Re: OT: interesting global warming quote found elsewhwere

On Aug 9, 5:44 am, James Arthur <bogusabd...@xxxxxxxxxxx> wrote:
bill.slo...@xxxxxxxx wrote:
On Aug 7, 3:26 am, James Arthur <bogusabd...@xxxxxxxxxxx> wrote:
bill.slo...@xxxxxxxx wrote:
On Aug 6, 3:15 am, James Arthur <bogusabd...@xxxxxxxxxxx> wrote:
bill.slo...@xxxxxxxx wrote:
On Aug 5, 10:40 am, Eeyore <rabbitsfriendsandrelati...@xxxxxxxxxxx>
wrote:
Joerg wrote:
bill.slo...@xxxxxxxx wrote:
Joerg > wrote:
bill.slo...@xxxxxxxx wrote:
<snip>
Gore's "An Inconvenient Truth" grew out of his 1992 book "Earth in the
Balance" which still reads very well, and considerably predates Mann's
paper.
I have that book.  Appeals to emotion, brimming with errors of fact
and logic.  And hate.  It's absolute mindtrash.  Beneath contempt.
Best regards,
James Arthur
E.g., the first phrase random selection offers:
  "What a striking contrast between the awesome power and efficiency our
economic system displayed in its philosophical rout of Marxism-Leninism
and the abject failure of the same system to even take note of the
poisoning of our water, the fouling of our air, the destruction of tens
of thousands of living species every year.  We make billions of economic
choices every day, and the consequences are bringing us steadily closer
to the brink of ecological catastrophe."   (pg. 185)
Foresighted stuff - he wrote that some eight years before Dubbya get
elected and proceeded to rip up the inadequate environmental
protection legislation that you did have. Where is the error in fact
or logic you claim to be objecting to?
His writing is so rife with unclear thinking and innuendo that
making clear criticism of it is hard work.

Offhand, in this one paragraph...

Errors of fact:
  1) Our system /has/ taken great note and alarm about the environment.

But not enough of them.

Then he should've said "We've done a lot but not enough."
That's not what he said.  He said we haven't paid any attention
to it, that was wrong, and he knew it.

Sheesh, environmentalism took root in the '70's, decades before,
and was widely accepted as of his writing.  Not brave trail-blazing,
but preaching to the choir, that's what he was doing.  Pandering.

  2) No abject failure: we've taken great and effective measures
     to protect same.

But you still need to do more.

Not the same as "abject failure", with the implication things
were worsening, when they weren't.  That was bogus.

If you go back to what he was saying, he was talking about our
economic system, which doesn't make any allowance for the costs of
"the poisoning of our water, the fouling of our air, the destruction
of tens of thousands of living species every year". Our political
system does, but it works by banning this kind of activity or by
puting legisative limits of amount of pollutant that can be released.

Yo've missed this distinction between economic and political system
before, when you failed to see that he was criticising Marxism-
Leninism as an economic system (which it is, and a rather poor one).

Environmental costs are real, and can be assessed, and there is a real
argument for working out schemes for making the polluter pay for them
- this should provide a more cost-effective way of minimisng total
pollution

Therefore I don't think that you can make the claim that what he was
saying was bogus, though it is fairly clear that he was producing
enviromentalist rhetoric in a decidedly Clintonesque fashion - Gore's
education would have made him a lawyer if he hadn't gone into politics
when he did.

--
Bill Sloman, Nijmegen
.

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