March on Beijing

Michael Arrington over at TechCrunch is nominally a fan of startups, of Web 2.0, of technology, innovation, and capitalism.  But somehow, when it comes to the whole environmentalist cult, he’s a brainwashed drone like everyone else.

His latest rant is against self-important “Do Not Print this Email” footers that are the rage among the glitterati in the Valley and elsewhere.  But amongst all the good sense, he goes irrational on us:

The same people who insist on wearing colored rubber bracelets to show their support for the cause du jour put this crap at the bottom of emails. My suspicion is that they don’t particularly care about the issue, they just want credit from everyone that they are a caring, thoughtful human being.

This isn’t the way to show support for the our planet. Last week at Davos, Earth defender Al Gore himself made it clear that personal choice decisions at the individual level have little to do with helping the environment. What matters is that our governments make the right policies and hold us, particularly corporations, accountable. That isn’t happening yet. If you really want to change the world, start talking to your elected representatives. Or march on Washington.

Makes sense that Al Gore thinks individuals don’t matter; only that governments matter, and that governments have to hold all the people “accountable”.  Particularly corporations.  Like the ones Michael spends a lot of time promoting on TechCrunch, y’know, those evil corporations that create jobs, economic value, and return on investment.  Those guys really need a lesson on accountability from the government, because no one does accountability as well as the government.  After all, Al Gore is… a politician I believe.  I guess Al would be the one holding us accountable.

But I don’t get the obsession with the U.S.  Michael, what do we do about China?  When’s the march on Beijing scheduled?  China is polluting the hell out of the environment, and I thought this was all about global warming, not local warming.  Why the focus on Washington?  Where’s the pressure on Vladimir Putin?  On Chavez?  On Ahmadinejad?

Now who’s being symbolic?  Wearing colored rubber bracelets to show their solidarity with the cause du jour?

-TS