大象传媒

There is a cliff just down that road somewhere, isn't someone going to apply the brak........

When I first saw the 'seminar' being previewed yesterday I had the usual negative feeling - 'it's that bl**dy Bono again..'. Reading Mr Weber's summary seems to have slightly warmed me to this person (Bono). 10 million kids are going to starve but we choose not to see it. Climate change is real (whatever causes it). It may be appear to be the oddest double-act in town, but it's the only one that is telling it straight. Good on yer Mr Bono....

We can tackle climate change & tackle malnutrition amongst the poor with one single action. Stop eating meat (production causes more greenhouse gases than all transportation - source U.N.) Deforestation to graze cattle & to produce Soya to feed cattle & pigs just one of the causes.
Most soya production is used to feed livestock when it is a cheap source of protein that could feed the poor.
I understand meat only provides a tenth of the protein it consumes.
Finally a civilised society should not be inflicting this sort of cruelty on anything.

Bono makes some very good points. Al Gore is a disaster for the world's most needy. The Irish should know to be more careful to whom they confess.

To do something about those ten million real kids who are going to die next year due to extreme poverty - that is a moral imperative. I'd suggest the place to start, to know what makes sense to try, is the groundbreaking "The Bottom Billion" by Professor Paul Collier last year. No easy answers there, but something totally real to get your teeth into.

To do something about the ten million hypothetical kids who might die at some unspecified time in the future, if some extremely dodgy pieces of software simulation turn out by some fluke to be correct - a fluke as they clearly do not solve the physical equations involved, as they do not even predict something as central as cloud cover correctly - this is a piece of meaningless speculation.

There's no integrating the two.

Well done Bono for getting at least half way towards that conclusion this morning at Davos.

Where did these guys get their facts from - was it Sir Bob Geldof? It's the usual rubbish. How do these unelected, uninformed, simplistic idiots get on these events? Davos must be concerned that the World Economic Forum is becoming more like the "Edinburgh Fringe" than a serious event!

They are right my conscience is more disturbed these days than it has ever been.
Guess I'm getting older and further down the conveyor belt of life.
How can I keep to myself anything when so many die of aids, hunger, and illness' which are so simple to cure?
It's a mental burden we all would much rather NOT be reminded of.

Save us from Saint Bono.

Does anyone else find it disgusting Bono calling Gore "Father Al"? Until very recently, only after getting called out on it, Gore's own home had a huge carbon footprint. 13 times the national average. Even now after spending tens of thousands of dollars, he won't tell us how much he really spent, his home/mansion is still consuming more than the national average. My question for Father Al is, "Is this just another example of do what I say, not what I do?" These people talk about making sacrifices, but I don't see them making any sacrifices as they jet set across the world. I would call him Father Hypocrite.

Kudos to Bono and Gore who are apparently devoting so much time to an undoubtedly worthy cause.

But (and i know this is a point that's brought up time and time again by anyone with a passing interest in the topic) i fail to see the logic in continually using the people who are publicly mocked for their extravagant lifestyles as the front men for the 'fight against' climate change. undoubtedly a top ranking politician and globally known pop star make any minor press conference or seminar appearance a newsworthy event but i can't help but feel it gives the whole issue a slight lack of credibility.

Eco(nomic) development vs. Eco(logical) preservation.

Hmmn. Tricky.

Sadly I have to agree that with a growing global population with some major concentrations about to make the leap from 3rd to 1st world (is there a second? I never seem to hear of that stage) status (with all the aspirations and consequences that will bring) I can't see the result being that great for the latter.

So, like many, I have a lot of questions, a load of answers... and precious few solutions (well, a couple that do try to involve motivating and doing, rather than depressing and berating) that at least that have a political ice cube's chance in the sheer hell of a Bali post-conference poolside cocktail. Or a refugee overnighting in a Davos storm drain.

Thing is, I rather suspect there are quite a lot of others in the same boa... er... cattle class... er... business... er... first... er... private plane seat, all with same lack of tangibles to provide. It does now provide a nice little earner for an ever-growing cabal.

But having too long been fed a domestic diet of 'not acceptable', 'needs looking at' and 'won't be easy' by those addicted to gobbling down and squandering funds into holes of various hues (most lately green ones on endless quango comms budgets to tell us to do stuff as consumers - or else - which the systems have not yet been prepared to accommodate to a decent enviROI+), I'm a tad tired with yet more pointless wittering from those totally isolated from any consequences of anything. And those camp followers chasing them about the globe with a vested interest in not rocking the gravy train, comortably along for the ride in the observation carriages

So I have to agree with such as Post 8, Mr. McGilloway, that whatever messages do get spouted, we need a new breed of messenger PDQ. Because if they have lost me, then what effect their 'situations' and how they get portrayed by the inevitable cynical mechanisms that exist (so you now need to work with this fact, which is why you don't hire Pete and Kate to front a health lifestyle campaign) in this modern age has on much lite-er greens can only be imagined.

One has to presume their sincerity and applaud their commitment (nice not to have to worry too much about paying the rent, mind, but hey), but it does seem that there are mental blocks in place in pondering if they are really getting things across to the masses in the best ways possible, and not just pandering incestuously more to their mates behind the VIP Green Room velvet ropes? Warm and fuzzy, to be sure, but not making my kids' futures look any rosier, I'm afraid.

So yes, these two talking about, much less commenting upon cutting back on lifestyle excesses does indeed seem a stretch to empathise, and engage with if you are more Fiesta Family than 'One of my other car's is a Prius' Person.

And they are more than pandered to by an equally illogical, nannying media, who seem to be operating on set agenda and box-ticking mode in trotting out anything 'green' without thought, and yet to see no irony in flying en masse to the snowy wastes to see if they can find a melting glacier, or Tuvalu to dip a toe in the azure rising waters and solemnly intone to camera...' and it's you lot flying EasyJet who are to blame.'

Acts. Together. Get.

Houses. In. Order. First.

And if not 'practical' as in Tony 'Well, y'know, it's not really practical for the likes of me not to... as I have a stonking mortgage to feed [like the rest of us don't]' Blair, then step out of the frame and leave it to leaders who can lead by examples worth following.

Until then, I reckon this lot are just knocking back even further the chances of any coherent, rational, public changes in opinion and/or consequent behaviour.

This addiction to 'awareness' without also thoroughly assessing overall consequences is looking increasingly more short-sighted and self-serving the more we get fed it.

ADDENDUM - I don't know if it is a Mac thing (it's better but not 100% on a PC), but the 大象传媒 site is woeful in getting replies through these days. Either an error message or rejection. And then, just for good measure, it either has missed or hasn't so you end up duplicating!