April 26, 2004

NATURE HITS BACK

The environment -- capricious bitch-freak that it is -- tries to take out some Boston environmentalists:

A gust of wind knocked over scaffolding at an Earth Day concert Saturday, injuring nine people, police said.

Just the band Third Eye Blind was scheduled to take the stage at the band shell on the Charles River, witnesses said wind caught a banner that was attached to the sound tower, knocking it into the VIP section of the audience.

The VIP section of an Earth Day concert; what a fun crowd that would be. A while ago I wrote a column about the declining influence of the extreme greens (no longer online -- here’s an extract). Looks like the decline is continuing:

Gallup's annual Earth Day poll has found that the environment is near the bottom of the nation's concerns, outranking only worries about race relations.

Thirty-five percent of Americans fret over the quality of the environment, according to the poll of 1,005 randomly selected adults conducted March 8-11 and released yesterday. It is "not a pressing concern," said Gallup Organization analyst Lydia Saad.

Posted by Tim Blair at April 26, 2004 05:20 AM
Comments

Well, now that most of us have realized that recycling is a big frikking scam...

Posted by: ushie at April 26, 2004 at 05:44 AM

Interesting that race relations are rock-bottom on the list of worries. I wonder, if it weren't listed at all, how many people would even notice?

Posted by: lyle at April 26, 2004 at 05:56 AM

I can assure you that the people who earn their living from environmental and racial "woes and issues" will made sure that these items are always listed.

And when their income, ummmmm, excuse me, I mean, their crusade hits the bottom again, they'll use that fact to show they are the underdog, and are deserving of more donations, oops!, I meant support.

Posted by: JeffS at April 26, 2004 at 07:18 AM

The problem is that it is now firmly embedded in the American psyche that "the environment is getting worse" and that the answer is more government controls. I have undergrad students who are just amazed when I put up a chart showing how various parts of the environment have changed over the past 40 years or so. They have been told constantly in K-12 that every possible horror is getting worse in the environment. No wonder they tend to think so.

Posted by: JorgXMcKie at April 26, 2004 at 08:35 AM

Kerry made a huge hit showing up in his family's (NOT HIS) SUV. He spoke about how we need to help those in our family who have 'SUV Addiction'. The goal is to eliminate SUV ownership, but it will take time.

He promised, when he becomes president, to establish a fund to help the 'SUV Addicts'. In the meantime, we must show understanding by not removing the SUVs from our family members. This could cause trauma. But he wanted to assure the Earth Day crowd that he was in favor of ridding the US of such gas guzzlers. He needed their trust on this.

After this speech, he was driven (in the SUV) across town to the SUV owners' rally. He mentioned that he can identify with them since he loves the SUV he has. He vowed to create legislation making it 'hate speech' to disparage SUV owners.

A reporter from one of the local papers asked Kerry how he could justify his position, on SUVs, at the Earth Day rally with that at the SUV owners' rally. He told the reporter such things are too 'nuanced' to be understood. Anyone who can't see the 'nuance' is just plain stupid.

Posted by: Chris Josephson at April 26, 2004 at 06:02 PM