Alan Arkin on the End of the World

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"We've pushed the buttons too far. We've been greedy and selfish. Everybody knows what we've done to the rivers and the oceans; the fact that there's only 35 years' worth of fish in the oceans; the fact that the polar ice caps are melting. I think that right under the surface of everybody's consciousness is the full understanding that we're in for a really tough ride and everybody is really afraid to face it. The attitude is: 'Let me amass my pile and we'll worry about that 10 or 20 years from now.'" -- Little Miss Sunshine costar and presumptive Oscar nominee Alan Arkin speaking to Time magazine. (A Time magazine "Numbers of the Year" report actually says the oceans will be fished out within 50 years, so we can all relax -- an extra 15 years to sort things out. Pass the shrimp!)

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Posted by Jeffrey Wells on December 22, 2006 at 4:11 AM

comment #1

aperson says ...

Yes, I always take my political wisdom from actors. It makes life so much easier to have magazine articles digested and spit out back at me by someone who played the first dentist in New York to have a drill that shpritzes waer.

Posted by aperson at December 22, 2006 4:52 AM

comment #2

NYCBusybody says ...

And if the human body travels at over 50 m.p.h., it explodes, too!

Christ almighty already, with this crap.

Posted by NYCBusybody at December 22, 2006 7:05 AM

comment #3

Eric says ...

You two are idiots. Arkin is dead-on. Sadly, the average person thinks just like you, so we will have the opportunity to reap what you're sowing in 50 years. Enjoy the new world.

Posted by Eric at December 22, 2006 7:52 AM

comment #4

MattyC says ...

Eric: word.

One idiot we all know, and one brand new idiot, have combined to use the two most tired, cliche arguments ever.

1) The time-tested "This guy is an actor, therefore I don't have to accept anything he says, because he plays make-believe for a living" theory. This is great, because it allows you to rebut any fact or statistic the person uses by just repeating "Yeah, but you're Spicoli."

2) The hoary old "bring up something people 100 years ago thought was true, to put us all in our place" theory. This, too, allows the uneducated, non-scientists among us to not only refute, but mock, any and all "facts" presented to us with a simple "Yeah, well, they used to think the earth was round, too."

Thanks to fucktards like you two, the world is a better place!

Posted by MattyC at December 22, 2006 9:10 AM

comment #5

Joel says ...

I don't eat fish, so this clearly is not my fault.

Posted by Joel at December 22, 2006 9:23 AM

comment #6

christian says ...

i think these global warming deniers are the same folks who had no problem launching death and destruction in iraq with no evidence at all -- except for their widdle feelings. just like our pathologically insane commander in idiocy.

Posted by christian at December 22, 2006 10:56 AM

comment #7

Walter Sobchak says ...

What a minute, I thought we were heading for another ice age. Oh well, either way, the sky is falling! (BTW), Call me koo-koo, but I think Cheryl Ladd will make an excellent replacement for Farrah Fawcett-Majors.

Posted by Walter Sobchak at December 22, 2006 11:33 AM

comment #8

donnyboy says ...

Anyone whose anyone knows that because we've done so well with the land we live on right now, God is melting the icecaps to give us more land to live on.

Posted by donnyboy at December 22, 2006 3:58 PM

comment #9

Argen says ...

"Yeah, well, they used to think the earth was round, too."

USED to? What changed? What did I miss? Has W been fucking with the science books again?

Posted by Argen at December 22, 2006 9:01 PM

comment #10

americanrat says ...

My wife's an associate professor of biology at one of the top tier state universities in the country. She's recieved about 100K worth of grants from NOAA and NSF in the last 5 years. Neither she or her colleagues accept the conventional wisdom thrown around in the popular press about the environment. I know exactly what she would say to these doom and gloom comments - the rivers in America are healthier than they have been in decades, fish have lived and thrived for billions of years through environmental changes far more profound than any predicted for global warming and no serious meterorologist or geologist thinks the ice caps are melting. Then she would say - mainstream environmental beliefs are as big a bellwether of the failure of modern scientific education as the widespread belief in creationism.

Posted by americanrat at December 24, 2006 7:59 AM

comment #11