The Real Al Gore (An attack from the left!)

The Nation ^ | from the November 5, 2007 issue | Alexander Cockburn

[LibFreeOrDie]

I love the smell of leftists attacking each other in the morning!

[vetsvette]

Algore is a piece of work, of that there is no doubt.

[eyedigress]

Biofuels will steal the meals of the Third World poor and put them in First World gas tanks.

That's quite a statement

[Lucas McCain]

My goodness, I didn’t realize what a wonderful guy Algore is.

[buwaya]

The attack on Norman Borlaug ID’s this guy as a genuine kook.

But I don’t mind that he, kook that he is, actually uses a decent argument to dump on Gore.

[USFRIENDINVICTORIA]

Setting aside the imagery — biofuel from foodstock is a bad idea. Food prices have already begun to rise.

[MonicaG]

*

[AnotherUnixGeek]

if you had to identify the biggest killer of all it was probably Norman Borlaug, one of the architects of the Green Revolution, which unleashed displacement, malnutrition and death across the Third World.

OK, can someone explain what the hell this is supposed to mean? It's always been my understanding that Norman Borlaug is one of the greatest heroes of the 20th century. His agricultural research and his tireless efforts for better crop yields ended famine in most of the Third World and turned nations like India into grain exporters. I have no idea how anyone can dispute the great work this man has done for the rest of humanity - in a century notable for mass murderers like Hitler, Stalin and Pol Pot, Borlaug saved millions of lives and improved millions more.

[tje]

My bet is this is being done by some Clinotista with the aim of sidelining any White-house ambitions Gore might have...

[JLS]

Hitchens is so funny.

[Baladas]

Gore’s scared to death to run against Hillary, he wasn’t just a Green Prophet for some on the left, they really wanted him to run, and he won’t.

[JLS]

My guess is his green revolution led to economies of scale in agriculture in other parts of the world causing subsistance farmer to be force off their plots? I looked in wikipedia and the main controversy they mentioned was fertilizing and genetic engineering.

Remember the Ludites of the left are generally against us living better lives. In that respect algore is in a long leftist tradition and Hitchens is out of step.

[tje]

I don’t think he will either.. but I think this writer is trying to sway the Gore supporters away, to Hillary? Obama? Kucinich?..

[Scarchin]

Wow! Moonbat on moonbat! Almost better than a hot girlfight! ;)

[sphinx]

Some of the deep ecologists are perfectly happy with mass starvation, as it is one of nature’s ways of keeping human numbers in check. The green revolution has saved scores of millions from starvation. That makes Norman Borlaug and his bioscience compatriots villains in some green eyes.

[loreldan]

Wow! If I had known this about Al Gore I would’ve voted for him in 2000!

[alloysteel]

"For a Man of Peace, Gore has plenty of blood on his CV."

That's why his name is "Gore".

Get a GRIP, you phony intellectuals on the Left. Nothing much is going to please you, so ANY action by anyubody that happens to be slightly too bold, or maybe could make an honest dollar for anybody, is to be condemmed immediately. Take this almost dogmatic resistance to use of nuclear power for ANY purpose, because some long-lived (or even short-lived) isotope may be generated that could (COULD!) cause a toad to develop a second set of back legs.

Therefore, in the one-eyed logic that apparently is the only tool used for investigation of any problem, anything that causes a toad to develop a second set of back legs is by definition radioactive in nature, and must be avoided at all costs.

Technology is supprisingly good at containing and taking advantage of almost every problem that develops from earlier technological advances, but this mindset never wants to find out if that can be done, and by gosh, nobody had better never make a nickel for solving that kind of problem, that is purely unethical, by their definition.

Not that Al Gore would EVER use highly refined and free-ranging technology to solve any of the current set of problems now facing the world. Gore's model is to a) raise taxes; and b) regulate the "source" of the problem out of existence; all the while c) preaching that this is for the "common good".

Like ANY liberal has a notion what the "common good" really is. Supposedly based in the "popular mandate", liberals immediately attack the majority when the numbers are decidedly against them, because they are somehow "wrong", an intellectual fallacy, as they are "evolved" human beings and are obviously so much smarter than those yahoos who disagree with them.

Projection is such an ugly trait when seen in others.

[Zerodown]

...hysteria about anthropogenic global warming stoked ...has done enormous damage to vital environmental cleanup, sidetracking attention and money from work on sewers, toxic waste sites, filthy smokestacks--not to mention the vast disaster of agricultural pollution ... Biofuels will steal the meals of the Third World poor and put them in First World gas tanks.

The guy is right. Algore and The Global Warmers have firmly placed warming, which is not man-caused, and about which we can do nothing ... in first place over pollution ... about which we can do a lot!

>Nuclear power is the hysteria's prime beneficiary

Now that's good thing.

[saganite]

He probably means that the increased food production allowed more people to live and have more children thereby spreading misery (his opinion not mine) in the third world. Just a guess on my part