Warming to Hypocrisy

Some like it hot. Count yours truly as one of them. Though not quite affording the same luxury as my beloved Caribbean considering the sheer lack of palm trees, salty trade winds, a seemingly endless swath of sun drenched sand, aqua marine water which shimmers like diamonds, and breathtaking snorkeling amongst a school of blue tangs, the dog days of Minnesota summers nonetheless come well received by me. And, while I don’t mind all too much sitting out back enjoying a good book with many pages (this summer’s read: The Last Lion – a biography of Winston Churchill) and a few Corona’s with lime all the while sweat is streaming down my face, there is definitely something to be said about the comfortability of stepping into a cool (if not at first downright chilly) home on a 90 degree day. It is a creature comfort I’m willing to bet that 8 of 10 homes in Minnesota were treating themselves to this past Saturday and Sunday. But, out of nothing more than absolute frugality, I’ll tell you quite matter of factly that I was not one of them.

Let me state herein that I’m not seeking any sympathy; certainly I could very well have stifled my penny pinching ways and effortlessly flipped a switch in the pursuit of temporary relief from our global climactic woes which was at its Saturday peak causing my thermostat to teeter at a subtropical 87 degrees (while the King and Queen’s quarters the next floor up was quite possibly a good 5-10 degrees warmer). But, what the high velocity fan could not provide in cooling relief on this sweltering afternoon, as I peeled my body from my leather sofa to reach for the television remote, the good fortune of coming across three channels (Bravo, Universal HD, and NBC) each of which whose broadcast was literally instrumental in granting me the satisfaction of spite which most certainly did.

Spanning seven continents, eight cities, over 100 music artists, and bringing together an estimated 2 billion people for the 24 hour extravaganza, the Live Earth concerts to bring about awareness in solving the ills of mother Earth and the climatic crisis of which I earlier referenced were nothing short of my golden opportunity. And, as I surfed from channel to channel, concert venue to concert venue, I quickly realized that it was more than just the temperature outside that had me heated.

Whether it comes out of absolute stupidity, drug induced psychosis, or just plain chutzpah (and, as much as the former accounts, I tend toward the latter), to put on an event like this under the premise of energy consumption, global climate change, and all things reeking extreme environmentalism makes about as much sense as a hot dog eating contest to raise awareness for hunger in Africa. The brazenness with which Al Gore and the 100 or so bands who partook in this hypocritical endeavor was nothing short of remarkable. I couldn’t help but ponder the senseless idiocy and the extreme contradictory magnitude of it all. Given what they were selling, one couldn’t sit and watch the thing without objectively wondering how much electricity it took to operate everything from the guitars to the lights to the sound board to the cameras, how many plastic water bottles were distributed to band members and screaming fans (of which there seemed to few too many), how much emissions were spewed out of the number of airliners carrying the equipment, band members and fans, and a whole host of other questions. And, when there wasn’t a decent band to seen (which mind you was a large percentage of the time) there was a ticker sort of screen on the back wall of the stage behind the artists. Most of the time it just displayed names of individuals who apparently have taken the pledge in much the same manner as their demagogue Al Gore but who similarly haven’t quite adopted such a pledge. Occasionally, when they apparently ran short of individuals duped into the doomsday scenario, they’d scroll some environmentally friendly message across the marquee. Sadly, I wasn’t at the controls. Had I been, we might have seen something along these lines…

How much money are Al Gore and his partners making from Global Warming hysteria?
Why is Mars experiencing similar melting and cooling effects as seen on Earth?
Who monitors carbon credit companies, and just how effective are they, if at all?
Why won't Al Gore debate the climate scientists who disagree with him?
Why is China exempt from Kyoto criticism even though it's far surpassed the USA in carbon emissions this year?
Does China's exemption have anything to do with Al Gore's involvement in China's left-handed financing of the Bill Clinton re-election plan, or is it because China is not America?
Why is America always portrayed as the Global Warming villain when they're the only country to successfully reduce emissions?
Why have carbon levels historically risen after the climate changes?
Why was the climate warmer in the past (Bronze Age-Middle Ages) before the industrial revolution?
Was the world really that bad off during the historical periods where places like Greenland were truly green?
Why did many of these same Global Warming 'experts' spend the 1970s declaring that the world was heading for an ice age?
Why should we believe predictions about the weather 10, 20, or 100 years in the future when we can't accurately predict weather for this week?
What the hell is going on in Al Gore's house that gives him such a massive power bill?
Why is concern over terrorists, who regularly kill people worldwide, considered fear-mongering, but scaring people with doomsday scenarios for massive profit not?

Perhaps this was all brought on by a bout of heat stroke, but for whatever reason, it suddenly dawned on me that without even trying, I was doing the environmental good while the rest of them were merely talking (and singing) about it. Then of course came again that lovely marquee which told me I could do more. And ya know…it was right, I could do more which is precisely what led me to turn it off, grab another Corona and head back outside to break another sweat while pondering the specifics of this “heated” debate.