I was watching the poster apocalyptic movie for Global Warming recently (not the Al Gore movie, the "Three Weeks before a Month from Now, Minus Five Days" one). I couldn't help but think of Al Gore's Nobel peace prize, and all the clamor over "carbon credits".
I suddenly realized, that the environmental movement of the 60's and 70's was more like modern evangelicalism. You know "sex, drugs, and rock n' roll", freedom, individuality (me-centered) and all that.
But what is modern environmentalism?
It's a lot closer to medieval Catholicism.
You see, the coming global disaster is Purgatory. And carbon credits are indulgences. And Al Gore is the pope of Global Warmingism.
Don't believe me?
Here is a quote from a speech by Tetzel, the villain of Papal Indulgences:
"Don't you hear the voices of your wailing dead parents and others who say, 'Have mercy upon me, have mercy upon me, because we are in severe punishment and pain. From this you could redeem us with a small alms and yet you do not want to do so.' Open your ears as the father says to the son and the mother to the daughter . . ., 'We have created you, fed you, cared for you, and left you our temporal goods. Why then are you so cruel and harsh that you do not want to save us, though it only takes a little? You let us lie in flames so that we only slowly come to the promised glory.'"
Just sed out "dead parents" for "children to come". And "punishment" for rising sea levels, killer hurricanes, drought, flood, famine, etc.
This is an even better marketing scheme! You can remember your parents, and they might not of been likable. But who doesn't want to "think of the children"?
5 comments:
First it's evolution denial, and now global warming denial?
The question isn't if temperatures are increasing, or even if we are at fault.
The question is: "Can we do anything about it?"
Al Gore's movie show carbon and temperature increasing due to the beginning of the industrial age (late 1800's). If there is a real problem, reduction to 1990's levels won't help (and China is not going to cooperate).
Regardless of what happens, "carbon credits" are a feel good measure (and a profit center). Yet another works righteousness religion.
And I haven't denied evolution, I've just "lost faith" :)
Carbon credits are supposed to be used for research into sustainable energy and reducing our carbon footprint. If that is not being done, then you are entirely correct. If it is being done, then your analogy is off. Should carbon credits exempt one from trying to reduce one's footprint? No, of course not. But, it's not quite the same as do nothing indulgences if some actual good comes out of it.
I think you are talking about a system of credits between nations. If you google for "carbon credits" you will be given many links for individuals to buy credits.
These credits are often used to planet trees in third world nations or remove carbon producing fuels from the market.
Of course, the companies offering these credits skim off some amount for "operational costs". That is the parallel to indulgences.
Nope, I was talking about what you are talking about. Some groups do plant trees, others do research into sustainable energy. I still fail to see how this relates to indulgences, except very loosely. Yes, there are some operational costs, but that's the price of business. Indulgences were skimmed (or simply outright taken by the person selling them) and that was it. No good was ever done. It was a scam from the beginning. The carbon credit is actually used to do some good. You wish to malign the people who are setting out to make the Earth more habitable (or at least fight against the rest of the world who are trying to screw up the planet) and compare them to a corrupt magistrate that took people's money (and kept it) for promises of which they knew they could not keep? How odd.
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