On the long road from Brisbane to Sydney, you’ll find young Sarah Bishop. She’s busy running the 1000 kilometres for a good cause, as she told the reporter from the TV station on the 19th of this month.
Her purpose is to bring attention to the problem of global warming. And she is even rotating four pairs of sneakers to achieve this.

Is Sarah’s gesture really necessary?

Now unless one has been in a coma for the past few months, there is nobody in our galaxy who has not become aware of global warming. There is hardly a news programme that doesn’t mention something or other about the weather and daily we are bombarded with statistics that predict the end of the world, as we know it.

What used to be a topic in polite conversation has turned into an obsession. Everybody now wants to do something about the weather, talk about it, worry about it, and even change it. Even little children in kindergarten are being taught about global warming.

Perhaps it’s because I’m sceptical about fads, but I believe that global warming is a convenient diversion from the real problems in the world, such as intolerance, wars, terrorism, poverty, poor health, inadequate shelter, lack of education, just to name a few.

I also suspect that concerns about the environment are a substitute for organised religion. If one is not religious in the orthodox sense then one searches for a passion which will give meaning to life. The cult of environmentalism provides an outlet for those needing to belong to a group of like-minded people, with a credo, saving the planet, and priests who will preach to their flock. And just like other religions or cults, environmentalism warns of an apocalypse.

There have been many priests in the environmental or green movement prior to Al Gore, but his message has made great use of film just as Michael Moore did with his attack on America. Film appeals to the masses and has a far-reaching scope. It can also be easily manipulated by a skillful editor.

We only need to recall how Goebbels, Hitler’s PR man during the Third Reich, made use of films as part of his propaganda machine.

Just as in any other cult, those who question the premise of its credo are regarded with suspicion. They will become the outsiders. Let’s face it, if you don’t place your shopping into one of those little green bags, you are committing a terrible crime, and frankly, in the scheme of things, those green bags are trivial. They come into the category of “I’m doing my bit for the environment.” Having finished their shopping these same people drive home in their gas-guzzlers. How hypocritical is that!

It’s interesting to note that global warming has galvanised the enemies of the U.S. Isn’t it amazing that whatever is wrong with the world or perceived to be wrong, is blamed on the U.S.

There’s no denying that parts of Australia are suffering a water shortage, but then hasn’t it always been the driest continent on the planet? We can definitely do something to fix that problem and I have every confidence that necessity will again be the mother of invention. Mankind has always been adaptable and it will find a way.

What puzzles me, however, is that in spite of the environmentalists preaching about the dangers of global warming, they won’t accept that nuclear energy is an ideal and clean source of energy. If emissions and fossil fuels are the problem, then replace them.

But then where would that leave the oil-rich nations who constantly manipulate the market to keep prices high and use oil supplies as a form of blackmail? It looks as if the environmentalists have aligned themselves once more with the Arabs against the West and in particular, the U.S.

Wouldn’t it be wonderful, in that case, if we in the West abandoned oil as a source of energy and left the Arabs to wallow in it. Without us, what can they do with all their oil?

As for global warming, it will go the way of Y2K and Paul Erlich’s theory of zero population growth. How ironic is it that now we are conversely trying to increase our reproduction levels in the West because our population is aging.

Erlich was wrong, and so are the environmentalists. This too will pass, until the next fad comes along, but until then we just have to sit it out.

Mind you, one thing that I am certain of is that in some liberal university somewhere, there’s an academic who is writing a book about how Israel is to blame for global warming.