It’s pretty clear from many of the GW posts in this here Lavender Room that my buddy Al Gore doesn’t get all the love I think he deserves for igniting the debate over greenhouse gasses and the role they play in climate hotness.
However even Al’s horror story apparently hasn’t cut the mustard in terms of spurring our Great Nation to prompt and significant action because there’s ANOTHER movie coming out now.
No, the means by which the human race meets its ultimate extirpation from this planet also includes the familiar if forgotten bogeymen of last century- Total Nuclear Anihilation, Global Religious Total War, Global Crash of the Eco-Sphere due to Toxic Sludge (or Runaway Overpopulation, take your pick) or any combination of the aforementioned and a few I’m sure I’ve neglected to recall as a result of my tunnel vision-like devotion to stemming Climate Modification Caused By Human Activities.
So I ask those of you who STILL aren’t buying It: Will Leonardo DiCaprio and his youthful ernest-ness do the trick? Will any movie, or heaven forbid- book, do it for you?
Or are you still waiting for something REALLY bad to happen before you demand an end to the use of fossil fuels (something bad that can be indisputably linked to human consumption and/or our disregard for the natural environment AND this bad thing occurs to someone you personally know and care about I mean.)
Not really wanting to have a trite reply, but I like the music in the trailer–does anyone know what it is? Sounds a little like Linkin Park.
While there are certainly valid points on both sides of the GW issue, I still have a problem with Leo showing footage of WEATHER disasters and calling it CLIMATE. Two very different things.
From the trailer, it appears that the movie isn’t just about GW (although it gets a lot of play), they’re showing solid waste, chemical pollution, etc., and how can you not be opposed to that? The shot of an excavator scooping cubic yards of floating trash out of the water is certainly compelling.
“From the trailer, it appears that the movie isn’t just about GW (although it gets a lot of play), they’re showing solid waste, chemical pollution, etc., and how can you not be opposed to that? The shot of an excavator scooping cubic yards of floating trash out of the water is certainly compelling.”
Yeah but he’s going to ask the viewers to take action; not simply nod their heads in agreement that those are bad things.
He’s going to suggest we consume less, shrink our “footprints”, and never vote Republican again (cause see, he’s from Holly-weird).
I think the celebrity endorsement is aimed at getting those who would watch Leonardo tie his shoes let alone ernestly hold forth on a real life-or-death proposition into a seat in the theatre. Last I looked, the only scientist who could draw a crowd was Stephen Hawking, and he’s in there but second billing to Leonardo. That alone speaks volumes about the depths to which the enviro-nazis have sunk in their efforts to brainwash us.
Well, I for one am not much for celebrity worship, and in fact find the amount of said worship here in the US slightly revolting. In fact, having psuedo-intellectual movie stars espouse a cause is enough for me (irrationally, I know) to move towards the opposite view point. No, if you want to convince me, send me to places like realclimate.org that can discuss the science behind the GW theories rationally.
Wouldn’t it have been better to get John Travolta? Wouldn’t you rather have the guy who owns five private jets instead of a guy who just flies around in them?
Why settle for a Gulfstream liberal when you can have a multi Gulfstream liberal?
I wonder how many Hollywood types will be pulling up to the red-carpet gala premier in stretch Hummer limos? Crank the A/C to “high” because we don’t want to spoil the makeup…
Tim, I don’t think that Leonardo’s gonna help much.
I mean, a few years ago he would have gotten a lot of teen-aged girls to talk to their parents or something, but not much else.
Celebrity spokespeople are great at getting attention for something that people aren’t aware of otherwise. Raising money for Tibet, etc. People are aware of global warming, they just choose to deny its existence and that role that humans play in causing it.
But, the more people talk about it the better, I guess.
"I wonder how many Hollywood types will be pulling up to the red-carpet gala premier in stretch Hummer limos? Crank the A/C to “high” because we don’t want to spoil the makeup… "
Oh, come on man! Did you not read all the arguments about Al Gore’s waste? The rich don’t have to cut back. They buy those carbon credits, which really really really work, and have a hybrid parked in the garage. It’s the little people that suck. If he can’t fly his plane or ride in his limo then how the hell is he supposed to get around and tell you about how much you hate the Earth. After all doy of dealing with your scummy ass he needs several large houses to rest in. You just don’t get it. It’s not what you do that will save the Earth, it’s what you say that matters.
Because it is part of the GLobal Warming debate. How many hurricanes before GW? None. Up till the mid 70s there was no weather. For millions and millions of years everything in the sky stayed the exact same. There was never ever ever a storm or bad day of any sort. Then the cars came and it was all fucked from there.
Frankly I think efforts like these and other “dramatic” effects are counter productive. People KNOW they aren’t sitting on the edge of destruction. Even if you believe 100% in worst case scenario of the GW’ing scientists, note I use scientists here not celebrities or politicians, any major seriously life altering or threatening GW’ing effects are almost a generation or more off in the future. People become calloused and skeptical quickly in today’s age and once that callous forms the more you scare the bigger the callous gets.
To make matters worse the people that are attempting to do things the right way, selling efficient and green products, are selling and approaching the sales in the wrong way. I went to a “Energy fair” this weekend and had I not known that it was an energy fair I may have mistaken it for “Woodstock 07”. There was more “Peace”, “Love” and “Save the planet” than there was windmill, solar and alternative fuel. Even the presentation at most of the booths wreaked of the 60’s and 70’s. There was even an “Anti-Nuke” booth.
Plain and simple, stop the scare tactics, drop the GW’ing is fact and you must comply and go with what we KNOW works. Offer quality products that are more efficient and cost less. Instead of taking away give something more. I think CFL bulbs is a perfect example of this. It’s not sold on “Saving the planet” it’s sold on “It last longer and saves you money”. People buy that. Build and sell “Green” houses based on how little you’ll spend in utilities. We see alot of this for cars, but even their getting into the “Save the planet” stuff that will surely run off a certain sector of customers. Seriously sell a car that runs on electricity that costs less to maintain and is comparable in initial price as a fossil car. Couple that sale with some solar panels and small windmill and you have no fuel cost associated with the car. GW’ing at that point becomes a non issue because I’m buying it because it’s a better deal.
“Will Leonardo DiCaprio and his youthful ernest-ness do the trick?..Or are you still waiting for something REALLY bad to happen”
Is this somehow an “either/or” proposition? Either we are convinced by a rich young Hollywood actor, or we’ve got our heads stuck in the sand and have to wait for something bad to happen? I can’t think of hardly anything I would be convinced of by any movie on any subject by DiCaprio, except that he vastly overestimates himself.
People KNOW they aren’t sitting on the edge of destruction. Even if you believe 100% in worst case scenario of the GW’ing scientists, note I use scientists here not celebrities or politicians, any major seriously life altering or threatening GW’ing effects are almost a generation or more off in the future.
matt, have you read what expert scientists say and write? because the impression i get from what i have read directly from scientists: we have no idea what we are doing, and when, and what we might be in for. we could be 90 years from a ‘tipping point’, or we could be 4 years from a tipping point. and after a tipping point, there will likely be no return. frankly, we may already be past the point of no return as climatologists estimate the “climate inertia” of the earth’s atmosphere at between 30 and 60 years: i.e., what we are feeling now is a result of the atmospheric gases we had 30+ years ago, not today’s.
To make matters worse the people that are attempting to do things the right way, selling efficient and green products, are selling and approaching the sales in the wrong way. I went to a “Energy fair” this weekend and had I not known that it was an energy fair I may have mistaken it for “Woodstock 07”.
sounds to me like a great business opportunity for someone who knows how to approach these sales in the ‘right’ way.
I would interpret the opposite. I would wonder if the issue could survive on its own merit … and if so, why have a well-known pretty face bring the message.
I’d feel as if I was being “baited”.
I mean, Kirstie & Valerie are selling diet plans, and I’m not buying those. =)
FW, I buy the GW issue, because of the scientific support behind it, not because of the quality of actor narrating the film.
I mean, Gee, if the anti-GW folks would get smart, they’d get Morgan FReeman to narrate one of their propoganda films, and the issue would be over. MF got us to thinking that the lives of penguins were interesting, and that spawned who knows how many penguin movies (Happy Feet, Surf’s up, etc). Penguins went from boring and ignorable to the hottest thing since McDonald’s coffee (<–now that’s funny).