Monday, August 24, 2009

Once again, I suggest this: Get in front of a middle-America town hall and pitch these ideas to actual voters

The fallacy of climate activism | Grist - Adam D. Sacks
To be sure, global climate disruption is the No. 1 symptom. But if planetary warming were to vanish tomorrow, we would still be left with ample catastrophic potential to extinguish many life forms in fairly short order: deforestation; desertification; poisoning of soil, water, air; habitat destruction; overfishing and general decimation of oceans; nuclear waste, depleted uranium, and nuclear weaponry—to name just a few. (While these symptoms exist independently, many are intensified by global warming.)

We will not change course by addressing each of these as separate issues; we have to address root cultural cause.
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We must leave behind 10,000 years of civilization; this may be the hardest collective task we’ve ever faced. It has given us the intoxicating power to create planetary changes in 200 years that under natural cycles require hundreds of thousands or millions of years—but none of the wisdom necessary to keep this Pandora’s Box tightly shut. We have to discover and re-discover other ways of living on earth.
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If we live at all, we will have to figure out how to live locally and sustainably. Living locally means we are able get everything we need within walking (or animal riding) distance. We may eventually figure out sustainable ways of moving beyond those small circles to bring things home, but our track record isn’t good and we’d better think it through very carefully.

13 comments:

Anonymous said...

Mr. Thomas Nelson, you are an abject fool.

Sincerely,

John K. Oswald, Esq.

Anonymous said...

I would love to be there when these stupid suggestions are put forward.
I for one would not support such idiocy for any reason and most certainly not to combat a mythical problem like AGW.

I would support sending all the enviro terrorists to one small contenent and letting them live however they want while the rest of humanity progresses.

Anonymous said...

I love this idea, for you and your kind. I think that we should take a place, say Siberia and turn it all over to your ilk. It wouldn't take much land because no one would last for long. Feel free to put your ideas into practice. FYI, you'd be back to the hunter-gather stage of development so your veggie diet would be compromised. So please go about being that voice in the wilderness. I'm not sure I'd hear you above the noise from my V-8, but I can deal with that.

Anonymous said...

Riding animals?! Have you cleared that with PETA? I'm sure they would have something to say about such exploitation...

Anonymous said...

We may eventually find a way to move out beyond our "small circles" etc. Wow! You are out of your blooming mind--WE HAVE ALREADY DONE THAT! You want us to go back beyond the Dark Ages to a caveman existance? Tell you what, YOU go first Mr. Nelson. Go ahead. Smash your computer with a sledge hammer. Blow up your car. Pull down the electric wires. Smash the phones (includes cell phones). Get a donkey. Burn down your house and live in a cave. Don't you dare get any food from a modern farm--grow your own! No toilet paper for you. No soap, no running water. Go ahead. Let us know how you come out.

Anonymous said...

Wow, sounds like the Unabomber won after all!

Steve Martin said...

Is good, No?

Czar for donkey. Czar for campfire.

Czar of misery, No?

Anonymous said...

Would be nice to have all I need on a walking distance. Which politician should I vote on if I would like to have a better (=warmer) weather

Anonymous said...

I would love to see you riding your donkey to find a dentist or physician in your utopia to treat your immense toothache or other pain.

Anonymous said...

No one in England could wear cotton clothing if Sacks gets his way, since cotton doesn't grow there.

TokyoTom said...

Tom,. I think I get your point. Perhaps I could get your thoughts on my four related posts on "the tragedy of the panicked enviro"?

http://mises.org/Community/blogs/tokyotom/default.aspx

Ben V said...

I find it humorous that some of the people commenting are doing so thinking that Tom Nelson is the author of this story. Follow the link. Mr. Adam D. Sacks is the author. Tom is merely quoting small parts of what Mr. Sacks wrote, informing us of Mr. Sacks ridiculous ideas. The only words that are Tom's is the title of his blog.

Scottsblog said...

Guys, guys, Ben V is right. Tom isn't saying this. He's quoting some moron who thinks we should go back to stone age and become cavemen as part of his global-climate alarmism philosopy. Tom is saying lets pitch this stupid idea to actual, thinking people and see how what kind of a reaction it gets. And you guys have all proven his point. The idea is asinine and intellectually indefensible.