Al Gore is traveling around the world telling us how we must fundamentally change our civilization due to the threat of global warming. Last week he was in Denmark to disseminate this message. But if we are to embark on the costliest political project ever, maybe we should make sure it rests on solid ground. It should be based on the best facts, not just the convenient ones. This was the background for the biggest Danish newspaper, Jyllands-Posten, to set up an investigative interview with Mr. Gore. And for this, the paper thought it would be obvious to team up with Bjorn Lomborg, author of "The Skeptical Environmentalist," who has provided one of the clearest counterpoints to Mr. Gore's tune.
The interview had been scheduled for months. The day before the interview Mr. Gore's agent thought Gore-meets-Lomborg would be great. Yet an hour later, he came back to tell us that Bjorn Lomborg should be excluded from the interview because he's been very critical of Mr. Gore's message about global warming and has questioned Mr. Gore's evenhandedness. According to the agent, Mr. Gore only wanted to have questions about his book and documentary, and only asked by a reporter. These conditions were immediately accepted by Jyllands-Posten. Yet an hour later we received an email from the agent saying that the interview was now cancelled. What happened?
Claro que a pergunta "What happened?" é meramente retórica.
É impressionante como certos conceitos são imutáveis. O livrinho que eu li do Eric Hoffer, "The True Believer: Thoughts on the Nature of Mass Movements" descreve com perfeição o comportamento do Sr. Gore: aqueles que pretendem liderar movimentos revolucionários devem fugir a todo custo do confronto racional. Movimentos revolucionários somente se criam na crença das pessoas de que a situação atual é insuportável e de que o cenário prometido pelo pretenso líder é o nirvana.
