Monday, February 19, 2007
Too cold to do anything but read about Global Warming
Remember this goodie from January 2004?
“Former Vice President Al Gore delivered a speech on the theory of global warming yesterday, the coldest day in New York City in decades….
“The speech…came when the mercury was expected to dip to minus 1 in New York City, shattering a record low temperature that has stood for 47 years, and notching just a few degrees higher than the coldest day ever recorded there.” Gore accuses White House of ignoring global warming
Well, as that shows, Al Gore has the necessary timing to be a great comedian and apparently following in his footsteps is the Intergovernmental Panel on Climate Change who on February 2nd released a SUMMARY of a to-be-released-in-the-FUTURE report basically concluding that ‘We Suck!’: Humans Faulted for Global Warming
Of course, as we all are aware, a brutal cold has descended on us almost from the moment that summary was released. Here in Baltimore, we are well on our way to one of the coldest Februarys on record.
February 2007 data to date - Baltimore
But, despite the cold, Global Warming remains all the rage. And even though I’m on guard for it, I still found myself piqued by this catchy headline: Swedish Town Uproots to Save Itself From Disaster
Now I initially thought that somehow whatever was going on in Sweden was to be turned around and blamed on us via global warming. But no; it turns out corporate and local officials were being proactive to a potential dangerous situation arising from some mining activities. There was no rancor exhibited and everyone seemed to be doing the right thing.
So what was the Post’s angle?
Toward the end we learned:
“At the same time, Kiruna officials are hoping their move can become a model for communities that will be affected by climate change in the coming decades. The predicted sea level rises will eventually force many cities in the developing world to move tens of thousands of people to higher ground, and Kiruna is organizing a conference in 2008 that will examine how best to do this.
"Why not have this relocation as a good example?" asked Swedell, who has invited former vice president Al Gore to attend but has not heard back. "We are moving because of the cracks; they are moving because of the water coming in."
Solidarity, people!!
Moving from the A Section to the Business pages, Post writer Libby Copeland reports on some clever marketing (and I’m not being sarcastic, the ads do look clever):
“Diesel, the fashion brand, now offers a fresh take on the specter of a globally warmed planet:
“More beaches!” High-Water Marketing
Ms. Copeland lets us know she gets it…while dropping clues that maybe she doesn’t:
“Which brings us to global warming, an issue that has lately been everywhere, with Al Gore's movie, "An Inconvenient Truth," and the recent dire report released by the Intergovernmental Panel on Climate Change. Ben & Jerry's ice cream has been pushing a campaign to "Lick Global Warming." (Blech! That sounds gross.)”
(Sigh) Read your own paper – the release was of a “dire” summary. For reasons none of us are really privy to, the actual report is still a few months away – by which time the slant of the summary should be the prevailing wisdom of what the report actually says.
But despite the probable over-hyping of the significance of Diesel’s marketing efforts (and honestly, I had never heard of Diesel before), I found myself liking the company::
"We are a fashion brand," [the company's creative director] Das says by phone from Italy. "We want to sell product. We don't do anything more or less."
Don’t minimize your contributions, Mr. Das – selling your product probably has more total utility to the world than what Al Gore is selling: namely Al Gore.
“Former Vice President Al Gore delivered a speech on the theory of global warming yesterday, the coldest day in New York City in decades….
“The speech…came when the mercury was expected to dip to minus 1 in New York City, shattering a record low temperature that has stood for 47 years, and notching just a few degrees higher than the coldest day ever recorded there.” Gore accuses White House of ignoring global warming
Well, as that shows, Al Gore has the necessary timing to be a great comedian and apparently following in his footsteps is the Intergovernmental Panel on Climate Change who on February 2nd released a SUMMARY of a to-be-released-in-the-FUTURE report basically concluding that ‘We Suck!’: Humans Faulted for Global Warming
Of course, as we all are aware, a brutal cold has descended on us almost from the moment that summary was released. Here in Baltimore, we are well on our way to one of the coldest Februarys on record.
February 2007 data to date - Baltimore
But, despite the cold, Global Warming remains all the rage. And even though I’m on guard for it, I still found myself piqued by this catchy headline: Swedish Town Uproots to Save Itself From Disaster
Now I initially thought that somehow whatever was going on in Sweden was to be turned around and blamed on us via global warming. But no; it turns out corporate and local officials were being proactive to a potential dangerous situation arising from some mining activities. There was no rancor exhibited and everyone seemed to be doing the right thing.
So what was the Post’s angle?
Toward the end we learned:
“At the same time, Kiruna officials are hoping their move can become a model for communities that will be affected by climate change in the coming decades. The predicted sea level rises will eventually force many cities in the developing world to move tens of thousands of people to higher ground, and Kiruna is organizing a conference in 2008 that will examine how best to do this.
"Why not have this relocation as a good example?" asked Swedell, who has invited former vice president Al Gore to attend but has not heard back. "We are moving because of the cracks; they are moving because of the water coming in."
Solidarity, people!!
Moving from the A Section to the Business pages, Post writer Libby Copeland reports on some clever marketing (and I’m not being sarcastic, the ads do look clever):
“Diesel, the fashion brand, now offers a fresh take on the specter of a globally warmed planet:
“More beaches!” High-Water Marketing
Ms. Copeland lets us know she gets it…while dropping clues that maybe she doesn’t:
“Which brings us to global warming, an issue that has lately been everywhere, with Al Gore's movie, "An Inconvenient Truth," and the recent dire report released by the Intergovernmental Panel on Climate Change. Ben & Jerry's ice cream has been pushing a campaign to "Lick Global Warming." (Blech! That sounds gross.)”
(Sigh) Read your own paper – the release was of a “dire” summary. For reasons none of us are really privy to, the actual report is still a few months away – by which time the slant of the summary should be the prevailing wisdom of what the report actually says.
But despite the probable over-hyping of the significance of Diesel’s marketing efforts (and honestly, I had never heard of Diesel before), I found myself liking the company::
"We are a fashion brand," [the company's creative director] Das says by phone from Italy. "We want to sell product. We don't do anything more or less."
Don’t minimize your contributions, Mr. Das – selling your product probably has more total utility to the world than what Al Gore is selling: namely Al Gore.
