Heston on global warming 9

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1. 

   Sean Casten Posted 2:34 am
   08 Apr 2008

   Odd - but is it about AGW?What was this assembled for?  I'm not sure this has any relevance to climate change, although it is an odd thing to say.  Essentially, he says that it's easy to poison and kill life as we know it, but it's unlikely that we will destroy the planet or it's ability to host some form of life.  
   OK, fine.  I think that's a valid biological point.  We, as humans, probably can't F*&^ things up so badly that there isn't some bacteria that holds on in some corner, evolves to learn how to process our waste and eventually evolves into higher life forms.  In the grand sweep of biology and evolution, that's kind of inspiring.  But does anyone really argue that this is an argument against being responsible about the planet?  Call me selfish, but I think that a planet that can't provide a home for me or my descendants is Not Good.  And I can say with great certainty that even Inhofe feels the same way.  
   To draw a parallel with Charlton Heston's second greatest love after the theatre (guns, that is), if this argument was put together to argue against AGW, one could just as easily argue that guns are safe because even though you can use them to kill yourself and everyone in your town, it's hard to use them to kill every last human on the planet.
   So... was this actually put together with some political intent, or just as a biology/evolution primer from Moses?

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2. 

   Biodiversivist Posted 3:12 am
   08 Apr 2008

   SeanAccording to the Rush Limbaugh website, that was a recording of Heston reading the intro to Crichton's book, State of Fear, during a phone call to the Rush Limbaugh show.
   Check out this review of that book:
   http://www.grist.org/advice/books/2005/02/01/roberts-fear ...
   And you are right. Destroying all life on Earth is not what we are worried about.
   I can also see how global warming is not such a big deal to people who think they are going to heaven to join loved ones, eventually being joined by children and grand children.
   
   In the end, it all comes down to biodiversity. Poison Darts--Protecting the biodiversity of our world

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3. 

   Sean Casten Posted 3:39 am
   08 Apr 2008

   Thanks, BiodSure is strange though.  I have a hard time believing that even Crazy Rush heard that and said that the fact that life will come back, but it may take billions of years justifies inaction.  (Crazy liberals, always making a big deal about the extinction of the human species, when the real issue is the long-term viability of multicellular life!)

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4. 

   rporter43 Posted 3:56 am
   08 Apr 2008

   clean energyCan anyone attest to the fact that experiments at Chicago University have verified an increasing entropy process based on magnetic negative pressure being used to stabilize a metastable bubble and produce a usable DC electric current?
   
   Roy Porter
   
   Cape Alliance Services
   
   (JavaScript must be enabled to view this email address)
   
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5. 

   caniscandida Posted 7:26 am
   08 Apr 2008

   It is hard to believe, but"Take your stinking paws off me, you damn dirty ape!" is only the 66th best line in movie history:
   http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Planet_of_the_Apes_(1968_film)
   BioD is right: Few of us in the environmentalist community have fears that the environmentalist challenges that we face (the global warming crisis and the biodiversity crisis being at the top) will destroy ALL life on Earth.
   Nevertheless, despite Sean Casten's apparent anthropocentric/autocentric motivation, environmentalism is fundamentally about caring for the life and well-being of THIS particular community of living creatures whom it is our lot to live among.
   BioD raises an important problem in the history of the Christian Church (but really it is a problem in the history and sociology of all religions that offer their adherents the consolation of a promised better existence beyond this one).  In many traditionally Catholic countries, for example, the hierarchy, and often the clergy generally, have been supporters of a social system in which a few empowered rich people live off the toil of the impoverished majority.  The theological attitude would seem to be: conditions of life on Earth do not really matter, because we are all going to die and be judged, so therefore we should do nothing to disturb the peace.  The great socialist labor activist and songwriter Joe Hill (1879-1915) mocked that attitude in at least one of his songs, with the refrain, "You'll get pie in the sky when you die."
   Needless to say (I hope!), not only do most thinking Christians not share that attitude, but they believe that it is sinful, inasmuch as it encourages us to do nothing about social injustice and environmental problems.
   
   Chickens deserve our true friendship! So do fish! So do other sentient beings! Let us learn to be kind.

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6. 

   Sean Casten Posted 7:32 am
   08 Apr 2008

   CaniscandidaTo be clear, I'm not suggesting that killing everything but me & my species is a good idea.  Simply that framing an argument against anthropogenic global warming on the grounds that even though it will kill off my species, it will not fully extinguish carbon-based life from the planet is pretty weak as far as motivational speeches go...

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7. 

   caniscandida Posted 3:23 pm
   08 Apr 2008

   OK, Sean,I see what you mean.
   As for Heston's connexion with the National Rifle Association -- an organization that should be crushed, for the good of the republic and the world -- , he seems to have finessed the problem of openly preferring one of the group's three main constituencies:
   
   
   those who believe the Constitution guarantees their right to shoot animals;
   those who believe the Constitution guarantees their right to shoot armed agents of the government who are coming after them, e.g. members of the police or the Army;
   those who believe the Constitution gurantees their right to shoot interlopers on their property, especially those with dark complexions.
   
   
   Or am I wrong?  When he made that infamous statement about Al Gore having to "pry my gun out of my cold clenched dead fist," or however it went, he was holding up what looked like a pioneer's light hunting rifle, not a shoot-up-the-school Glock; so perhaps he identified more with the hunters than with the neo-Nazis.
   In any case, environmentalist parents will not want to hold up Charlton Heston as a positive example for their children to follow.
   And the same and more for the unspeakable Michael Crichton, who got a very good education, including an M.D. from Harvard, and wasted it, IMHO.
   
   Chickens deserve our true friendship! So do fish! So do other sentient beings! Let us learn to be kind.

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8. 

   caniscandida Posted 12:49 am
   14 Apr 2008

   Fish on HestonThe brilliant Stanley fish -- who oh so frustratingly bends to the right time and time again -- wrote this beautiful, sensitive summary of Charlton Heston's qualities as actor:
   http://fish.blogs.nytimes.com/2008/04/13/larger-than-life ...
   I suddenly see that I need to add "The Big Country" to my Netflix cue.
   
   Chickens deserve our true friendship! So do fish! So do other sentient beings! Let us learn to be kind.

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9. 

   lumpy Posted 1:28 am
   25 Apr 2008

   nuttyhe's a nutjob but the bigger message is true - the earth will continue long after we have screwed it up. that doesn't mean to deny what's happening or to do nothing. the trick is to prolong our time here that's all. but face it, the earth won't miss us. he's right.
   
   Writer/creator http://www.lumpyland.com/blog

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