Letters to the Editor
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This is going to be fun
This is one of those rare occasions where Salon has an article that actually attempts to challenge the opinions of most of its readers. I'm early to the game, but there's already a good number of postings where people find this article to be silly.
I like this article because it reverses the conceit of the enviornmentalists on itself. For example, fear of global warming is only valid if one assumes that today's climate right now is somehow inherently privileged and that the current allocation of climate across the earth is "right". Well, there is simply no factual basis to say that today's temperature is right. It can only be asserted if a person values some current attribute over another which means that they somehow believe that the people alive right now are somehow important. The people who 400-500 years ago during the little ice age probably agree that its better to be warmer. Some folks in Russia might be happy for it to be warmer so they can go more crops. Hmmm...who's conceit should win? Easy answer...your own backyard. Problem...we don't all have the same backyard.
So, what do we do? We try to live the best we can but don't turn any current view into dogma. So, I personaly do look to buy more energy efficient products than less efficient ones. But, I don't want to mandate that because we just can't know that much about the science. And, not all people can afford to make the choices I can. Nature is diverse. Humans are diverse. Our economy should be diverse. Free markets are diverse.