Danger Danger...

I saw 'An Inconvenient Truth' last night. I must say that it was not what I expected. I was terrified at the prospect of Al Gore (fellow St. Albans School alum. Respect) talking at me for 2 hours. I was pleasantly surprised. The film is really well done. The material is riveting enough and the film is really well shot. I can see why it did so well at those little festivals of film they have to make makers of film feel important.

The message is obviously pretty clear. There were some things that I wish were a little different about the material in the film though. Here they is:

1) I wish he hadn't taken the swipes at the current administration. We all get it. We're already seeing your movie. I thought that was beneath the level that the movie established.

2) We all know that this administration has been terrible on the environment. No one is arguing that. But weren't you part of an administration for 8 years? It wasn't like the trends you are warning us about slowed down at all from '92-'00. Core democratic constituencies have traditionally included factory workers...as in factories that are causing a huge chunk of the problem. My point is, Democrats have been able to point fingers at Republicans for years saying that they don't care about the environment and are not willing to sacrifice jobs and economic prosperity to save the decaying environments. Well, some tough choices had to be made and it wasn't like Democrats were making them either. NAFTA wasn't the best news for environmentalists.

3) I wish there was more in there about: 'Here is exactly what you can do right now to help'. I think Joe and Jane American could really benefit from something like that. There are tons of easy ways to help the cause that have nothing to do with political beliefs. Many people feel like the environment is too big an issue for them to do anything about so they say 'F*ck it' and do nothing. Here is an incredibly easy list of things that we can do in our every day lives that make a huge difference: KNOWLEDGE. A lot of these things actually reduce your expenses which people should definitely know. Why don't they know them? Because little cost saving techniques are not good for energy companies and fuel efficiency isn't good for big oil.

What strikes me as funny, not really funny 'haha' more like: 'really?...the whole fist?, is that my opinions have now become congruent with super green party liberals. I have written before that the most important thing for us to do moving forward is to eliminate our dependence on foreign oil. Greens are arguing the same thing (although we obviously got there via different paths). If Al Gore does run in '08, which I hope he does, he is absolutely getting my vote because I believe he will take that issue on.

The thing that 99.9% of Americans do not realize is that the change to 'earth friendly' is going to sting...for a while. Like its going to hurt. Maybe its 5 years, maybe 10, or more. Factories will close, laborers will be jobless, the cost of goods is going to increase a lot (as a side, I have always felt this the most important element in our economy. Consumers need to spend and they need 'confidence' to do that. Confidence comes from value. People need to perceive that they are getting good value for their money otherwise they don't spend it) as we will be without efficient production and transportation means for a time, and the last and most terrifying element of all of this? Terrorism.

Right now, we are completely dependent on foreign oil; specifically OPEC and even more specifically, Saudi Arabian oil. There has been an unholy alliance with Saudi Arabia for more than 50 years where we keep their corrupt ruling body in power with mind boggling petro $, and in exchange, they buy our defense goods. Did you know that? The Saudis are our #1 consumers of Boeings and McDonald Douglas and such. No one spends a greater % of their GDP on defense than the Saudis. (For those interested, suck back Robert Baer's 'Sleeping With The Devil'. A chilling account of our relations with the Saudis.)

Did you also know that the ruling family, spends enormous amounts of $ on the creation and maintenance of religious schools throughout SA and the Middle East? These schools have messages of hate throughout the day against the West blaring over a loudspeaker. These are the schools that produced ALL of the 9/11 hijackers. What do you think is going to happen when the unholy alliance ends? What do you think will happen when we take our money out from under the noses? They'll just fade into the background? Content that as the ruling family, they controlled over 90% of the countries wealth and an entire population ready for revolt, and when the $ goes away just say, 'it was fun while it lasted'?

Here's an example: right after 9/11 the price of oil stayed consistent and low. Why? Because our dear Saudi friends agreed to pump millions of extra barrels per day without hesitating. We are tied to them at the hip. If they wanted to, right now, they could put us into a huge recession. Huge. 1/6 of the world's oil reserves come from right there.

That is an inconvenient truth.

See what I did? I used the title of the film there for a zinger finishing line...