Category Archives: climate crisis

Our Poseidon Adventure

climate crisis

On the radio this morning I heard a film reviewer make an interesting observation about the new Poseidon movie. Apparently it’s almost identical to 1972‘s The Poseidon Adventure, except for two seemingly minor details. The first is that in the original, the luxury ocean liner (henceforth referred to as “the boat”) capsizes not only because it was hit by a huge tidal wave, but also because the boat was loaded so as to be top-heavy in an effort by it’s new owners to arrive at the destination sooner. In the new Poseidon, this detail is omitted.

The poor people didn’t do anything wrong. Evil nature just came out of nowhere and smacked them for no reason. How could they have seen it coming?

The second detail that’s changed? The main character now happens to be a former mayor of New York, who’s also a firefighter.

Bush Baby vs. Hillier

climate crisis, conservative party, democracy and good government

The man Robin Williams calls a Bush Baby has told yet another person they’re not allowed to speak publicly. Chief of Defence Staff Gen. Rick Hillier now joins Conservative MPs, cabinet ministers, people who use cell phones in meetings, and an Environment Canada scientist who believes in global warming on the list of people who aren’t allowed to talk without checking with the PM first.

Seriously, how long is this list going to get? And how far down is my name?

More than “positioning,” please

climate crisis, conservative party, polls

A new poll by Decima Research finds that 63% of Canadians believe the Conservative government is “doing a poor job on the environment.” (The poll was even taken before the government gutted environment programs last week.)

Pollster Bruce Anderson was quoted as saying that public opinion research suggests Canadians are becoming more focused on global environmental issues, and that “it’s important for [the Conservatives] to position themselves as progressive advocates of environmental solutions domestically and internationally if they want to broaden their support base.”

Bruce isn’t wrong. I might humbly add, however, that “it’s important for the Conservatives to become progressive advocates of environmental solutions — and implement those solutions — if all of us want to preserve our quality of life.”

But hey, I don’t want to get into an argument over semantics.

An Inconvenient Truth

climate crisis

I know, I know, there are almost no good movies out right now. But be patient. Last night I saw three trailers for what look like good ones, including An Inconvenient Truth.

This documentary follows Al “I used to be the next president of the United States” Gore on his campaign of awareness regarding global warming. I’d never suspected Gore would become one of those movie-star presidents, but hey, whatever gets the job done.

My main criticism was that the trailer seemed very heavy and fear-based (“this is the scariest movie you’ll see all year”), which can be paralyzing and lead to a loss of hope. But when I saw the official movie poster, all was forgiven.

Mark May 26th on your calendars.