Patterico's Pontifications

1/22/2015

Wacky Al Gore: For 90 Trillion Dollars, We Can Rebuild Every City In The World And Make Them Car-Free!

Filed under: General — Dana @ 6:08 pm



[guest post by Dana]

As you know, the World Economic Forum is currently taking place in Davos. It’s where the beautiful people and the ruling class put their heads together, squint really hard and try to solve world problems.

This year, as it usually goes, our betters hypocritically arrived in their private jets – 1,700 of them this year – to figure out how to solve global warming… The irony and hypocrisy does not seem to penetrate their collective gilded bubbles. Anyway, we all know that global warming continues to be a vexing problem to the left. As such, Al Gore believes he has figured out a way to fix the problem. And what a doozy of a solution it is. Frankly, when I read about his proposal, I was compelled get down on my knees to thank God that Bill Clinton didn’t expire in the middle of one of his many dalliances because Gore – One. Seat. Away. From. The. Presidency. and almost elected president! Talk about dodging the crazy-bullet. So, with the help of former president of Mexico Felipe Calderon, the proposal was presented:

As part of a presentation from the Global Commission on the Economy and Climate (GCEC), Calderon and Gore argued that the fight against global warming will necessitate new, car-free city designs: urban areas, after all, are responsible for around 70 per cent of greenhouse gas emissions. Calderon told the conference:

We cannot have these cities with low density, designed for the use of cars… We recommend those cities should have more density and more mass transportation.

Designing cars out of every city and future city would apparently require a mere $90trn in infrastructure investment.

Summing it up:

The theory is that urban sprawl has caused people to be dependent on automobiles to get around. Most automobiles use internal combustion engines to move. Internal combustion engines exude greenhouse gasses. Greenhouse gasses are inexorably raising the temperature of the Earth that, if not stopped, will cause life to become unsustainable. For this reason, we have to spend $90 trillion to gather everybody in every city into huge centralized habitats connected by rail or other transportation systems,

Further, as if stacking us up like sardines in high-density housing and taking away our automobiles isn’t punishment enough, Gore is teaming up with singer Pharrell “Happy” Williams to fight climate change with a concert. And boy, oh boy, what a special concert it will be according to singer Williams:

“Instead of just having people perform, we literally – and I can’t go into it now because some interesting surprises are coming out soon – but we literally are going to have humanity harmonize all at once.

The former vice-president and almost-president (FVP-AP) sternly exhorted:

[W]ith putting a price on carbon to speed up the transition to renewable energies, “we need to put a price on denial in politics. People need to stop financing denial.”

The worldwide sing-along is set for June 18. No word yet on when the bulldozers will start rolling.

–Dana

49 Responses to “Wacky Al Gore: For 90 Trillion Dollars, We Can Rebuild Every City In The World And Make Them Car-Free!”

  1. Hello.

    Dana (8e74ce)

  2. mitt Romney nods solemnly in agreement

    happyfeet (831175)

  3. Haha!

    Dana (8e74ce)

  4. Had he been elected I think algore would have given President Obama a real run for the title of “worst president ever”. What a maroon.

    elissa (b90fea)

  5. Greenhouse gasses are inexorably raising the temperature of the Earth that, if not stopped, will cause life to become unsustainable. In the meantime, planets don’t have to be too exactly like earth if they orbit other suns.

    Sammy Finkelman (e806a6)

  6. He should show us the way and demolish his Santa Barbara mansion on the disappearing coast.

    Gazzer (c44509)

  7. They’ll have to pry the steering wheel from my crinkly, liver-spotted hands…

    Colonel Haiku (2601c0)

  8. Ninety trillion dollars is about the entire expenditure of the United States Government since the founding. It is larger than the gross world product by a lot.

    And, as we know, there are always cost overruns with these guys.

    Kevin M (25bbee)

  9. our betters … arrived in their private jets – 1,700 of them this year – to figure out how to solve global warming…

    …………………. a n d ………………………………………….

    People need to stop financing denial.

    Uhhh. YEAH!!

    What he said…

    IGotBupkis, "Si tacuisses, philosophus mansisses." (225d0d)

  10. Hey, Calderon, maybe you could spruce up your own country a bit before criticizing other people’s. You know, so your citizens actually prefer to stay there.

    Kevin M (25bbee)

  11. The best part of urban mass transit is the control it gives the city bureaucracy. Those annoying Tea Partiers showing up again? Shut down transit! Our people holding a demo? Extra free buses today!

    Kevin M (25bbee)

  12. Someone gave Goreboy a summary of The World Inside and he thought it sounded marvelous… for everyone else.

    IGotBupkis, "Si tacuisses, philosophus mansisses." (225d0d)

  13. Had he been elected I think algore would have given President Obama a real run for the title of “worst president ever”.

    Naw… ’cause he would have given the place over to Islam by now, and there’d be no president any more.

    IGotBupkis, "Si tacuisses, philosophus mansisses." (225d0d)

  14. He should show us the way and demolish his Santa Barbara mansion on the disappearing coast.

    Preferably while he was in it…

    IGotBupkis, "Si tacuisses, philosophus mansisses." (225d0d)

  15. Hey, Calderon, maybe you could spruce up your own country a bit before criticizing other people’s.

    Latte liberals like Al Gore should be required to spend the rest of their life in a society where, in a way, resources are used in a rather frugal manner (because of widespread poverty and mediocrity) and all the accoutrements of life associated with the mainstream of the First World (and which limousine liberals consider de rigeur) aren’t as far reaching or pervasive. IOW, Gore and his ilk really deserve to live the experience 24/7, 365 days a year, in a shanty town in Mexico, where walking the walk and not just talking the talk will be all theirs to enjoy and love.

    Mark (c160ec)

  16. http://media.oglaf.com/comic/legacy.jpg

    IGotBupkis, "Si tacuisses, philosophus mansisses." (225d0d)

  17. Beijing raises subway fares to ease overcrowding

    When a single mother was crushed to death while trying to get onto an overcrowded subway train in November, it pointed to a problem that transit officials in the Chinese capital had already promised to address.

    They did so this week, raising subway fares as much as fourfold in what they said was an effort to reduce overcrowding.

    Sammy Finkelman (e806a6)

  18. Sammy,

    And I bet that there will be a transit strike very soon to suck up that extra money.

    Kevin M (25bbee)

  19. Al Gore, where are you???

    You’ve got to tell the rulers in Beijing, you’re supposed to increase prices to reduce automobile traffic, not the use of mass transit.

    Sammy Finkelman (e806a6)

  20. I note that they deal with overcrowding in Tokyo another way: competition. Last I was there, there were 3 organizations accepting a common ticket and building their own lines, sometimes in parallel to another. There was the Tokyo metro, the national rail company, and a private company. I’m sure it is well regulated, but sitting on you rear and jacking up ticket prices isn’t the plan there.

    Kevin M (25bbee)

  21. No, the extra money is needed in New York to help pay for wasteful capital spending.

    Sammy Finkelman (e806a6)

  22. In Bombay (Mumbai) they just let the trains get more and more crowded. some commuters were going the wrong way to the end of the line to get a seat, but now too many people are doing it.

    http://www.worldcrunch.com/culture-society/mumbai-039-s-crowded-trains-are-literally-killing-commuters-every-day/mumbai-bombay-train-transport-crowds/c3s13558/

    For Mumbai’s residents, trains are an unavoidable means of transport. During rush hours, the only alternative would be to drive at 2.5 mph on roads that cannot always be used, especially during monsoon season. The traffic is actually so slow that young businessmen have had the idea to broadcast advertising spots through loudspeakers fixed on three-wheeled motorcycles amid the traffic jams. Walking may be quicker, but the distances are very long: The city is 75 miles long from north to south….

    ..The city is built on a peninsula and can only develop northward. But the historic areas, the city’s economic heart, are in the south, a cul-de-sac where real estate prices continue to rise. To find housing at an affordable price, the middle class has no other choice than to live in the residential complexes in the north of the city, which are poorly connected to the center.

    In Mumbai, the railways are called “lifelines.” Except that 10 to 12 passengers perish every day. Some climb on the train roofs and die from electrocution. Others fall from the overcrowded compartments, and others still are run over as the cross the railroads.

    Sammy Finkelman (e806a6)

  23. But anyway, the Democrat plan for the US is to whittle away at representative democracy and replace more and more decision-making with appointed commissions and boards, or executive agencies with free-wheeling power like the EPA.

    Half the battle was lost in the 80’s when the Supremes struck down the legislative veto which had been part and parcel of the deal to allow these agency power. a Congressional veto would contain them. Now it is gone and the executive’s veto can block any restraining laws, allowing an expansionist president to run rampant over the public will. It might be necessary to reform the system to require Congress to pass any desired regulation as law, or a Constitutional amendment allowing a Congressional veto of regulations might be in order. But what we have now is a recipe for tyranny.

    Kevin M (25bbee)

  24. I bet the excuse in NY is that fuel costs went up. They probably signed a long-term deal with Speaker Silver’s nephew.

    Kevin M (25bbee)

  25. what could go wrong

    Besides what already has?

    Kevin M (25bbee)

  26. Can’t wait to live in a ginormous rabbit warren.

    daleyrocks (bf33e9)

  27. I think I saw this movie, it was called Demolition Man,

    narciso (ee1f88)

  28. Ninety trillion dollars, what’s that? It’s only $14,000 from every man, woman, and child on the face of the earth.

    Joshua (82d600)

  29. If you don’t want to spend $90 Trillion, that just means you’re greedy.

    Dejectedhead (4bfcf6)

  30. I’m down with the plan, as along as Al gives me a ride to work in his private jet!

    BTW why don’t these fools eliminate the seminars and speeches and just ski and have cocktail parties? They wouldn’t end up being laughing stocks as much.

    Patricia (5fc097)

  31. What an idiot. World GDP is up to $77 trillion a year now, so if the whole world goes without food, water, shelter, or buying anything for about 15 months, we’d have the seed money for Al.

    You just can’t make this stuff up. And people take him seriously?

    Estragon (ada867)

  32. hi dana your link at #4 is no bueno

    happyfeet (831175)

  33. I remember that Al Gore was one of the early partners in Google. Owns a lot of stock. So that driverless car thing was his baby all along.

    jcurtis (2364cc)

  34. Dang, I didn’t know that. No wonder Google is gayer than Tom Brady talking about his balls.

    nk (dbc370)

  35. In the meantime, the GDP for the entire world was $77.609 trillion in 2014. So, all we need is to plow the production of the entire world for a year and two months into this project.

    If liberals understood economics, they wouldn’t be liberals anymore.

    The Dana who looked it up (f6a568)

  36. It’s going to be like that horrible Coke commercial. I just know it.

    Georganne (e37667)

  37. To all the hand-wringers who cry “something must be done!”: How about YOU donate your hard-earned savings to finance these wacky eco schemes?

    pst314 (ae6bd1)

  38. “A mere”

    Bill C (8ae564)

  39. Greenhouse gasses are inexorably raising the temperature of the Earth that, if not stopped, will cause life to become unsustainable. For this reason, we have to spend $90 trillion to gather everybody in every city into huge centralized habitats connected by rail or other transportation systems,

    It would be much,. much cheaper to simply unleash the entirety of our nuclear arsenal on the Gaza Strip; a theorem proven by Carl Sagan and four others back in 1983 implies this will freeze climate change cold in its tracks.

    Michael Ejercito (45f52b)

  40. boom goes the dynamite

    happyfeet (a037ad)

  41. http://t.co/xKXucLzMHx

    Colonel Haiku (2601c0)

  42. I was compelled get down on my knees to thank God that Bill Clinton didn’t expire in the middle of one of his many dalliances

    Sooo….I take it you’re happy that he was acquitted of the charges for which he was impeached?

    WTP (5ea774)

  43. WTP,

    It was a little play on the infamous Nina Burleigj and her Clinton comment way back when… It has nothing to do with charges he faced.

    Dana (d13846)

  44. Balls!

    daleyrocks (bf33e9)

  45. They are what everybody is talking about.

    daleyrocks (bf33e9)

  46. The mansion Gore supposedly owns (BALLS!) is around 500 (BALLS!) above sea level.
    Gore is an idiot gelded by his own idiocy (NO BALLS!)
    He should have kept his (BALLS!) and warmed them to 90 degrees so that when his (BALLS!) got cooled to less than 51 degrees, they’d be 10-15% less potent.
    No word yet from the (BALLS!) boys and here is to having a stud QB spreading some Epstein level cash around to make sure the (BALLS BOYS) are quiet about how (BALLS) were handled.
    If Gore was Brady of course and if global warming was about (BALLS!)

    steveg (794291)


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