Ignorance is Strength

This post:

http://timblair.net/ee/index.php/weblog/children_taught_well/

Ai.

Over on the Right, mostly, they have bought and guzzled Crichton's Kool-Aid about global warming being a myth, about humanity's effect on global warming being non-existant; about second-hand smoke and pesticides and chemical fertilizers and such being dumped into the environment having no effect at all on humans or other critters they have contact with (Michael C. has just tons of footnotes in his new book proving this to be so -- kind of like Coulter's and Rush's tons of footnotes in their books -- so it must be true, right?).

You can see why people would want to swill down this particular Kool-Aid. Hell, I can.

Global warming, a polluted environment, the thinning upper atmosphere (which is, yes, accelerated by the use of jet planes, despite the mockery in the comment section of the link I'm about to give you), the death of the ocean soup all life on earth depends upon -- this is scary stuff. Well, you know, probably not to Evangelical Christians, since they know these are the last days and Jesus is about to rapture them all. But to the rest of us, who had planned to live on this planet for awhile.

So I can understand why those on the Right prefer to cover their ears and say la-la-la I can't hear you it's not happening, and believe Michael Crichton and Rush and Coulter -- everything is really okay, they're really doing everything exactly right, and they can just climb into their SUVs and keep on trucking.

Except, you know, it isn't. And they can't.

So when Tim Blair posts snide bits like this:

Young Australians are smarter than older people, a new report has revealed:

"Young Australians are less environmentally aware than older people, a new report has revealed.
The young are less likely to regard themselves as environmentalists, to be avid recyclers or to believe that urgent action is needed to avoid serious environmental damage, the Australia Institute report says."

http://timblair.net/ee/index.php/weblog/children_taught_well/

And thinks he's being cute -- ai.

Yes, that's very clever, Mr. Blair. You and your cohorts have succeeded in convincing the next generation to believe your lies about there being no problem, la-la-la. Charming. It'll be especially funny when the ecosystem crashes. What's that? Oh, I forgot. You don't believe in the ecosystem. You probably don't believe in the laws of physics either, Mr. Blair. But don't worry -- they believe in you.

I'd send Mr. Blair and his fellow commenters to read these links:

http://www.tufts.edu/tie/tci/ClimateChange.html

http://www.findarticles.com/p/articles/mi_m0PHH/is_1992_Feb/ai_14485686

(Especially this bit: "Scientists are concerned that the atmosphere's ozone layer is thinning and may eventually allow more UV radiation to reach the earth, thus increasing the risk of melanoma")

http://www.nasa.gov/centers/glenn/about/fs10grc.html

(How jets contribute significantly to the thinning of the upper layer of the earth's atmosphere -- which is why those whacko environmentalists are working to do something about limiting travel by plane, those lunatics, what do we need an atmosphere for, huh?)

But Mr. Blair prefers the young to be ignorant, since ignorance leads to anti-environmentalism, and that, after all, is all that really matters: that our youngsters be (ignorant) right-wing zealots.

I guess.