More than 1 out of 5 Canadians are idiots

March 24, 2007

I often touch on, but rarely dedicate entire posts to my country or its inhabitants… but this is just too… too… too I don’t know what to not comment on.

Almost 4 out of 5 Canadians believe in global warming: poll

Thursday, March 22, 2007 | 3:13 PM ET
CBC News

A new poll suggests most Canadians believe climate change is a reality, but people in various regions hold widely different attitudes — with Albertans expressing the most skepticism.

The survey conducted by Angus Reid Strategies released Thursday found that almost four in five Canadians — 77 per cent — are convinced global warming is real.

Despite the article expressing mildly positive surprise that so many Canadians are on the global warming bandwagon, this is just insulting. My god. This means that there are 7.4 million people in Canada that are complete fucking morons.

Now I know, by and large, the human race is prone to not believing things until they see it with their own eyes, but I had (apparently wrongly) assumed that there wasn’t a person on the planet that believed the whole global warming thing to be some hoax cooked up by Greenpeace in order to sell t-shirts and solar panels.

aninconvenienttruth.jpgPerhaps 30 years ago I could buy people still holding out on a connection between the sickening amount of emissions we produce and rising global temperatures, hell, I’ll even give them 15 years ago… but in 2007? That’s just nucking futs.

Generally speaking I’d not say that anyone should use a movie to be their sole education on a topic, but as so many of my fellow compatriots seem so utterly confused on the topic I’ll make an exception.

So, if you’ve friends walking around uttering phrases like the following: “Bummer the rink wouldn’t freeze again this year… bah, still not so sure about all that Global Warming malarkey…eh..” please, please ask them to give Al Gore’s An Inconvenient Truth a watch.

Note: Though Gore puts it in terms even these simpleton’s are likely to follow, you may wish to stay in the room with the finger on “pause” just in case.

Gawd, 7.3 million… to put that 23% into perspective, it’s the combined population of Alberta, Manitoba, New Brunswick, Newfoundland/Labrador, Nova Scotia, PEI, and all three Territories. It’s no wonder the government keeps dicking around with meeting their Kyoto commitments – it’s apparently ‘just’ becoming an issue for most Canadians.

Someone should tell them that if the world grows warmer, hockey may lose popularity and they’ll all be forced to watch footie instead.

14 Responses

  1. Don’t worry, it’s not just Canadians. One natural resource this world will never lack is human stupidity. Now, if only we could find a way to turn all that stupidity into energy……

    I’m sure you’d find at least as many people in every country completely unaware of climate change even as it smacks them in the face.

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  2. dude, don’t blow a gasket..they didn’t literally poll everyone in canada (nobody asked me, did anyone ask you?).

    global warming is an issue that all Canadian federal parties agree to work on so whichever way we vote, there will be policies addressing it…so even those who don’t believe in global warming will have to vote on it:)

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  3. @Chris: I’m with ya on harnessing that untapped natural resource.

    @Dezza: We’re not exactly in Canada to be polled. Of course statistics are only statistics, but it is an indicator (country-wide, various demographics, etc.). I’m not worried about there not being policies to address it, I’m worried that they’ll be the wrong policies. The fact is different political parties have different affiliations and in turn different agendas. It’s no surprise that the Conservatives are voting against Kyoto, the Liberals didn’t make waves and the NDP are too far away from it to make a difference.

    The fact is, Kyoto shouldn’t be an issue, and had statesmen stepped up and worked on it over they years since signing, we’d not be scrambling to deal with it now. The Kyoto situation in Canada is indicative of human nature at large – short term wants always beat out possible long-term gains.

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  4. Yeah, and 30 years ago the alarmists were saying that we were facing an impending ice age, that the world’s population would be totally out of control and billions would be starving, all sorts of Club of Rome nonsense.

    How do you know this isn’t any different? What makes you an expert on this subject? You’re not. You know nothing.

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  5. I hate anonymous pissants (CLB, I hope you just happen to share similar geography).

    So… with me not knowing anything, let me make a couple of guesses to what you know. You know how to download, you know how to watch The Great Global Warming Swindle and you know how to create equal but opposite opinions for the sake of making yourself feel smart. You’re right, comparatively, I know nothing.

    As I said above, I don’t suppose anyone should visit just one source to come to a conclusion on global responsibility and human impact on the world. I also don’t think people should believe the opposite of something that is popular just because it’s popular.

    You’re right, I’m no expert. Nor do I claim to be. The stupid part is, I don’t need to be. This isn’t alarmist crap, doom sayers and whatnot…. I’m not saying civilization will be wiped from the planet and the world will end… it’s nothing so drastic.

    Though I cannot possibly comment to what people said 30 years ago (I was doing my best to say “goo”), perhaps we need to revisit the fact that the population of the world has nearly doubled in thirty years, and though slowing, is still going to bulk up before the plateau. A plateau that is a rather massive 9 billion people.

    There are currently 854 million people (give or take) starving in the world – despite major efforts by the UN (and NGOs) to halve it over the last two decades, as well as increased food yields and better crop technology, it’s continuing to increase.

    As for the ice age… what the hell do I know.

    Personally, I don’t give a fuck. I’ve become a bit nihilistic in my ever-increasing age. I’ll leave this response with the fact that with Gore’s solution (wrong or right) we get cleaner air and a better/safer environment… with yours, my tiny little home-town gets the air quality of most Chinese cities – though it’s on a hill, so that’s a plus.

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  6. Who was that Anonymous wanker ? Saw the Gore movie. All statistics and dire predictions, but with few (if any) concrete plans to FIX THE PROBLEM. Of course, Dubbya does that smug leer and pooh-poohs the whole Global Warming/Greenhouse gas concept, on camera – no less. Sigh.

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  7. Al Gore received this weak an honorary doctorate from Montreal’s Concordia University. Gore was also present at the Palais des Congrès of Montreal where he said : “Quebec is the conscience of Canada on the environment. The rest of Canada is pretty good on this issue also, but Quebec is the conscience of Canada and you young people are the conscience of Quebec on this issue.”

    The deal is that Concordia University students took radical steps to fight global warming : 75 cents per course goes to a green fund, which will be used to replace diesel-fuelled shuttle buses with electric buses and to provide reusable mugs to students for all beverages bought on campus.

    What will happen to Canada if the nation of Quebec becomes free ? Quebec provincial elections are Monday March 26th and the Parti Québécois might win with a minority majority.

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  8. 4 out of 5 are convinced. 1 out of 5 is almost convinced, but remains skeptical. Suckers!

    “Giant, flying lizards? You moron! That’s one of God’s easiest jokes.” “It seemed so plausible!”

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  9. @Jamieson: No idea mate.

    @Zhongtang: Gawd, don’t get me started on the Québécois and their plights for “freedom”. Far too many Mel Gibson movies for that lot.

    But yeah, good on ’em for taking the initiative. Sadly it’s all for naught if the government doesn’t get on board. Though, to their credit, the Bloc federally and the Parti provincially both seem more interested than all but the Greens and NDP in meeting the Kyoto requirements.

    @Josh: I love Bill :-).

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  10. Okay anonymous douche-bag, don’t trust SCIENTISTS. No, definitely don’t. It’s much better to just whimsically think about stuff, and, not being able to understand it, think it sounds crazy and come up with opinions about it. We people who actually listen to the f—ing experts will continue on admittedly ignorant, but trusting the 90 something percent of them who DO know the subject. Real smart.

    Sorry…got a bit worked up there. Sad irony just really gets me going.

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  11. Ryan: “short term wants always beat out possible long-term gains”
    Yes, but that’s human nature in general. We have ourselves to blame, we rely too much on fossil fuels to live our lives. Do people want to pay significantly more for services, food and consumer goods because oil prices are taxed to reflect the environmental damage they do? We all have to look at ourselves first because not only can we make changes with our votes but also our consumer habits.

    Blaming politicians, while valid, is just a cop out. We all need to start educating ourselves better on the issues and conserving energy at a grass roots level, this is the biggest change we can all make IMHO.

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  12. Ryan: my point about surveyors asking me and you was rhetorical and more a point towards how these opinion studies are conducted. They poll 1000 people or so from around Canada and use their data to reflect what all Canadians think..now if they asked 3 million people, 10% of Canada’s population it’d be a bit more accurate don’t you think?

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  13. @Dez: More accurate, yes; different, perhaps; widely different… probably not.

    The Kyoto situation in Canada is indicative of human nature at large – short term wants always beat out possible long-term gains.

    We’re saying the same thing my friend.

    I agree that proper votes aren’t going to cure the problem, and of course environmental responsibility is on the shoulders of everyone. Which is on a basic level, I wash my hands of the ‘environmental movement’. I envy people who retain hope that humanity, when looked at as one large mass, has the ability to do anything but fuck itself.

    We’re parasites, and though individually we have the ability to see that being a parasite is counter-productive long-term, as a group… we’re just going to use it up, burn it down, club it and consume it until we stop and go, “oh.. umm… crap.”

    The great part, for us, is that we’re adaptable, and that adaptability is the kink in all apocalyptic fantasies. We’ll find a way to survive… just might not be too many frisbee matches 😉

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  14. The actual root of the problem here is the term “global warming” and the fact that it is winter in the northern hemisphere. The reason there are people in Alberta who are skeptical about the entire earth being warmed is that a large number of people in Alberta are freezing their asses right now. Why doesn’t anyone have conferences and polls on this subject in August when the same population is bitching about how hot it is? Just about four weeks ago, we had a blizzard here. Had you asked anyone in the province about “global warming” they would have offered to chip in and buy some of it.

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