apart with hatred and envy. They are aware of their insignificance and it kills them.
It is a shame though that someone like Nobel ended up giving into the guilt pushed onto them by the looters.
Rush Limbaugh is a more deserving of a Nobel peace prize?
Not at all. I can't stand that man. I just thought of it when Glen brought it up.
Well yes, I guess he did as you indicate ("He then felt bad about it") a few paragraphs earlier.
Nobel only "felt bad about it" about six years before the end of his life when a newspaper prematurely printed his obituary with the saying "The merchant of death is now dead." So, no, I don't think he spent a large part of his life regretting his wealth or his comfort. And of course the fact that he continued to live in vast wealth and comfort says to me that he didn't entirely disavow the consequences of his actions.
And of course there'd have been a whole lot more dead Chinese if they'd been using nitroglycerin.
But would they have? Probably not. Nitroglycerin wasn't transportable to any great degree and wouldn't have been economically feasible for construction purposes.
And so with Gore you're suggesting that he doesn't really care about the environment,
Oh, I think he does care. But I don't think his caring is the pure altruism it's often made out to be. I think it's well-butressed by the knowledge that this is a new frontier for monies to be made. It is my understanding that the Gore family profited mightily through ownership in Envirotest Corp. when emissions-testing of autos became standard. I think Gore does care about the environment but the posture of his caring is designed to drive a wealth engine. I hear those on the left decrying the Haliburtons behind Bush & Chaney. I don't think Gore is any more scrupled in his associations with "environmental" profiteering.
But I think he rightly prioritizes the welfare of future generations in America, as well as the rest of the world, when trying to find solutions to man made climate change.
This engenders the presumption that climate change is man-made. I don't think there is enough evidence to support such a claim. Until there is I reserve the right to some skepticism about those who gin up a fear/profit/fear/profit cycle.
The Right has Terrorists/Haliburton.
The Left has Environmentalism/Green Industry.
It's all the same thing. Exaggerate any real threat. Keep us busy chasing our tails so profiteers can reap rewards.
Standing ovation!
I think Al cares about the environment...about as much as the rest of us (wink). I think this is just a ploy to keep him in the spotlight. He's an opportunist...and hey...more power to him...but I have to say, it's hysterical how many people are bowing down to the almight gore. I do believe humans do hurt the environment...but what are we gonna do? Shoot ourselves so the environment can survivie? Wait...the gunpowder might have an adverse reaction. We're doomed. (tic)
I netflixed Inconvenient Truth. I think it was a wretched piece of claptrap. He's jetting around the world in limos and, well, jets saying how we're wrecking the environment... Couldn't he just have made the movie from one location and saved all that pollution?
I think you're right about the green industry. Al Gore stands to make a LOT of money off his book/movie alone, and now it's nominated for Best Documentary Feature. I had a friend who wondered why it didn't get nominated for best picture. Whatever.
It wouldn't shock me at all that he's got some stake in environmental companies.
I admire the environmental movement and the desire to conserve the earth, but when it turns to the point people who have lots of kids become a liability to the earth, that's where I have to part ways.
This engenders the presumption that climate change is man-made.
Well the most recent report offers a 90% chance that climate change has been in part created by humans. of course I know the oil industries have offered some massive cash reward for anybody who can string up a few big words to reach the pre-conceived conclusion that man really hasn't done anything to the climate. When some greedy bastard makes one up just to make himself a millionaire, THAT is the report conservatives will jump on as being completely unbiased. Mark my words.
That's the problems with most conservatives when it comes to global warming (not to mention evolution, etc.). They reach a conclusion first, and then try to find evidence to back it up. That's not the way science works.
What's amazing is that the entire Democratic Party can have ameeting and herald the evil of "fear-mongering" among the right, then turn right around...and with evidence that is impossible to verify due to lack of sufficient data from even the relatively RECENT past...tell the world that the sky is falling.
Amazing, the selectiveness of liberals!
What a devious bastard that Al
Gore is -- plotting for 25 years with Machiavellian schemes -- all those Congressional hearings on CO2 and climate change that no one attended but were none-the-less roundly ridiculed. And then he had the mendacity to travel around the world for years to give thousands of talks to all those gullible and uneducated souls because he knew what the payoff would be -- it would make him rich and famous. The guy is nothing but a fraud who doesn't care a fig about the rest of humanity.
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