Our Friend Carbon Is 'Going Out Of Style'

Git Real's picture

Suddenly Being Green Is Not Cool Anymore

Julie Burchill can't stand them. According to her new book, Not in my Name: A Compendium of Modern Hypocrisy, she thinks all environmentalists are po-faced, unsexy, public school alumni who drivel on about the end of the world because they don't want the working classes to have any fun, go on foreign holidays or buy cheap clothes.

Michael O'Leary, the chief executive of Ryanair, agrees. In an interview with Rachel Sylvester and me, he told us that the “nutbag ecologists” are the overindulged rich who have nothing better to do with their lives than talk about hot air and beans.

Interesting article. Perhaps there is hope for this world after all if it's true that people are wising up the "nubag ecologists". Perhaps they'll go the way of the pending ice age of the 80's, the ozone hole, and acid rain. It won't be long before Al Gore gets to stand next to Ted Danson in the Chicken Little Hall Of Fame. And Hack and Carbon Unit 52 will be pacing in circles mumbling "Dad-gum-it.... Git was right. Dad-gum-it..... Git tried to tell us".

Meanwhile in a Conservative manner, I'll keep trying to be a good steward of the earth while treasuring man-kind over snail darters. Eye-wink

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Submitted by bowser on Sun, 08/10/2008 - 12:08pm.

...are all those folks -- and Fayette County is chock full of them -- who drive 4-5,000 pound suburban assault vehicles hither and yon, often alone, sitting way up high and mighty, blasting off from stoplights like their mother in law is chasing them, getting less than 20mpg and sucking up a finite fuel source.

Now THAT's extreme.

Hoosier Fan's picture
Submitted by Hoosier Fan on Sun, 08/10/2008 - 5:29pm.

Let me tell you about my sister-in-law and her husband, who are both college professors at a major University. We spend every family get-together listening to them lecture us about the evils of our "high carbon footprint" lifestyle. Meanwhile, they think they are "pure as the driven snow" as they both drive long daily commutes to campus in their gas guzzling luxury cars.

This summer these two committed "eco-tourists" flew to Norway and cruised up to the North Pole in an icebreaker so they could get up-close and personal with polar bears and the shrinking polar ice cap. I wonder what their icebreaker's contribution was to the shrinking ice cap.

That is the hypocrisy I see of some people on this issue. Guys like Al Gore may be sincere, but their self-absorbed, opulent lifestyles say far more than their words -- or expensive ad campaigns.


carbonunit52's picture
Submitted by carbonunit52 on Fri, 08/08/2008 - 7:03pm.

carbonunit52's picture
Submitted by carbonunit52 on Thu, 08/07/2008 - 6:59pm.

Don't figure on seeing carbonunit52 doing that dance anytime soon. This was an interesting article, as nitwit fringe thinking goes. Now that the good old USD is worth less than half what it was eight years ago, the environment has fallen out out of the top ten news items because the world is now struggling with food and energy prices, why, because the world economy trades in USD. The environmental degradation heavies are still around and no amount of the modern conservative smart ass attitude, especially the British variety, is going to mitigate them.


wulfman's picture
Submitted by wulfman on Thu, 08/07/2008 - 7:37pm.

In my business we make products for quite a few multinational companies and we have had to change our manufacturing processes and use more recycled raw materials to satisfy our customers. It’s written into the contracts we have no choice if we want the business. Changing our manufacturing processes has been expensive and of course our clients want us to eat the expense and not pass it along to them.

I’m all for saving mother earth but at what cost? Our employee’s jobs?

Wulf


Submitted by Bonkers on Fri, 08/08/2008 - 7:17am.

Yes, that is the cost if you can't be more efficient or find another way to do it.

Apparently someone is doing it, they are getting their parts, I assume.

wulfman's picture
Submitted by wulfman on Fri, 08/08/2008 - 7:49am.

You are right someone's doing it. One of their current suppliers is in India.

I’ve been in that supplier’s factory, environmentally friendly it is not. They are using early 1900’s technology. Hey but they signed a contract and said it was.

Wulf


Submitted by Bonkers on Fri, 08/08/2008 - 1:00pm.

I understand the problem. They produce cheaper due to less restrictions and lower wages, primarily.

Whereas you can not ignore the environmental friendliness. Yes?
How about the re-cycle?

wulfman's picture
Submitted by wulfman on Fri, 08/08/2008 - 1:56pm.

I can’t and don’t want to ignore environmental issues.

We only have one earth and I would like to leave it in good condition for my children and grandchildren.

As for recycled materials, both my company and the Indian company use them. Now if you compare apples to apples our recycled materials are of a lot higher quality than theirs.

Most of the steel they use comes from old rusty junk ships that are towed into a harbor and cut up by 500 workers with cutting torches.

Wulf


carbonunit52's picture
Submitted by carbonunit52 on Thu, 08/07/2008 - 9:07pm.

Jobs are good, money is good, buying nice things to eat is good. I don't think that taking care of our spaceship earth is at odds with having a viable economy. Your customers are making unreasonable demands, I agree, but that is not the fault of people trying to conserve resources. I have seen the effects in my own lifetime. When I was young in rural PA, there were amphibians all over the place: frogs of many varieties, fat toads under every piece of wood, salamanders and newts that were bright yellows and reds. They are all gone now. Amphibians are in rapid decline across the globe, because they are the most susceptible to the effects of pollutants.


carbonunit52's picture
Submitted by carbonunit52 on Thu, 08/07/2008 - 7:58pm.

I remember a bumper sticker a while ago, from the Pacific Northwest I believe, that read "Hungry? Out of Work? Eat an environmentalist."


wulfman's picture
Submitted by wulfman on Thu, 08/07/2008 - 8:46pm.

Thanks anyway but I’m trying to quit.

I tried eating greens once and was sick for a week.

Wulf


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