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iwombat - 2007-08-19 16:01:05
I haven't seen "the eleventh hour" (although I saw some of a great series by the same name where retired people of the power class came out with their versions of the truth about the role of their power in the the world, and other things, ala Eisenhower) Interesting article by Freeman Dyson.
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Paula - 2007-08-19 16:28:07
The only objection I have to Freeman Dyson's article is this weird logical fallacy--and I've heard this in casual arguments so many times--that paying attention to Problem A (in this case global warming) takes attention away from Problems B, C, D...(poverty, infectious diseases and so on).
And the example he uses--building better dikes around New Orleans? Well, as far as I know, people were paying attention to that issue, and it got messed up anyway. But not because everyone in the entire land was preoccupied with global warming.
Anyway, this is a big world, with lots of resources that can be divided up lots of ways. Getting up in arms about the "grossly exaggerated" phenomenon of global warming doesn't remove the urgency or importance of any of those other issues.
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grigorss - 2007-08-19 18:49:57
"Hot Fuzz" is also notable for being a much better remake of this film than the recent Nicholas Cage star vehicle was. My own movie-going experiences were in an entirely escapist mode this weekend -- SuperBad and King of Kong -- both very good, albeit in completely different ways.
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Paula - 2007-08-19 19:10:19
I am looking forward to King of Kong, the trailer is hilarious.
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grigorss - 2007-08-19 19:25:08
It is very funny, in spots -- although it ends being something other than a comedy; but all the more interesting because it does take such a turn.
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Eric - 2007-08-20 02:37:54
11th Hour was good unless you've seen a lot of the other environmentally friendly documentaries that are everywhere. To me it was just more of the same, and I am getting a bit tired of it.
I love Hot Fuzz. A real blast, and the long length just is more tribute to those action movies, which always feel a need to go longer than two hours when they don't need to.
And then I recommend King of Kong, which I saw at Tribeca Film Fest. in May. It's really a lot of fun and even gripping at times.
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Eric - 2007-08-20 02:41:09
Oh right. I can also recommend Death at a Funeral. It may not be perfect, but there are some real hilarious moments, and it has an ending of real poignancy which surprised me.
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Paula - 2007-08-20 10:51:15
Eric: I never saw the Al Gore documentary, and haven't done much reading or viewing of other green-related material, so I'm still not sick of it. More importantly, I hope people do get sick of it and start unconsciously absorbing all the info...that's pretty much how the collective conscious gets its learnin', by media saturation.
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Tom G. - 2007-08-20 15:54:00
Paula, you make a good point about the levee system around NOLA getting messed up. They were shoddily built as evidence has proved and a lot of human mistakes were made along the way long before nature got involved. Where Dyson really lost me was his argument that genetic engineering of plants, etc. is going to be humans' saving grace. With our seemingly boundless capacity for error and predilection to greed I really am uncomfortable with allowing profit-motivated humans to mess with our food supply. And as far as GW is concerned, I just wish the focus would be on those factors that contribute the most to the problem: namely automobiles and not banning plastic grocery bags or water bottles or using CFLS (which contain significant amounts of mercury).
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Sharon - 2007-08-20 16:29:17
The Gore documentary is surprisingly good on so many levels. I had really been avoiding seeing it - because it became like a chore one is supposed to do to be an upright citizen. But a friend of mine who is an episcopal priest (bold and wild in her youth- if her parishioners only knew!) invited me to a viewing at her little church. I think one of the things that makes this documentary work so well is that Gore was just into his subject before most people were paying attention. The way they capture his presentation and supplement it with his personal journey helps brings the audience deeper into it. Gore's corniness and awkward overearnestness does him in good stead as a teacher and a seeker... qualities that seem to work against American politicians at the presidential level. Anyway, after the movie, about 30 people from 18 to 80, all different political persuasions, mostly white folks, but a few friends of color had an amazing far-ranging conversation....a beginning.(n.b.,the key to judging scientists making assertions about climate change is if their work is "peer-reviewed". If not, they're just pulling ideas out of their butts.
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chris - 2007-08-21 06:09:07
An inconvenient truth is great advertising for global warming, but overall is very sloppy with the science, pushing into fear mongering. That's sad because sticking with the sound scientific case is a strong enough argument, no need to give your opponents an opening. What bothers me more about the movie was the shift into moral ground. To phrase another scientist if global warming is deeply unethical, wouldn't deprivation also be unethical? Why just wily nilly condemn a revolution that has brought us Blogs and Medicines.
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Paula - 2007-08-21 07:33:13
Re: deprivation: Is that scientist referring to the sacrifices we'd have to make in order to be "green"? I'll hold off addressing that til the point is clarified.
I know what you're saying about the moralizing, but keep in mind that moral arguments are effective. We'd like to think that people are rational and make choices based on evidence and facts, but they don't.
That's not necessarily a bad thing--the civil rights and feminist movements in this country both relied heavily on moral arguments, and they worked, more or less.
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chris - 2007-08-21 07:53:56
from a much better writer than myself. Sorry, its long
The era of fossil energy must now give way to an era of clean energy. But the last century's headlong consumption of oil, coal, and gas has raised living standards throughout the world; driven malnourishment to an all-time low, according to the latest U.N. estimates; doubled global life expectancy; pushed most rates of disease into decline; and made possible Gore's airline seat and MacBook, which he doesn't seem to find unethical. The former vice president clicks up a viewgraph showing the human population has grown more during his lifetime than in all previous history combined. He looks at the viewgraph with aversion, as if embarrassed by humanity's proliferation. Population growth is a fantastic achievement�though one that engenders problems we must fix, including inequality and greenhouse gases. Gore wants to have it that the greener-than-thou crowd is saintly, while the producers of cars, power, food, fiber, roads, and roofs are appalling. That is, he posits a simplified good versus a simplified evil. Just like a movie!
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Sharon - 2007-08-21 10:33:00
Chris-Very well made points, a lot of food for thought. Although I think you are a little hard on Gore. I give him some credit for at least starting a conversation.I think it's hard to function in a pure way without some compromise. Those deep inside the game have a part to play too in shifting consciousness. I concede it isn't nearly as clear-cut as a Vietnamese Buddhist lighting himself on fire in protest,say.
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Greg - 2007-08-21 16:02:29
I don't see how addressing then environment at this point is not a moral argument. The point is surely not that all the industrialization that brought us to this point is immoral, but that trying to deny and worse yet obscure the fact that some of it has led us to dire consequences IS certainly immoral. Unfortunately the only people with the power to make the change are the people that will have to spend the most and they seem awfully resistant.
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2fs - 2007-08-22 23:28:45
A "global living standard" is an average - and, like any average, can obscure rather important things in the absence of further information. Certainly, insofar as malnutrition has been reduced, that's a good thing. And certainly, it is a good thing if living standards could be raised to a level such that people are not starving (that would be more than merely establishing an average, of course). The problem is that the average standard may have been pushed quite high due to some people's standards being unsustainably high. You know: in terms of average income, fifty homeless people and Bill Gates are doing pretty damned fine.
I also question the implication that "headlong consumption" of oil is largely responsible for the facts you present. Or, better: I question whether the standards might not have risen, more equitably and more sustainably, had we been more responsible and not consumed so "headlong." Back then, we didn't know. We do now.
Finally, to me, any argument about Al Gore's usage of computers, energy, or anything else is irrelevant: okay, maybe Al's a hypocrite. That says absolutely nothing about the validity of his message, for one thing - and for another, funny how the folks (usually Republicans) pointing out Gore's hypocrisy seldom reveal their own energy usage, or that of their leaders. I don't think Dick Cheney lives in an energy efficient solar-powered bunker, you know?
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