{"id":542,"date":"2007-03-08T10:16:32","date_gmt":"2007-03-08T16:16:32","guid":{"rendered":"http:\/\/www.shotinthedark.info\/wp\/index.php\/index.php\/2007\/03\/08\/but-not-for-me\/"},"modified":"2007-03-08T10:16:32","modified_gmt":"2007-03-08T16:16:32","slug":"but-not-for-me","status":"publish","type":"post","link":"http:\/\/www.shotinthedark.info\/wp\/?p=542","title":{"rendered":"But Not For Me"},"content":{"rendered":"

Debra Saunders dings on Algore<\/a> – and, more importantly, the “carbon neutrality” cult in Hollywood:<\/p>\n

I used to figure that rich sinners, who bought “indulgences” from the Catholic Church before the Protestant Reformation, would be ashamed of the bargain that other churchgoers looked upon with scorn and derision.<\/p>\n

But lo, on Academy Awards night, the stars were quite impressed with themselves for participating in a “carbon-neutral” event. Cozy up to the Natural Resources Defense Council, and all those private flights, limo rides and multiple homes disappear. Almost like special effects.<\/p>\n

I know that the word on many readers’ lips is: hypocrisy.<\/p><\/blockquote>\n

For those in Hollywood who esteem themselves as “leaders” in society’s fight to save itself (see also George Clooney’s speech at last year’s Oscarpalooza), one of the first principles of leadership is “never ask someone else to do what you’re not willing to do yourself”.<\/p>\n

But the real issue is that the most effective spokesman for global warming apparently doesn’t think he has to show personal leadership by curbing his energy consumption. The same goes for [California’s SUV-driving Senator and “environmentalist” Diane] Feinstein and [California’s SUV-driving Governor and “environmentalist” Arnold] Schwarzenegger, who are happy to push for laws that make other people cut their emissions, but are far too affluent to cut back themselves.<\/p>\n

“With the future so open to doubt,” Gore wrote in his 1992 book “Earth in the Balance,”we routinely choose to indulge our own generation at the expense of all who will follow.”<\/p>\n

Now Gore has a spokesperson who explains his indulgence — er, offset — policy. And it apparently doesn’t matter that Gore’s behavior signals to global-warming agnostics (like me), and to global-warming believers, that the climate situation must not be that dire after all.<\/p><\/blockquote>\n

“Carbon neutrality” is to environmentalism was Scientology is to faith: a fabulist’s way of buying peace of mind.<\/p>\n

When I see any of their motorcades switching to Priuses – er, Prii? – then maybe I’ll pay attention.<\/p>\n

Being “carbon neutral” isn’t cutting carbon output; it’s playing a shell game that you hope everyone is too stupid to figure out.<\/p>\n","protected":false},"excerpt":{"rendered":"

Debra Saunders dings on Algore – and, more importantly, the “carbon neutrality” cult in Hollywood: I used to figure that rich sinners, who bought “indulgences” from the Catholic Church before the Protestant Reformation, would be ashamed of the bargain that other churchgoers looked upon with scorn and derision. But lo, on Academy Awards night, the […]<\/p>\n","protected":false},"author":1,"featured_media":0,"comment_status":"open","ping_status":"open","sticky":false,"template":"","format":"standard","meta":{"footnotes":""},"categories":[24,20],"tags":[],"class_list":["post-542","post","type-post","status-publish","format-standard","hentry","category-culture-war","category-democrats"],"_links":{"self":[{"href":"http:\/\/www.shotinthedark.info\/wp\/index.php?rest_route=\/wp\/v2\/posts\/542","targetHints":{"allow":["GET"]}}],"collection":[{"href":"http:\/\/www.shotinthedark.info\/wp\/index.php?rest_route=\/wp\/v2\/posts"}],"about":[{"href":"http:\/\/www.shotinthedark.info\/wp\/index.php?rest_route=\/wp\/v2\/types\/post"}],"author":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"http:\/\/www.shotinthedark.info\/wp\/index.php?rest_route=\/wp\/v2\/users\/1"}],"replies":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"http:\/\/www.shotinthedark.info\/wp\/index.php?rest_route=%2Fwp%2Fv2%2Fcomments&post=542"}],"version-history":[{"count":0,"href":"http:\/\/www.shotinthedark.info\/wp\/index.php?rest_route=\/wp\/v2\/posts\/542\/revisions"}],"wp:attachment":[{"href":"http:\/\/www.shotinthedark.info\/wp\/index.php?rest_route=%2Fwp%2Fv2%2Fmedia&parent=542"}],"wp:term":[{"taxonomy":"category","embeddable":true,"href":"http:\/\/www.shotinthedark.info\/wp\/index.php?rest_route=%2Fwp%2Fv2%2Fcategories&post=542"},{"taxonomy":"post_tag","embeddable":true,"href":"http:\/\/www.shotinthedark.info\/wp\/index.php?rest_route=%2Fwp%2Fv2%2Ftags&post=542"}],"curies":[{"name":"wp","href":"https:\/\/api.w.org\/{rel}","templated":true}]}}