I am sure some of you will find this insulting, but people are not only lazy, but they are oftentimes stupid. Stupid because so many people are not willing to exert a little energy to verify things before they go off half-cocked into the world. Someone whom they value/appreciate says, “This is happening,” and rather than saying to themselves, “Hmmm…I wonder if this is true,” they immediately invest themselves wholeheartedly into promoting this idea, using second hand information and doctored data. I have the highest disdain for anyone who spits out rhetorical statistics but can’t back those statistics up with hard data from a reputable source (FYI: Al Gore is NOT a reputable source).
Whenever I meet anyone under the age of 30, I can be pretty sure that they will believe things passionately, but not know why. I find this especially so because they are part of a generation that has their needs met immediately: microwave popcorn, downloadable music and movies, mobile phones, etc. Everything about their existence is on the fast track. I find this sad and you should too… They have grown up without ever suffering the indignity of patience.
Can you blame them when someone gives them something to believe in whole cloth without having to actually research the validity of the cause? It is this that has made environmentalism (and the global warming panic) the cause de jour of young people (and complete idiots of a certain age) the world over.
Ok, now that I set the table, let’s eat.
I DO NOT dispute that the world has gotten warmer over the last 100 years. In fact, the average temperature of Earth has risen six-tenths of one degree since 1904. Sea levels are estimated to have risen 10 to 20 centimeters in the same time frame. Scary? Only if you are a snail and can’t make it to higher ground in 100 years.
What I do dispute though is what these facts mean. I also dispute whether or not mankind has had anything to do with it. Much of what the mainstream media and alternative educational leaders say about climate change would lead you to believe that we are in imminent danger of burning up in a flash of monstrous heat. That being said, it might be surprising to discover that we’re living in a period that geologists call The Great Ice Age, a period that spans the last 2.6 million years.
These ice ages have ocurred numerous times throughout human history, and inhuman history counting the millions of years before organisms crawled from the primordial ooze and onto dry land. Understand that 2.6 million years for the Earth is like a blink of an eye for you and me, but it is significant to you and I because it is the period of time that scientists and climatologists can study accurately (well as accurately as we can given technology).
The term Ice Age is actually a misnomer. During a period labeled as such, the planet is not constantly encased in a block of ice, but instead constantly fluctuating between periods of warming and cooling. These climatic episodes are called glacial (cooling) and interglacial (warming) periods. We are currently living through an interglacial period, with the last glacial period ending some 18,000 years ago. But 20,000 years ago, the world did not resemble the hospitable planet we call home. A good portion of the Northern hemisphere was a solid block of ice. North America and much of Northern Europe slept under almost 2 miles of ice. Huge icebergs commuted between parts unknown and Portugal and global sea levels were 328 feet lower than they are today.
100,000 years ago things were different yet again. This period was the last warm interglacial period. Elephants, rhinos, hippos, and cave lions called southern England home.
If you simply looked at the historical record in reference to climate change, you would see 49 cold-warm swings in The Great Ice Age. But of course, you kids today don’t like reading anything longer than the fortune in a fortune cookie. To truly understand the changes the world is going through, and adequately place blame, you would have to read quite a bit and explore information sources that are actually prepared by real scientists who study climate change. That is of course too much trouble. It is so much easier listening to an ex-vice president that couldn’t convince 51% of the voters to elect him to a higher office than it is to actually do some research and form an educated opinion.
So go ahead and preach about global warming and how humans are ruining the planet. I will continue to engage you in debate and make you feel like a moron. I don’t mind, it just gets old rubbing people’s faces in the excrement of their beliefs all the time.
Finally, we completely agree on something. People are lazy and incredibly stupid. It amazes me sometimes just how ignorant some people can be.
I tell them at work all the time.. “A trained monkey could do this job. You know the difference between you and a trained monkey? You can train the monkey!”
Maybe I should use a bit more tact.
however, it’s not just the ‘kids’ fault. I’m 25(and it seems like your posts would have you thinking I’m a lazy retard..but whatever, facts are facts)
I agree with your points about Global Warming, partly at least. I’ve come across, and even researched a bit, some of the stuff. I remember what was it, 3 months ago? when scientist came out and were inconclusive if the planet warming was caused by us. But if the globe is warming naturally, that doesn’t mean we’re not having adverse effects on the environment. If global warming is one of the ways to push recycling and alternative fuel sources, i’m all for it. The majority of the population is, as you would put it, stupid. But it’s not so much stupid as uninformed and followers. They need a leader, and without someone telling them they need to recycle and do this and that, they wouldn’t.
The founding fathers made the electoral college that way for a reason.
I find, as young people are treated as more immature and impatient, that they continue to act that way. I see it within my own high school, 7 years later. I’ve substituted there for a couple of years now occasionally, and I find that the kids seem way more out of control then when i was there(obviously perspective is very different), but I associate this with all sorts of changes made to treat them like out of control kids. It’s a catch-22.
It’s not limited to under 30 in any means, and you’re age range is a bit off. At 25, my peers didn’t generally get computers until the 12-14 age range, I still remember hand writing papers in school(and getting yelled at for my horrible horrible handwriting) I remember having to call peoples houses to talk to them, Instant messaging didn’t really become mainstream until we were 17-19 near the turn of the millenium, and it wasn’t until college and when we were all 19-21 that we all started having cell phones, Ipods and the like. We still know how to read maps too.
How many business people in their 40s can’t get off their blackberry or away from email and their cellphones? One of my friends just got a blackberry at work and he despises the thing.
First, welcome. Secondly, I have to agree with your statement that my math is wrong as to the date the conveniences of modern living became popular. But I do disagree that I am wrong about the age of some of these global warming zealots… I find that 30 is about the average, in my experience, for this idea of passion without understanding. Granted, there are some of my generation who have fallen victim, but by and large, 30 seems to be the age where they really take to these ideas whole-heartedly and without doing a bit of legwork… at least from the discussions I have had with the hippies who frequent my site (and my circle of friends here on maui).
I’d say my friends that are very adamant about global warming are probably split 50-50 for and against.
Kids are impressionable at certain ages more than others. Maybe these 30ish aged people were just the right age when something went mainstream with a global warming scare? If I recall, barely, my area started recycling probably around 20 years ago, I was 5, so it made little difference, but these people were closer to 10-12 and maybe it had more of an impact on their thinking. There could be a zillion different reasons, it’s interesting. Maybe still living during part of the cold war had an impact..hmm.
have you read State of Fear by Michael Crichton? I found it pretty interesting, and it’s about global warming.