Spate of Arab Revolutions Probably Caused By... (Wait... for... it...!) ... Global Warming

I'm glad there are no conspiracy-minded connect-the-dots wheels-within-wheels all-events-are-connected-by-invisible-strings theorists on the left. They always point out Glenn Beck has this tendency, so it makes me happy indeed they have no one on their side like that.

Like, indulging in reductivist magical thinking in which complex events are force-jammed into one simple, all-explaining Ur Theory.

Yup, glad nothing like that goes on on the left.

You knew this was coming, didn’t you? A major cause of the revolutionary fervor sweeping the Arab world, according to a recent Bloomberg Businessweek article, is catastrophic climate change caused by human beings. The causal link is famine, say the authors of the piece: “Could hunger, and the threat to power that accompanies it, be what finally forces political leaders to act” against greenhouse-gas emissions?

Um, just curious: Wouldn't a worldwide conversion to non-fossil-fuel energy basically leave these guys with nothing to eat but sand?

Not that I'd mind that, but are these people capable of understanding their own religion? No oil burning = no money for Arab lands = hunger = further "threat to power that accompanies it." Fighting global warming, for real, actually hurts these guys, doesn't it?

But when children spin fantasies they tend to posit happy endings for everyone, so long as you give them the cookie they want.

As stuiec points out, if there's any connection here, it's the efforts to halt alleged global warming which have caused this, as more and more land is devoted to raising bullshit ethanol corn which makes food more scarce which drives up prices which causes hunger which causes "threat to power."

(Actually, there is definitely a connection there; just not sure how primary it is.)

So, um, like if you don't want hunger, stop fighting global warming.

But global warming is the Designated Villain and the supposedly green movement the Designated Hero so all good effects will be put into the Designated Hero's account and all ill effects into the Designated Villains, even though it doesn't make any sense.

posted by Ace at 03:40 PM

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