Government and Global Warming
Posted on January 27, 2009 - Filed Under Animals, Environment/Conservation, Politics | 1 Comment
I tend to prattle on about the virtues of democracy quite a lot, but articles like these make me think that life in a green-minded police state would have considerable upsides. Maybe another humdinger of a world war might help matters too, if it wiped out enough of the global population. Or some kind of world-wide plague, that somehow didn’t kill anyone I care about…
The point I’m trying to make here is that something drastic ought to be done about conservation efforts in general and global warming in particular, but the requisite improvement in these areas will never arrive in democratic societies until people are convinced to vote away their cars in order to save penguins, and this is unlikely to happen anytime soon.
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One Response to “Government and Global Warming”
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As you point out, people prefer their cars over penguins. The solution is to appeal to our selfish nature. Show people how it’s in their own best interest to save the penguins.
For example, oil is going to run out eventually, probably in our lifetime, or at least the prices will skyrocket. Make it clear that after an initial investment, renewable energy is ultimately to everyone’s advantage, not just the penguins. Make it clear that investing in the necessary infrastructure and facilities for all of this creates lots of shiny new jobs and so on…