I can't help being reminded by Al Gore's call for "more engineers" to meet the challenge of climate change- of a near identical call for "more engineers"- after Russia put Sputnik in space. Ahead of the US?!
http://news.com.com/2061-10796_3-6173081.html?part=rss&tag=2547-1_3-0-5&subj=news
The challenge of the "Race to Space" (as the media called it) shares a lot with the war on climate change. Or whatever it's currently called.... Just that climate control is billed as being of planetary and survival importance. While putting a man on the moon (great imagery?) was merely about national pride, not a reply to the threat of APOCALYPSE.
The feeling associated with the challenge of climate change, until they come up with a cleverer way to 'brand' it, reminds me more of the Free Speech Movement (early 60's) and the Civil Rights Movement (mid-late 60's). In their pervasive idealism, religious fervor, political urgency, universal believe in what is "right".
But climate control trumps them ALL in worldwide hysteria. But they DO need a better buzz word or phrase. "Climate control" is insipid, lacks gravitas, evokes authoritarian pretensions. What greater chutzpah can man have than to claim he can "control" the weather?
Only one: Control climate!
Global Warming is much "hotter". Still, staying warm sounds 'good' to much of the (developed, civilized, powerful part of the) planet. And nobody cares much about what happens outside his own back yard, anyway. "Global" is weak.
Let's see.... Beat the Heat? Nope. The Big Burn? Promising, reverberates with The Big Bang. But still not right. Fahrenheit 1000? Better. Surviving the Sun? Too generic.
As always, my tongue's not so firmly in cheek. I AM sympathetic, and it may even turn out to be the Truth!
Think of a dark street late at night as we pass a rousing, incandescent evangelical prayer meeting. We feel drawn, a twinge of a yearning to believe, to feel One with our fellow men, believing in something greater than ourselves.
Go lie down awhile- always a good remedy.
