| Ricky Blue's Other Life |
 Ricky Blue  Ricky Blue was born in Liverpool, England, but raised in Maine, New Jersey, and Toronto. He has an MA in English from Concordia University. He has been involved in bands and media music in Montreal for over twenty years. In 1981 he won an international 'Clio' award for excellence in advertising. He once appeared on television naked. His life had no real meaning, however, until he began to play with Bowser and Blue. Rick plays guitar, mandolin, and harmonica, and sings in a rather pleasant baritone when George will let him. He is also a columnist for Montreal's outstanding weekly The Suburban. His LCC columns are archived here |
Posted 01.10.08
An inconvenient winter
MONTREAL | They say that during the holiday season it is wise to never talk politics or religion. But I never believed that. So here's a subject that is a little of both: Global Warming.
There is a new McDonald's ad campaign using the slogan: "Cold is the new hot." They are trying to sell us a new cold drink. In the ad they pretend they are tired of people saying everything's "hot." So they want to replace that superlative with "cold." Thus: "Cold is the new hot."
So far, for the most part, this winter cold has been the new hot. With the exception of this week, we seem to be experiencing "An inconvenient winter": a temperature drop that does not fit into the famous hockey stick graph that is always used like a Holy Cross to vanquish all doubters of global warming.
It reminds me of a joke. A man comes home to find his wife and best friend in bed together. But before he can open his mouth his friend jumps out of the bed and says: "Before you say anything, what are you going to believe: me or your eyes?"
Is that what Al Gore will say to us?
I am actually looking forward to the fun as the planetary emergency people rush to explain how global warming has actually caused this cold: and thus how this cold is just the new hot.
Because it would be deliciously ironic if the environmental movement, which is so anti-globalization, became the mirror image of the ultimate global corporation -- McDonalds.
The Quebec government has taken the lead and has already leapt into action, doing what it does best. It created a new tax.
It also created a new philosophical conundrum called the Charest paradox. We put a new carbon tax on oil in order to discourage the use of oil in order to curb global warming at the same time as the climate is getting so cold that we need to buy more oil just to keep ourselves warm enough to stay alive.
Its like Brian (of the Beach Boys) Wilson's paradox: he pays a guy to keep drugs away from him at the same time as he pays a different guy to get him drugs. (A microcosm of the whole American approach to drugs.)
But I digress. My point is that we are pursuing a policy to stop the globe from warming at the very same time as we have been freezing our butts off.
Warm globally, freeze locally.
I realize that many people have said "the debate is over." Which is like saying: "Shut the F&^% up!" But when we are forced to accept that the globe is warming at the same time as our senses are telling us that this has mostly been one hell of a cold winter it just might influence many of us to want to reopen that debate.
I wonder if we will be allowed. It is dangerous to question the dogma of global warming. Ostracism and shunning have often been the result. I have even heard of one case which included the withdrawal of all sexual favours.
An interesting statistic to see would be how many people have graduated from the new environmental programs created in our universities and then chart the subsequent rise in hysteria about climate change and claims of a planetary emergency. Is there a correlation?
It probably looks something like a hockey stick. Very appropriate for this winter. |
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