Anti-Consumption Hypocrisy Explosion

Maybe you've actually read Dr. Seuss’s The Lorax? Well there's one of those slapped together 90 minute versions coming to the big screen now... 


Oh, you haven't read it? Or maybe it was in the 70's? Well The Lorax is the Silent Spring for the grade school set. The original Woodsy Owl spokesperson for conservation. It's simply an anti-consumer/anti-capitalist warning against rampant greed and consumerism which destroyed the forest of Truffula Trees and the Brown Bar-ba-loots, Swomee-Swans, and Humming-Fish that depended on them. The whole damn ecosystem is gone to make a Pillow Pet, or a sweater or some-such-thing. 


Here's the ironic bit about it... the whole thing is being co-opted by corporate greed. I mean, above and beyond the bastardization of the story now that Seuss's corpse is fairly cold now.


As The Lorax arrives in theaters— there's dozens of corporate tie-ins riding the coat tails. While the story teaches children to conserve the earth’s finite resources, these heavily advertised partnerships compel them to consume, consume, consume. Hah! 

• The new Mazda CX-5 SUV—the only car with the “Truffula Seal of Approval.”
• Seventh Generation household products and diapers festooned with the Lorax.
  
• IHOP’s kids’ menu items like Rooty Tooty Bar-Ba-Looty Blueberry Cone Cakes and Truffula Chip Pancakes.
  
• In-store promotions featuring the Lorax at Whole Foods, Pottery Barn Kids, and Target.
  
• Online Lorax games and sweepstakes for YoKids Yogurt, Comcast Xfinity TV, Target, IHOP, and HP.
  
• HP’s “Every Inkling Makes a Difference” in-school curriculum produced and distributed by Scholastic.
  

"UNLESS someone like you cares a whole awful lot, nothing is going to get better. It’s not." —The Lorax

Surprisingly though, no Humming-Fish Sticks by Swanson? A missed opportunity there.


The humor, of using a beloved children’s story with a prescient environmental message to sell kids on everything from SUVs to pancakes isn't lost here.

If you care about this - or want to show your children to be more like the Lorax. Sign a pledge to shun The Lorax’s corporate cross-promotions.


Anti-Consumption hypocrisy may be in contention of Hypocrite of the Year Award. Hell, we may have to retire the award after this one, folks.

Earth Day 2011

An Earth Day tradition: George Carlin on the intellectual bankruptcy of "saving the planet"


The Earth isn't going anywhere. WE ARE. Pack your $hit folks.

Happy Earth Day - Save A Human.

Bi-Polar Environmental ClimateFaithers

First U.S. offshore wind energy project faces lawsuit!

Environmental groups plan to file suit in federal court, accusing the Obama Administration of violating the Endangered Species Act with its approval of the Cape Wind project in Nantucket Sound.

Wind turbine at Martha's Vineyard, Mass.

A single wind turbine stands at the Woods Hole Research Center on Cape Cod. There is strong opposition to a proposal to erect 130 wind turbine generators in Nantucket Sound, between Cape Cod and the resort islands of Martha's Vineyard and Nantucket. (Carolyn Cole / Los Angeles Times / March 19, 2010)

In what I consider the most hypocritical item of the week - (and this beat out all the Democrats and MoveOn.Com who HATED General Petraeus and now sing his praises as the savior of US foreign policy because Mr. Obama 'friend-ed' him) - on one US coastline you have environmentalists holding hands on the beach to halt all oil drilling, (wearing green helmets made of plastic. Which is made of oil) and on another US coastline, you've got another set of environmentalists filing suit to keep their holy grail totems of 'green energy' from being built to save some birds.

*ahem*

YOU CAN'T HAVE IT BOTH WAYS, YOU IDIOTS

I'm almost completely convinced that environmentalism has nothing to do with the environment, and everything to do with bringing down 'evil' capitalism. No energy source....coal, oil, gas, wind, solar, nuclear is acceptable to these people. But they still run out and stand in line to buy an iPhone 4. "I want my green energy, but I still will fight to the death for NIMBY. Not in My Back Yard." I don't know, I would think that a true ClimateFaither having a windmill on their property would be showing leadership and almost certain smugness. Why don't you hippies go form a commune - or better - join the Amish? No, the Amish probably wouldn't put up with their brand of bullsh*t.

Actually, I think this brand of environmentalism shows their true nature - they're so self loathing that they believe in the eradication of humans is the 'final solution' to save their precious earth. Not them though. Like other faiths - religious faith - they're the saved ones. These people are more dangerous than the Heaven's Gate cultists -- at least those souls took their lives and left the earth for what they believed in. These morons want their cake and eat it too - and none for you... which tells me they're all Baby Boomers.... and that these windmills are messing up their view of the Cape.

Or worse, are funded by the rich folks who live on the Cape astroturfing the concern for birds. Worse more, it's a scam to rip off Massachusetts for 10 million in 'mitigation fees.'

And yes, Coast-line Environmentalists, you're our
BLASPHEMES HYPOCRITES
OF THE WEEK

Coke Sugar High

In what's surely an attempt to spite high fructose corn syrup haters everywhere, Coke has redesigned their plastic bottle to contain what was once sugar cane. They call it a "PlantBottle." (It's not this thing.)

70% petroleum, 30% sugar cane leftovers (converted to a plastic after several chemical processes), the plantbottle is debuting in regions of high profile first, like Denmark for the convenient United Nations Climate Change Summit.

Through a commissioned study, Coke found their PlantBottles to have a 12%-to-19% smaller carbon footprint than their plastic classic. To put that metric into perspective: Coke used to be polluting the Earth with millions of bottles yearly that would expend our limited resources while filling our our oceans with endless filth. But wait! With their new bottle, Coke is doing pretty much the same thing while being super pretentious pricks about it at the same time!

[WSJ via Grub Street Chicago]

Bottled Water is a BAD Idea

Copenhagen Ends Early: Due to Blizzard

The Copenhagen what-have-you was nothing more than window dressing for the ClimateFaithers™ back home. The intention was to come home and tell everyone "we participated" or "we're pledging to do something." Superfantastic. Nothing substantial, and no way to enforce whatever they did agree on. And what they did agree on was that using ClimateFaith™ to restructure capital and to shore up state power is a hellofagood idea.

There were back room deals, lots of trees cut down for half assed ideas and proposals. But at the center of it. India and China said go F*yourselves. And the other emerging markets and countries (such as Hugo Chavez) raised their collective fingers and waved them at the West. "We ain't to blame, and we ain't payin'," to paraphrase their position.

The whole thing turned into a giant bargaining table where extreme things were proposed to drive everyone to a minimal compromise. Two rival proposals came out: one billing the first world and one billing the third world for the cost. Neither we meant to be signed. Both were decoys for the screaming mob (home and outside the conference). Meanwhile the heads of state, working in private, settled on a pact which promised everything, enforces nothing and pays a pittance to the loudest of the third world and the low islands.See. Maybe we can all chip in and get them a nice canoe?

No one was scapegoated in public but when Phelim McAleer when through the conference in a polar bear suit calling for Phil Jones, people all knew who that meant. Phil is the climate guy who until a couple weeks ago was the Director of the Climatic Research Unit. They swore at him, threw things at him and tried to interfere with the camera and sound man. Phil at the heart f the UEA CRU scandal. Polar bear suits were banned soon after.

Behind closed doors I suspect Phil got mentioned more than once. Could any government have mentioned climategate in public? The conference was teaming with ClimateFaithful™ that were so fanatical that even the body guards of a dozen countries combined could not have held them back.

So what's the midnight deal.

The key features of note are that the targets a set in terms of temperature not CO2. This means that the 2 degrees target will be met by all because there is no real warming. Governments can later report on the current cooling trend as if its a new discovery and back away from CO2 reduction and commitments. That is, as long as the sun cooperates.

Expect a lot on negative feed back soon.

Also the non binding CO2 commitments and non binding financial commitments. None of there will be enforceable or enforced. Solar energy technology depends on the cost of that technology, those costs are falling but with the dollar falling faster this means few renewables than the free-market, free from both Keynesian policies and government subsidies, would have delivered. Or the cost of oil has to go skyrocketing again.

A few tens of billions have been promised to the third world and low islands. So that aid is wrapped in a different package - used to be just a handout, now it's a climate change handout.

Annnnddd... the best part, there's a huge blizzard descending on Copenhagen! Everyone may be stuck for a few days. Some noted that huge numbers of people flew in private Jets. These have been parked at smaller airports across the region. They are stuck. Al Gore may have to hitch a ride home on the Rainbow Warrior. We'll get to see what happens when a few thousand Bureaucrats, a quarter of a million bored but angry ClimateFaith™ followers, communists and anarchists all get stranded in a snow storm together! Doubt there will be many snow angels. The cops have had it with cold riot gear and frozen batons, and they'll want to try to stay warm.

What? Too Soon?

The World Wildlife Fund is joining a growing chorus of voices expressing outrage over an ad bearing its symbol that shows dozens of planes bearing down on lower Manhattan with a tag line that reads, "The Tsunami Killed 100 Times More People Than 9/11."

The ad was leaked in the week prior to the anniversary of the attacks of Sept 11, with copy that states, "The planet is brutally powerful. Respect it. Preserve it."

The WWF says it never approved the ad, issuing a press release to assure critics that it rejected the ad proposal, which was done by Brazilian design firm DDB Brasil.

“WWF strongly condemns this offensive and tasteless ad and did not authorize its production or publication," said a statement issued by the World Wildlife Fund on Tuesday.

"The concept was summarily rejected by WWF and should never have seen the light of day. It is an unauthorized use of our logo and we are aggressively pursuing action to have it removed from Web sites where it is being currently featured," the statement said.

The ad had been pitched to the Brazilian branch of the WWF by the advertising agency and was rejected, spokesman for the group Steve Ertel told The New York Times

Greenpeace "Anti-radiation Pill" Campaign Backfires

Greenpeace Canada - Pills in the Mail Causes Unintended Panic.

There are many in the environmental movement who think that nuclear power DOES HAVE a role to play in reducing greenhouse gas emissions. Greenpeace in Canada, however, is not among them. They are doing their best to convince residents of Toronto that it is not safe to be in "the zone", the twenty mile radius around the Pickering nuclear plant.

But their recent campaign has backfired badly; they were dropping leaflets with "anti-radiation" iodine pills and citizens have been calling the police.

The cops issued an alert, published in the National Post:

“It’s an unknown substance in pill form being delivered… we’re kind of concerned,” Staff Sergeant Dan Sabadics said. “We treat it as unknown and hazardous until we know what it is.”...“Since then, Greenpeace has agreed to cease and they’ve turned over all remaining [pills]. We’re just testing them now,” he said.
“It seemed like a good idea at the time. But once it’s explained that you’re delivering pills and a child [might] get a hold of this. What effect it will have on a child? We don’t know. There are liability issues.”

“There is still a criminal investigation at this point. We still have to find out what we’re dealing with and we’ll go from there.”

The Star tells a bit of Greenpeace's side of the story:

Greenpeace Canada claims a pill it delivered to the doorstep of a wary Rosedale resident was not an attempt to poison neighbourhood children, but an innocuous part of an anti-nuclear campaign.

The pills, made of seaweed, were distributed in [Toronto neighborhoods] on the weekend along with a leaflet to raise awareness about the hazards of radiation exposure from leaking nuclear plants. Greenpeace aims to convince Premier Dalton McGuinty to shut down the Pickering power plant and replace it with green energy.

"Seaweed contains iodine and it was to make a point to people in Toronto center," said Greenpeace's Shawn-Patrick Stensil. "(The plant) is within a 30-kilometre [twenty miles to you non Loonies reading this] radius from downtown Toronto. Chernobyl destroyed everything within a 30-kilometre radius."

Greenpeace says “Going green means shutting down nuclear!” and calls Ontario's Green Energy Act "a cynical greenwash to hide the fact that his [the energy minister's] nuclear plans will rob green energy of the funding needed for development."

35% of Ontario's electricity comes from nuclear power, and the government has committed to eliminate the 19% of Ontario's power that comes from coal in five years. Greenpeace is protesting the replacement of existing nuclear capacity from reactors that are reaching the end of their useful life. It is a controversial issue, but is trying to panic the population of Toronto with "anti-radiation" pills an effective tactic?

Cap'n's Note: What is the end game for these morons? I can only conclude they want us to throw off our clothes and become one with nature? And by "being one with nature" I really mean dead and in the dirt feeding the worms? If we can't have coal, and we can't have nuclear power (which really does have the most bang for the buck, and zero CO2 emissions) and enough "green technology" to replace one nuclear power plant is science fiction - so the logical conclusion is that they want to force the rest of us to have ZERO electricity. I'm going to go out on a limb here and suggest that even the most insane environmentalist doesn't want to live without their iPhone to Twitter about what a great environmentalist they are. Since ClimateFaith(TM) is based without scientific study and only faith, may I suggest these folks lead by their example, move more than 20 miles from the rest of us, and give their lifestyle a shot. If any of them survive after a month, we'll gladly let them back in this little "civilization" thing the rest of us are working on.