"The likes of Al Gore lined up to inspire thousands of young people"

Well, when the likes of Al Gore are manifestly unwilling to "walk the walk", is it any wonder that their acolytes behave as hypocritically as they do?

More to the point, is it any wonder that I take Al Gore's hysterical alarmism with a Siberian-scale grain of salt?

To quote the satirical "The problem with young people today is ..." blog (which like all good satire has a discomforting edge of truth):

"I’m not sure what (young people) expected to find when they popped out of the womb but it seems they were hoping for a fairy dreamland where Ipods grow on trees in fair-trade forests and smoke stacks puff out giant clouds of marijuana smoke ... The young people talk a good game but have you ever walked past a school yard? Nothing but styrofoam containers, old bongs and discarded lunch bags as far as the eye can see."

Thom Woodroof should be congratulated on his achievements as an ODD young achiever. I stress for this to not be interpreted in a derogatory manner, but simply one acknowledging ones achievements, which are surprising considering the course (Bachelor of Arts) Thom is studying. Whilst making minor valid arguments, this opinion is written in such a ridiculous manner to make no firm convictions, and as such, lakes any real opinion. This piece could be written by a politician due to the ambiguous language of the terms used, specifically designed to not hold the writer to any particular point of view. The writer of this article however does not represent, by any sense, the majority or even a fraction of the 'young society'. This can easily be derived by the language used, and the tone of the article. Why would one listen to an argument put forward by a 19 year old Arts student, which is poorly written to represent someone else. Thom is the 'executive director' of Left Right Think Tank, an organization that has achieved little if anything at all. On a positive note, the organization does provide amazing job titles and thus would be beneficial for students to assist in.

Thom, before you provide the world your 'verbal diarrhea', please consider your target audience, and write your opinion to that demographic in colloquial language. Rather than pretending to represent a segment you obviously have no part in.

Why should anyone be expected to have the "will" to make sacrifices for a nebulous, unproven, boogey man of the 21st century?

Alas Thom,

you've hit the nail on the head. I've lost count the number of times OLO and other blogs publish op eds by far left, fundamentally back to the earth young greenies who want to either reduce our population by 13 million people, ban all immigrants, take cars off the roads and generally bring capitalism to its knees.

Then I see them at airports or being driven to functions in big gas guzzling cars. 'Don't do as I do, do as I say.'

Mind you as a boomer, I'm surrounded by my own age cohort who do a lot of hand wringing about 'youth' but them fume about there being a lack of shitake mushrooms for that big dinner party.

Actually we can have our shitake mushrooms but not the gas guzzlers. Anyway, good article.

Col Rouge, I seem to remember that you checked me concerning my philosophical comments praising the Sermon on the Mount, virtually saying that it was just a childish first attempt by the boy Jesus before he became more Christian possibly.

Further, as a historical philosopher, and as regards your comments concerning Global Warming, please read below.

It is incedible how many of OLO contributors regard Global Warming as a fantasy.

But from my experience as a wheat and sheep farmer combined with my later studies, I have come to the conclusion that:

It is incredibly sickly how many of our Online contributors believe that apparently mankind can do little harm to our planet.

Indeed, the very fact that Nature or Whatever had grown trees and forests and vegetation to make use of problematic carbon waste, any good high school student could tell us that mankind was well on the way to destroy the globe ever since the advent of modern industrialisation.

Further from Bushbred:

I have just been told by a retired lecturer that most of our OLOs with strong arguments against Global Warming could be backed by wealthy groups who make their dollars out of industries which need to be phased out eventually if GW becomes factual.

Regards, BB, Buntine, WA.