I no scholar on HDThoreau, but my impression of Walden was that he liked being alone, and he thought it had great personal value. The fact that he didn’t want to be a hermit and cut himself off from everyone doesn’t make him a hypocrite. I like to be alone a lot too, but I need crowds as well, in small doses.

I agree with your point about science and AGW however. It seems to me that much of the enviro movement advances moral/ethical objectives as though they were scientific ones because that’s the only way they feel they can get traction. Personally, I’d rather they were up-front, and advanced their ethical view, but we live in a [pseudo]scientific age.

“I never found the companion that was so companionable as soltitude.”

I think Thoreau was a hypocrite. He played at the pastoral; at least Whitman found what he thought was a true democracy in nature; even if it was a vision with the Blakeian red of claw romanticised to hazy insouciance. But as well as hypocrisy there is irony; Whitman distinguished between the man of science who distilled nature and the direct reverent experience of nature;

“Gentlemen! [men of science] to you the first
honours always.
Your facts are useful and real, and yet they are
not my dwelling;
(I but enter by them into an area of my dwell-
ing.)”

Isn’t a twisted version of this what we are seeing today in the reverence for nature and the incipient loathing for humanity’s efforts to overcome nature? AGW is predicated on an ideology that nature knows best and that interference with that superior wisdom brings [divine] retribution. The irony is, that ’science’ is being seconded to support that stance which would have no traction without the ’scientific’ support. Thus, to support a pure, hypocritical view of nature, which is unreal and only sustainable from the vantage of an unnatural society, we see the science and technology which has enabled that ‘unnatural’ society to develop being suborned to support the vision pure of nature.

I disagree with the post that calls him a hypocrite, however. I suspect that many who celebrate his writing and views simply have not read him. He’s quite clear and straightforward about what he’s doing and why in his cabin by the lake. The idea that he was a hermit in the wilds is something people have said about him, not what he said of himself.

“On March 2004, French-Finnish adventurer Dominick Arduin died making the attempt to solo trek the North Pole in a kayak.”

“While living the simple life in the woods, Thoreau walked into nearby Concord, Mass., (which nature-boy compared to a gopher colony) almost very day. And his mom, who lived less than two miles away, delivered goodie baskets filled with meals, pies and doughnuts every Saturday. The more one reads in Thoreau’s unpolished journal of his stay in the woods, the more his sojorn resembles suburban boys going to their tree-house in the backyard and pretending they’re camping in the heart of the jungle.”

The cognitive dissonance comes from the fact that AGW supporters seem to think the privileges and civilization which comes from keeping nature at bay will continue if the barriers are broken and benevolent mother-nature is reintroduced into our empty lives. The hypocrisy comes from the ability to similtaneously worship misanthropes like Carson while pretending that millions of deaths have not occurred because of the reduction in mosquito, and other pest and parasites, eradication methods because of Carson’s advocacy.

Books invoking these 2 are likely to be horror stories; how appropriate that Stephen King is on the board.

Huh? Is the link broken on your end? It looks finished to me and ICECAP mentioned it as -0.01C. I don’t see how Lords Spencer and Christy could screw up and release unfinished data.

REPLY: Odd, they still have not updated the main dataset. That is what I go by, not by the summary page.

http://climate.uah.edu/august2008.htm

As you can see, melting Arctic sea ice driven by nasty little apes is causing the entire world’s climate to burn burn burn. Your crimes against humanity and nature will affect your children, and your children’s children. If I were you, I would sell that beachfront property of yours. Can’t find a buyer? Don’t worry, I will buy it from you, but only for half-price. ;-)

REPLY: That is still July data, the August temp anomaly here:

http://vortex.nsstc.uah.edu/public/msu/t2lt/tltglhmam_5.2

has not yet been updated – Anthony

I don’t think they know what permafrost is: “permafrost or permafrost soil is soil at or below the freezing point of water (0 °C or 32 °F) for two or more years. Ice is not always present, as may be in the case of nonporous bedrock, but it frequently occurs and it may be in amounts exceeding the potential hydraulic saturation of the ground material. Most permafrost is located in high latitudes (i.e. land in close proximity to the North and South poles), but alpine permafrost may exist at high altitudes in much lower latitudes.” (Wiki)

Ah, the well-informed press…

http://www.itv.com/News/newsspecial/KayaktotheArctic/default.html

A trip to the North Pole wich I guess would have taken a couple of weeks seems to be over after only 3 days of paddling. I’m sure this expedition will be portrayed as a great success in the world of global warming.

I think there may be a ray of hope. Gov. Palin does not buy into the
AGW theory and is a proponent of developing more fossile energy. What would be interesting is that Obama’s campaign is going to have prominent female politcians such as Gov. Sebelius of Kansas counter her with bread and butter issues affecting family finances. I can image a interesting debate on power generation between them. How much more will power cost in Kansas as a result of Gov. Sebelius’s blocking of any more coal fired power plants?

http://news.bbc.co.uk/2/hi/uk_news/northern_ireland/7599810.stm

Write an essay about how, because of global warming, you miss sitting out watching to massive thunder / hail storms of your youth. The violent majesty of fields of crops smashed flat. The awe inspiring power of vast floods sweeping bridges away. Etc.