PoliGazette » DiCaprio and the Trees

DiCaprio and the Trees

Filed under: Environmentalism — Pieter Dorsman on August 30, 2007 @ 1:40 pm CEST

EDITOR’s NOTE: This post has been pulled up, for newer posts scroll down.

Although I supported Greenpeace for a number of years with monthly donations, my subsequent scepsis over the global warming mania has probably forever destroyed my ‘green credentials’. And that is the trouble with the debate over this issue. The near religious fervor with which global warming has been defined as an undeniable fact for which there are only a few pre-ordained causes is deeply troubling. Any critic is either sponsored by AEI or on the payroll of big oil.

Well, now that the storm over An Inconvenient Truth has died, we can brace ourselves for the next round with the release of Leonardo DiCaprio’s 11^th Hour. And the first notable critic can hardly be seen part of any special interest groups, unless you count Greenpeace as one. Yesterday, Dr. Patrick Moore, a co-founder of Greenpeace and chairman and chief scientist of Greenspirit Strategies Ltd. took a very critical look at Hollywood’s latest foray into environmentalism. In An Inconvenient Fact he notes that:

DiCaprio’s movie, The 11th Hour, is another example of anti-forestry scare tactics, this time said to be “brilliant and terrifying” by James Christopher of the London Times.

Maybe so, but instead of surrendering to the terror, keep in mind that there are solutions to the challenges of climate, and our forests are among them.

This film should be a good, clear reminder for us to put the science before the Hollywood hype.

Read the whole thing and check out Moore’s site where he reveals how his environmental journey has moved him into a very different direction:

Beginning in the mid-1980s, Greenpeace, and much of the environmental movement, made a sharp turn to the political left and began adopting extreme agendas that abandoned science and logic in favor of emotion and sensationalism. I became aware of the emerging concept of sustainable development—the idea that environmental, social, and economic priorities could be balanced. I became a convert to the idea that win-win solutions could be found by bringing all interests together around the same table. I made the move from confrontation to consensus.

In that spirit, digest Moore’s compelling arguments, but if you have the time: go see DiCaprio’s movie too.

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