Those Who Would Fool You

     It is truly sad how many people in the world don't seem to care about what they do to their environments, but perhaps you could say that it is far sadder when people take these problems, and pretend to care about the world just to make a boatload of money, gain fame, and in a few cases, get revenge. They manipulate the people who want to make a difference and do what they think is right just to achieve their own ends. In this post, I will describe a few kinds of people that do that.

    First, Politicians. These guys are unique because of the position they hold. They have a lot of public influence and a lot of connections. They are persuasive of large amounts of people, making them very dangerous to the common people who just happen to listen.
    Perhaps the best example I could give is of Al Gore. After his close, and perhaps unfair, defeat by George Bush for the office of President of the United States, Al Gore lost his credibility as a politician. So, he changed his tactics to gather the public interest in him. Some say for money, others say revenge.
     Al Gore took the center stage as the man who would start the issue of man-made global warming. He was rich, so he dropped down millions and millions in creating efficient energy, traveled the U.S. to speak in front of crowds, and even created a movie "An Inconvenient Truth". Al Gore certainly pulled out all the stops, and even created a system called Carbon Credits, where you pay for the emissions you caused by driving, buying manufactured items, and even breathing.
      Sounds like a good guy, right? No, actually. At all of his presentation, and in his movie, Gore has shown computer-generated graphs. At first when you hear that last sentence, you think "Well, that sounds accurate." The only problem is that kind of graphs computers use. The accurate graph of climate change is logarithmic, or linear. The kind that computers use are called exponential. Exponential causes very drawn-out although technically correct graphs that would make the thing being graphed seem much more than it is.
      Another problem with Gore is his Carbon Credit Program. He runs the company, so he receives all of the money. Thousands of, well, suckers pour their money into him, which allows him to afford a large house, a beach home, and a few gas-guzzling private jets. He often openly takes pride for paying for his Carbon Credits, but since he owns the company, he is basically paying himself, which proves how hypocritical he really is.

     Second, Businessmen. This is a more obvious topic. Every day when you watch TV or surf the web or read the paper, you are assaulted with advertisements. Page after page of people trying to sell you things. It is an effective marketing tool. So is environmental danger.
      Companies are always making the claim that they are "Going Green." That they are helping the environment by releasing products that reduce trash and come from efficient renewable sources. That sort of talk is very attractive to many people, and makes big business.
      Unfortunately, it is not one hundred percent true what the companies and such tell you about their products. They like to manipulate facts, bend rules, and to do jobs only half-way. They are very good at what they do, and usually go undetected.

     This post is getting long, so I will stop here. There are hundreds of different people that would like to use the environment to get you to give them something. They use a strange sense of guilt associated with the planet that they plant there to make you feel terrible, and be sympathetic to their cause. It is a new psychological game, and we need to see through it.
     Take heart. For every man who would take advantage of you, there are three that are passionate about the environment and change for the better. We need to spread the word, and stop the hypocrites in their tracks.