More Fun With Jack Bauer

Joseph Farah, one of the many lunatics over at the wingnut fringe site WorldNetDaily posted an article today titled Life imitates '24', once again trying to justify our use of torture because Jack Bauer does it on TV. I already covered this absurd notion a couple weeks ago, but there was one thing about the show that I forgot to mention, and that's the fact that 24 is the first carbon neutral television production. Now, if the right-wing wants to use a work of Hollywood fiction to justify breaking the law, then how do they reconcile that with the idea that the people behind that show are championing the "liberal" cause of fighting climate change?

It's funny because I discussed this very same topic the day before I wrote about Jack Bauer in my Earth Day column; why is the party that uses 24 to support torture, not listening to 24 about the environment? It's an appropriate analogy for the Republican Party, wrapped up in fiction while ignoring the reality that's right in front of their face.

Here are some PSAs from the cast of 24 about climate change:

24 Going Green PSA - Kiefer Sutherland


24 Going Green PSA - Cherry Jones


24 Going Green PSA - Mary Lynn Rajskub

Going green, because I'm about to vomit

In honor of Earth Day, I need to get something off my chest that's been bugging me for awhile, I hate the "going green" movement. It's marketing buzzwords for things that we should just be doing. Do I really need people blowing millions of dollars on advertising to tell me that I should be buying an energy-saving light bulb that will last years longer than an incandescent bulb? Everyone should be using reusable shopping bags, not just because of the environmental impact, but because they're simply better than plastic. Do we really need a silly gimmick like everyone turning off their lights for an hour when we can just do what our Dads bugged us about for years: turn things off when you're not using them? In our current economic climate, we shouldn't need to be told to not be wasteful, it's common sense.

We all know I'm as liberal as they come and I'm definitely concerned about the environment, but we need to get real. We're not running out of landfill space, we're running out of polar ice caps... recycling a Pepsi bottle isn't going to stop global warming. So what can we do to stop it? Probably the first thing we can do is drop the phrase "global warming," because any time there's snowfall, some dumbass Neocon runs their mouth and says "where's all the global warming?" showing a complete misunderstanding of science as opposed to their usual misunderstanding of politics.

Climate change is real, and we're getting beyond the point where average citizens can save the planet one tree at a time. The only thing that's going to truly fight this threat is money, lots and lots of money, the kind of money only mega corporations and world governments have. It's good to do whatever you can, because it will save necessary energy, resources and money, but there's no need to go crazy over the green trend. Instead of worrying about whether or not your grill is a hybrid, maybe you should worry whether or not your congressman believes in climate change or if he actually thinks the earth can only end when God brings about the Rapture: