<3 : Wall-E

An emoticon seems perfectly appropriate here.

I saw a midnight showing of Wall-E last night… and it was fantastic. Maybe even the best film Pixar has made (at least since Toy Story 2). I also can’t remember the last time I saw a genuine love story that was this good. Believe it or not, they manage to capture a lot of subtle emotional miniuate just using two beeping robots.

But the great shame is there’s going to be a whole bunch of people who think this movie sucks and is pushing some stupid liberal agenda.

And that’s a horrible shame. The politicization of environmental issues drives me nuts cause the integrity of the issue should be exclusive from that stuff. But whatever the film works as part satire and to let your political bent prevent you enjoying a film is just ridiculous.

Take it the other way for example: a lot of films feature vigilantism or massive amounts of violence or assassinations, etc. All of which are things I’m obviously “politically against.” Just because this film deals with the environment and the laziness of modern man doesn’t mean you should politicize it and let it get in the way. Those elements are freaking satire anyway.

And the robots are cute as shit.

Don’t Like: People/Organizations Who Claim Global Warming Isn’t a Scientific Fact

I almost have to tip my hat to the NeoCons. It’s really amazing. They’ve politicized and distorted an issue that I thought was pretty much un-distortable.

Global Warming is a scientific fact. The overwhelming majority of scientists have confirmed this including the IPCC and every single prominent country within the National Academies of Science. Yet the more evidence we gain over the years, the more people seem to make up reasons to disagree. A recent poll showed fewer people believe in global warming then they did 10 years ago.

And there’s key word in there: “believe”. That’s what this is all about now. The issue has been politicized into red and blue. The Bush admin has adopted the notion of that it’s a scientific debate and not an established scientific fact. First of all, yes, there are individual scientists who offer theories of dissent, but their minority cannot be stressed enough. Better yet, almost any one of their theories and examples can be refuted by any student with a couple of oceanography classes under their belt. That’s not hyperbole either. Most dissenters use evidence that is self-contained and not reflective of system based changes. How so? This is an extreme example but recently a scientist cited the lack of devastating hurricanes last summer as evidence global warming wasn’t true (since global warming raises water temperatures which strengthens hurricanes). What said scientist failed to mention was that el nino/la nina has been wreaking havoc on weather patterns and other parts of the world were suffering from the extreme weather patterns at the time. This example of the “contained example” is completely indicative of the kind of thinking the anti-global warming folks are using.

Look, I understand someone seeing Global Warming and going “Eh, who cares, I think there are more important things.” That’s fine because it’s an personal and ethical decision based on the facts. But to use an agenda to distort the obvious scientific reality is an insult. The republican war on science is a complete travesty.

Like: Re-Using Water Bottles

I’m not a big environment guy. To clarify, yeah I’m pro-environment and like national parks and all that stuff but it’s just not my issue to harp on. Global Warming exists! Wow! What a political stance! Anycrap I’ll get into the odd politicization of a scientific issue at some other point. This concerns probably the easiest thing for anyone to do who doesn’t want to waste stuff. Refilling water bottles. I take said water bottle, drink it, fill it up at the Poland Springs station which is completely equidistant from the water bottles in the office, go back and drink more.  Boom. Done. When it’s been a couple days, I get a new one. Lots of water/water bottles saved. That’s it. It amazes me how many people go through 2-3 bottles a day here. I should probably get one of those Nalgene business, but I tried and constantly forgot to bring it. So this is my small gesture cause it’s easy.