# Halftime, sponsored by Al Gore **URL:** \ **Category:** The BBQ Pit\ **Created:** [November 5, 2007, 3:05am UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/halftime-sponsored-by-al-gore/425251 "2007-11-05T03:05:17Z")\ **Posts on this page:** 20\ **Page:** 8
**Author:** ![Weirddave](https://avatars.discourse-cdn.com/v4/letter/w/919ad9/32.png) [@Weirddave](https://boards.straightdope.com/u/Weirddave)\ **Post date:** [November 8, 2007, 3:37pm UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/halftime-sponsored-by-al-gore/425251/141 "2007-11-08T15:37:15Z")
So the political dupe is attacking the corporate shill for not being objective or honest. It would be funny if it wasn’t so pathetic. [QUOTE=Czarcasm] We’re _all_ going to die eventually-any real effort will allow us to live a bit long as a species-a clear benefit. [/QUOTE] And you accuse the other side of distorting the facts and ignoring reality. :rolleyes: ---
**Author:** ![Dead\_Badger](https://avatars.discourse-cdn.com/v4/letter/d/848f3c/32.png) [@Dead\_Badger](https://boards.straightdope.com/u/Dead_Badger)\ **Post date:** [November 8, 2007, 3:50pm UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/halftime-sponsored-by-al-gore/425251/142 "2007-11-08T15:50:18Z")
[QUOTE=Weirddave] And you accuse the other side of distorting the facts and ignoring reality. :rolleyes: [/QUOTE] Uh … which bit are you taking issue with? The claim that we’re all going to die eventually? Because if so, then I’m afraid I have bad news. ---
**Author:** ![zenith](https://avatars.discourse-cdn.com/v4/letter/z/e19b73/32.png) [@zenith](https://boards.straightdope.com/u/zenith)\ **Post date:** [November 8, 2007, 3:51pm UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/halftime-sponsored-by-al-gore/425251/143 "2007-11-08T15:51:14Z")
Candles are a fire hazard. Should they cause a fire in a TV studio, that uncontrolled fire would put out many times more pollutants, and much more toxic ones (upholstery, drapery,and carpet fibers put out stuff that’s instantly toxic when burned as opposed to coal soot which takes years of constant exposure to kill you)than the controlled fire in a power plant boiler. ---
**Author:** ![stolichnaya](https://avatars.discourse-cdn.com/v4/letter/s/bcef8e/32.png) [@stolichnaya](https://boards.straightdope.com/u/stolichnaya)\ **Post date:** [November 8, 2007, 3:59pm UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/halftime-sponsored-by-al-gore/425251/144 "2007-11-08T15:59:55Z")
If the “Football Night in America” studio and its contents perished in flame, I think the positive externalities would outweigh the temporary environmental damage. If we’re lucky, the fire will jump the network line and take out everyone on the Monday Night crew except Jaworski. Could you imagine the toxic chemicals that would be released by a burning Tony Kornheiser? But you can’t make an omelette, etc. ---
**Author:** ![Slypork](https://avatars.discourse-cdn.com/v4/letter/s/9fc29f/32.png) [@Slypork](https://boards.straightdope.com/u/Slypork)\ **Post date:** [November 8, 2007, 4:07pm UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/halftime-sponsored-by-al-gore/425251/145 "2007-11-08T16:07:47Z")
[QUOTE=Kimstu] Unfortunately, we’re nowhere near a point where that part of the plan could realistically mean anything more than “and then ship a minuscule number of people into some non-life-supporting extraterrestrial environment where they will all perish at the first serious system malfunction”. It would take many millennia of Hummer-driving, strip-mining, garbage-dumping, owl-frying, resource-burning, planet-trashing environmental destruction on the part of human beings to make the earth’s environment even remotely approaching anything as inhospitable as any environment anywhere else. For better or for worse, the vast majority of human beings for the foreseeable future are stuck with the planet we evolved to live on. Best not give up on it just yet. [/QUOTE] Screw it, I’m in a rotten mood. Nuke it from orbit. It’s the only way to be sure. Target the volcanoes, hydroelectric dams, nuclear power plants, polar ice caps and Dallas (that’s where Barney the Dinosaur, source of all evil, is currently being filmed). We can’t get off the planet? Oh well. Give it to the cockroaches. Let them have it. Maybe they’ll do a better job. They can’t do much worse. ---
**Author:** ![brazil84](https://avatars.discourse-cdn.com/v4/letter/b/8491ac/32.png) [@brazil84](https://boards.straightdope.com/u/brazil84)\ **Post date:** [November 8, 2007, 4:22pm UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/halftime-sponsored-by-al-gore/425251/146 "2007-11-08T16:22:16Z")
The older I get, the more skeptical I become about these dire predictions. When I was in grade school and high school, I was shown a couple movies in the tradition of “An Inconvenient Truth” to scare us about overpopulation. People were saying that tens of millions of people would starve to death unless Something Was Done. ---
**Author:** ![What\_Exit](https://sea3.discourse-cdn.com/straightdope/user_avatar/boards.straightdope.com/what_exit/32/10652_2.png) [@What\_Exit](https://boards.straightdope.com/u/What_Exit)\ **Post date:** [November 8, 2007, 4:28pm UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/halftime-sponsored-by-al-gore/425251/147 "2007-11-08T16:28:40Z")
[QUOTE=brazil84] The older I get, the more skeptical I become about these dire predictions. When I was in grade school and high school, I was shown a couple movies in the tradition of “An Inconvenient Truth” to scare us about overpopulation. People were saying that tens of millions of people would starve to death unless Something Was Done. [/QUOTE] But something was done. It was called the Green Revolution. You do know that don’t you? ---
**Author:** ![Weirddave](https://avatars.discourse-cdn.com/v4/letter/w/919ad9/32.png) [@Weirddave](https://boards.straightdope.com/u/Weirddave)\ **Post date:** [November 8, 2007, 4:29pm UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/halftime-sponsored-by-al-gore/425251/148 "2007-11-08T16:29:51Z")
[QUOTE=Dead Badger] Uh … which bit are you taking issue with? The claim that we’re all going to die eventually? Because if so, then I’m afraid I have bad news. [/QUOTE] Why wasn’t I informed of this??? ---
**Author:** ![What\_Exit](https://sea3.discourse-cdn.com/straightdope/user_avatar/boards.straightdope.com/what_exit/32/10652_2.png) [@What\_Exit](https://boards.straightdope.com/u/What_Exit)\ **Post date:** [November 8, 2007, 4:32pm UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/halftime-sponsored-by-al-gore/425251/149 "2007-11-08T16:32:26Z")
[QUOTE=Weirddave] Why wasn’t I informed of this??? [/QUOTE] We sent the memo, did you remember to leave a forwarding address? ---
**Author:** ![Czarcasm](https://sea3.discourse-cdn.com/straightdope/user_avatar/boards.straightdope.com/czarcasm/32/4050_2.png) [@Czarcasm](https://boards.straightdope.com/u/Czarcasm)\ **Post date:** [November 8, 2007, 4:33pm UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/halftime-sponsored-by-al-gore/425251/150 "2007-11-08T16:33:27Z")
[QUOTE=What Exit?] But something was done. It was called the Green Revolution. You do know that don’t you? [/QUOTE] His masters forgot to forward that memo. ---
**Author:** ![What\_Exit](https://sea3.discourse-cdn.com/straightdope/user_avatar/boards.straightdope.com/what_exit/32/10652_2.png) [@What\_Exit](https://boards.straightdope.com/u/What_Exit)\ **Post date:** [November 8, 2007, 4:39pm UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/halftime-sponsored-by-al-gore/425251/151 "2007-11-08T16:39:46Z")
[QUOTE=Czarcasm] His masters forgot to forward that memo. [/QUOTE] It is amazing how his talking points are so familar and almost always faulty. I just wonder which of us is correct. Is he a dishonest shill or just someone who spreads the message for free, hoping that his (in reality totally ignorant of his existence) masters will appreciate him and throw him a bone? Jim ---
**Author:** ![stolichnaya](https://avatars.discourse-cdn.com/v4/letter/s/bcef8e/32.png) [@stolichnaya](https://boards.straightdope.com/u/stolichnaya)\ **Post date:** [November 8, 2007, 4:47pm UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/halftime-sponsored-by-al-gore/425251/152 "2007-11-08T16:47:36Z")
Are you being serious? Because in tepid defense of brazil84, I don’t see why anyone would be paid for what he is doing. ---
**Author:** ![Lobohan](https://sea3.discourse-cdn.com/straightdope/user_avatar/boards.straightdope.com/lobohan/32/79_2.png) [@Lobohan](https://boards.straightdope.com/u/Lobohan)\ **Post date:** [November 8, 2007, 4:50pm UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/halftime-sponsored-by-al-gore/425251/153 "2007-11-08T16:50:57Z")
[QUOTE=brazil84] The older I get, the more skeptical I become about these dire predictions. When I was in grade school and high school, I was shown a couple movies in the tradition of “An Inconvenient Truth” to scare us about overpopulation. People were saying that tens of millions of people would starve to death unless Something Was Done. [/QUOTE] You know, if I said something so utterly stupid and was proved wrong seconds later, I wouldn’t have the nerve to post here again. Hint. Hint. ---
**Author:** ![Kimstu](https://avatars.discourse-cdn.com/v4/letter/k/ecd19e/32.png) [@Kimstu](https://boards.straightdope.com/u/Kimstu)\ **Post date:** [November 8, 2007, 4:55pm UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/halftime-sponsored-by-al-gore/425251/154 "2007-11-08T16:55:25Z")
> [@erie774](#): > > Screw it, I’m in a rotten mood. Nuke it from orbit. It’s the only way to be sure. Target the volcanoes, hydroelectric dams, nuclear power plants, polar ice caps and Dallas (that’s where Barney the Dinosaur, source of all evil, is currently being filmed). We can’t get off the planet? Oh well. Give it to the cockroaches. Let them have it. Maybe they’ll do a better job. They can’t do much worse. Now now, there there. Here, have a brownie (I just baked). 🙂 ---
**Author:** ![Lamar\_Mundane](https://avatars.discourse-cdn.com/v4/letter/l/85f322/32.png) [@Lamar\_Mundane](https://boards.straightdope.com/u/Lamar_Mundane)\ **Post date:** [November 8, 2007, 4:55pm UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/halftime-sponsored-by-al-gore/425251/155 "2007-11-08T16:55:53Z")
[QUOTE=stolichnaya] Are you being serious? Because in tepid defense of brazil84, I don’t see why anyone would be paid for what he is doing. [/QUOTE] I think the question arose because he seems to post 90% of the time on one subject and he seems to be at his computer 24 hours a day. I’d be certain it was more than one person if the style wasn’t so consistent. [See here.](http://boards.straightdope.com/sdmb/showthread.php?t=434199&highlight=brazil84) ---
**Author:** ![Slypork](https://avatars.discourse-cdn.com/v4/letter/s/9fc29f/32.png) [@Slypork](https://boards.straightdope.com/u/Slypork)\ **Post date:** [November 8, 2007, 5:15pm UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/halftime-sponsored-by-al-gore/425251/156 "2007-11-08T17:15:26Z")
[QUOTE=Kimstu] Now now, there there. Here, have a brownie (I just baked). 🙂 [/QUOTE] Thanks. Sorry. I think I need a nap. :o ---
**Author:** ![What\_Exit](https://sea3.discourse-cdn.com/straightdope/user_avatar/boards.straightdope.com/what_exit/32/10652_2.png) [@What\_Exit](https://boards.straightdope.com/u/What_Exit)\ **Post date:** [November 8, 2007, 5:17pm UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/halftime-sponsored-by-al-gore/425251/157 "2007-11-08T17:17:36Z")
[QUOTE=stolichnaya] Are you being serious? Because in tepid defense of brazil84, I don’t see why anyone would be paid for what he is doing. [/QUOTE] I know it is hard to believe but the anti-AGW industry interests among other concerns do employ people to spread mis-information on various media venues. His shtick might actually work in many places. One term for it is [Astroturfing](http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Astroturfing). > [@](#): > > Astroturfing is a neologism for formal public relations campaigns in politics and advertising that seek to create the impression of being spontaneous, grassroots behaviour. Hence the reference to the artificial grass AstroTurf. > > The goal of such a campaign is to disguise the efforts of a political or commercial entity as an independent public reaction to some political entity—a politician, political group, product, service or event. Astroturfers attempt to orchestrate the actions of apparently diverse and geographically distributed individuals, by both overt (“outreach,” “awareness,” etc.) and covert (disinformation) means. Astroturfing may be undertaken by anything from an individual pushing their own personal agenda through to highly organized professional groups with financial backing from large corporations, non-profits, or activist organizations. **Lamar Mundane** : Thanks for the link, I missed that thread. I came to the conclusion, in conversations with some other posters during the [Al Gore Nobel Prize](http://208.100.26.199/sdmb/showthread.php?t=439946) GD. I disagreed with the Op but he seemed honest and I understood his and several others complaints. I noticed brazil84 had all the normal talking points of a professional. Now maybe he is just well read on the subject and mimicking others or maybe this is a part of his job. Jim ---
**Author:** ![brazil84](https://avatars.discourse-cdn.com/v4/letter/b/8491ac/32.png) [@brazil84](https://boards.straightdope.com/u/brazil84)\ **Post date:** [November 8, 2007, 5:18pm UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/halftime-sponsored-by-al-gore/425251/158 "2007-11-08T17:18:40Z")
[QUOTE=What Exit?] But something was done. It was called the Green Revolution. You do know that don’t you? [/QUOTE] > **[Green Revolution](https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Green_Revolution)** > > The Green Revolution, or the Third Agricultural Revolution, was a period during which technology transfer initiatives resulted in a significant increase in crop yields. These changes in agriculture initially emerged in developed countries in the early 20th century and subsequently spread globally until the late 1980s. In the late 1960s, farmers began incorporating new technologies, including high-yielding varieties of cereals, particularly dwarf wheat and rice, and the widespread use of At the ... > [@](#): > > The Green Revolution was the worldwide transformation of agriculture that led to significant increases in agricultural production between the 1940s and 1960s The predictions that I heard were made well after the 1960s not before. ---
**Author:** ![What\_Exit](https://sea3.discourse-cdn.com/straightdope/user_avatar/boards.straightdope.com/what_exit/32/10652_2.png) [@What\_Exit](https://boards.straightdope.com/u/What_Exit)\ **Post date:** [November 8, 2007, 5:27pm UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/halftime-sponsored-by-al-gore/425251/159 "2007-11-08T17:27:55Z")
[QUOTE=brazil84] > **[Green Revolution](https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Green_Revolution)** > > The Green Revolution, or the Third Agricultural Revolution, was a period during which technology transfer initiatives resulted in a significant increase in crop yields. These changes in agriculture initially emerged in developed countries in the early 20th century and subsequently spread globally until the late 1980s. In the late 1960s, farmers began incorporating new technologies, including high-yielding varieties of cereals, particularly dwarf wheat and rice, and the widespread use of At the ... The predictions that I heard were made well after the 1960s not before. [/QUOTE] The effects of the revolution only really started in the 1960s. I read that entire article a few weeks ago by coincidence. Just quoting one line of it, does not mean you understand shit about it. Go look into the back issues of Scientific America from a year or two ago and actually learn something you fucking moron. Jim ---
**Author:** ![brazil84](https://avatars.discourse-cdn.com/v4/letter/b/8491ac/32.png) [@brazil84](https://boards.straightdope.com/u/brazil84)\ **Post date:** [November 8, 2007, 5:47pm UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/halftime-sponsored-by-al-gore/425251/160 "2007-11-08T17:47:28Z")
[QUOTE=What Exit?] The effects of the revolution only really started in the 1960s. [/quote] In that case, there should have been plenty of actual facts available by 1968 and 1969: > [@](#): > > In Ehrlich’s books, many predictions are made, for example, The Population Bomb begins “[t]he battle to feed all of humanity is over. In the 1970s the world will undergo famines – hundreds of millions of people are going to starve to death,” while in “The End of Affluence”, Ehrlich stated, “One general prediction can be made with confidence: the cost of feeding yourself and your family will continue to increase. There may be minor fluctuations in food prices, but the overall trend will be up”. According to Ehrlich, the United States would see its life expectancy drop to 42 years by 1980 because of pesticide usage, and the nation’s population would drop to 22.6 million by 1999 [1]. > **[The Population Bomb](https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/The_Population_Bomb)** > > The Population Bomb is a 1968 book co-authored by former Stanford University professor Paul R. Ehrlich and former Stanford senior researcher in conservation biology Anne H. Ehrlich. From the opening page, it predicted worldwide famines due to overpopulation, as well as other major societal upheavals, and advocated immediate action to limit population growth. Fears of a "population explosion" existed in the mid-20th century baby boom years, but the book and its authors brought the idea to an The b... > [@](#): > > I read that entire article a few weeks ago by coincidence. Just quoting one line of it, does not mean you understand shit about it. Go look into the back issues of Scientific America from a year or two ago and actually learn something you fucking moron. How about you quote the part of the article you think is relevant? [Previous page](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/halftime-sponsored-by-al-gore/425251.md?page=7) [Next page](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/halftime-sponsored-by-al-gore/425251.md?page=9)