GaryNMaine Blog

This is a short transcript from a blog called “Nissan Leaf’s Strangely Moving Polar Bear Ad (VIDEO).” (First Posted: 09-10-10 05:17 PM, Updated: 09-10-10 05:22 PM. Apparently, not attributed to anyone.) Will not write the article here as it is linked above, if you want to read it.

(here is the video ad that this article was talking about. If the video is too large for the column shown to you by your browser, you can, if you have sufficient width space with your monitor, make your browser window wider.)

jefke: Of course polar bears are actually vicious killers which makes the ad a little ridiculous, not that that lessens the gravity of the effect of climate change on the polar bear population.

jabailo (commenting on jefke’s remark): If the ice was melting, wouldn’t the polar bear try and go further north to where its colder…instead of south to where it’s warmer?

GaryNMaine (comment on jabailo’s remark): Surely, you wouldn’t want to make a ‘logical’ argument against this ad? The ad is effective even if the actual facts would not support the animal heading south when crises arise. However, there will be an ending to the polar bears heading north once there is no ice left. But, if the polar bear can quickly adapt, the polar bear might survive. That being said, this type of adaptive capability is not available to mammals of the size of a polar bear. Farewell another endangered-by-man species. We can always read about you in our environmental-studies textbooks if, by then, we haven’t banned education altogether.

That’s about all I could write before the comment stream would shift to page two which, in fact, would make the whole point of commenting moot, since few venture beyond the first page of comments.

Mankind is at its wit’s end on how to deal with critical environmental matters such as climate change and man’s effect on his own environment.

There are people out there, those who own much, and pay so little into preserving this planet, who fight tooth and nail to preserve their financial interests. Why? I don’t know. Maybe they came up in a culture/household where grubbing for every last dime–let no one get in my way–kind of thinking. I am unqualified to analyze anyone’s motivations for the way they live and act. All I know is that the planet needs our help and we still follow the same course where anything that might slow business down is automatically poo pooed.

One day I do see the polar bear going extinct. The environmentalists will be up in arms well in advance of their demise. When the politicians and the corporate leaders finally realize that the environmental scientists were right all along, they will probably finally step in and try to fund projects to move the last polar bears to Antarctica, where the ice is receding, but not completely gone, yet. Being a very expensive endeavor as it most certainly would be, especially with the dwindling supply of fuels (to fuel the ships and move the apparatus forward) to get this done, there will be tremendous uproar from the right.

They would say:

• Logical: The preservation of the polar bear species would put huge economic burdens on our failing economies.
• Narcissistic: I got mine, so who cares what might happen in the future.
• Bad Science: Sunspots are the true cause of climate change, so there is nothing we can do to change our plight.
• Cynical: Animals have been going extinct throughout the history of this planet–what’s another animal, or two in the whole scheme of things.
• Ignorant: [whoever they perceive as the Al Gore of their time] is a twit!
• Party Line: I only vote [whatever party may be representing the interests of the right of their time]! It’s the other party’s fault that things are so bad these days!

You get my meaning. There are always arguments from those who have much too lose from progressing to a more sustainable future. It is, however, amazing how adept they are at getting ignorant people to vote against their own best interests. I mean, it is within most folks interests to see the planet survive for the benefit of future generations.

Essentially, there is only the first argument that has a logical basis. The rest are just cold-hearted, bitter people who have not found a way on Earth to be just ‘plain and simple’ happy. Or, they are simply too ignorant for their own good, and tend to listen to those with the gloomiest of messages.

Since it is impossible to predict politics into the future, it would be safe to say that there are only two directions we can go. The bitterness on the right, and the shock and horror from the left of what has been happening in the last few decades, has left us all in a position where, one way or the other, there will be a sizable shift politically in our near future. Guaranteed.

If we move to the right, this is what might happen:

There turned out to be not enough support for funding on the plans to move the polar bear from the Arctic to Antarctica. Though some funding was established for a certain number of polar bears to be sent to zoos around the world.

If we move to the left, this is what might happen:

Funding was established for the relocation of the polar bears to Antarctica, though environmentalists and left-leaning politicians have voiced concerns that this may very well be ‘too little, too late,’ and they hope to fund future measures to protect endangered species.