Can We Recycle Bono? « NoFrakkingConsensus

...Some days the cynical part of me begins to wonder whether the super-rich aren’t unconsciously attempting to re-institute the class system.

Today’s inexpensive flights are, after all, within reach of the masses. If and when they disappear, folks like Bono, Leonardo DiCaprio, Prince Charles, Al Gore, and Oprah aren’t going to be affected. Those people already own – or happily rent – private jets. Nor do environmental campaigners such as David Suzuki show any signs that they intend to stop flying. If you’re wealthy enough to afford carbon offsets, apparently there’s no problem.

Which means, of course, that when tough anti-global-warming policies are implemented the only people who’ll be denied the ability to fly are ordinary working people. It’s my life – and yours – that will be limited and constricted. Meanwhile, the wealthy will continue to treat the world as their playground.

The New Atlantis » Environmentalism as Religion

Describing environmentalism as a religion is not equivalent to saying that global warming is not real. Indeed, the evidence for it is overwhelming, and there are powerful reasons [like what, specifically?] to believe that humans are causing it. But no matter its empirical basis, environmentalism is progressively taking the social form of a religion and fulfilling some of the individual needs associated with religion, with major political and policy implications.