On 8th Avenue
Something happened yesterday that should not stand out in the scheme of human interaction, but it does. I had lunch at a Thai place, the place we go in the afternoon following the utterance of the words ‘Thai Place’, it is nothing more or less simple and instinctual than that. Afterward, she was going back to work, and I was going to see a movie.
I started off toward the theatre. On the sidewalk ahead was a woman in her twenties, shoulder-length curly dark hair, and a ‘Greenpeace’ t-shirt on. She was smiling, her clipboard was smiling, the polar bear on the ice floe was smiling. I gave, and she accepted the opportunity to engage me in conversation in the shade of a short and sparse tree along 8th avenue.
I asked her if she really wanted to talk to me since I wasn’t going to be her easiest sell of the day. She assured me that, indeed, so important was the message she had, that everyone needed to hear it.
She hit me with the standard jargon, line by line what the environmental machine wants everyone to believe.
“There are already 200,000 dead from climate change”
“Oh my,” I say, “how did that happen?”
“Well, there is a drought in Darfur, and there have been an estimated 200,000 deaths there in the last two years alone.”
“Hmm, is that the same Darfur where there is a civil war, and genocide on both sides, and whole families being hacked up by marauding, machete wielding gangs of thugs? Are you suggesting that the drought has made these people cranky, and they are killing each other because of man-made global warming?”
I smiled a broad smile, and chucked her on the arm and said I wouldn’t hold that against her, and that she should try again.
I asked her what numbers she put faith in. There are sources for numbers to prove whatever you would like. It is as simple as shopping for the results you want. Predictably, she said that Greenpeace uses the WHO numbers. Since they are an arm of the UN, then the UN satellite numbers must also be good, right?
Sure.
But the thing is that the returns from the UN satellites for the last 15 years have shown a decrease in atmospheric temp, with this tear being the coolest of those.
Even while terrestrial measurements have shown that the CO2 levels in the atmosphere has been going up. Al Gore told me that a rise in CO2 would cause the planet to warm. Now I am confused.
She couldn’t speak to that specifically, she was interested in spreading the word, so maybe someone would buy a better car. She said that she would love to see people buying a Prius instead of a Hummer. I mentioned to her a study I heard about recently regarding that very comparison. An environmental scientist looked at the whole picture. Not just the portion where the Prius stands up tall.
This scientist took into account every part of the production of one versus the other, and the environmental footprint each one makes before it even reaches you. All of the plastic and caustics involved with making the interior, and the componentry. The brown fields in Canada where nothing will ever grow again, soaked as they are with cadmium and lead. The town near the battery production facility that deals with the poisoned water supply, all for the sake of making you feel good about your choice of auto. On the other hand, the Hummer lumbers along, made of steel, and rubber, old technologies, wasting fuel to be sure, but not literally destroying the earth.
I told her my thoughts on the matter. I told her that everyone she knows hates George Bush, and they want to get him out of office, that to them, anyone or no one would be better, he is the worst thing they ever heard of. I think they started this little ‘Human Caused Global Warming’ propaganda campaign a little bit too early.
They thought they would be able to blindside the public and maintain their story until they got their guy in there, and then they could announce that they had fixed the problem, and then you should be sure to vote for them for all of time.
What they didn’t count on was the speed of information, and the fact that the American public is not as dumb as they once were, We can find these numbers, too. They no longer serve as the portal of information, they do not have direct oversight. All the fear-mongers can do is count on people to be lazy, and willfully ignorant.
Another big mistake.
The myth of man-made global warming is unraveling, people are starting to get the idea that they are dupes, being played for a buck.
I could see the light go out behind her eyes. I have started to recognize this from people who like me, or have reason to like me, and I have made strides to stop when I see it.
I said “I am not going to try to convince you of anything, and I hope you would do me the same honor.” We agreed to that. I wanted to explain more thoroughly what I thought about the politics in which she involved herself. I explained to her that there was a corruption of scale that takes place in any organization over a certain size. Once an organization looses itself from it’s own grass roots, it begins to take seriously it’s own ability to survive past the end of the next fiscal quarter. Whatever the intent of the endeavor is to begin with, that can be forgotten once the membership becomes big enough.
It could be Baby Harp Seal Killers, LLC, or Sad-eyed-puppies.com, both of them will find it necessary to function side by side, in the exact same ways, once the self-preservation conditioned reaction kicks in. Corruption of scale will dictate that there are officials to be bribed, politicians to be bought, rules to be circumvented because the law is not great at customizing itself to a given business model, it is only good at standing still and being itself.
Greenpeace is top-heavy, and just as corrupt as any other business venture because it must be. It does not matter that it began with pure intentions, bourn of the roots, springing from the soil. That is not what it is anymore. To find a person willing to take the helm, you need to offer a salary commensurate with the work, the person of that skill level may not be the most demanding in the ways of your ideals. And it all rolls down hill.
I told her that I hoped what I said would not convince her to stop what she was doing. She is doing more personally by believing in what she was doing, and doing it, than the organization she fronts for. The energy she puts into the world by being there rain or shine will have an influence on the hearts and minds of people she meets and in that way effect the state of the world in a positive way.
I wished her luck and bade her good day. I felt like there was an exchange of ideas that did not involve yelling, or name calling. I think I have been influenced by a realization that it is not as important that you have the facts on your side, as it is that you can present them in a manner that does not first put a person on their guard. Seems like there may be a trend here. It is sneaky, but I think it works.
