Green Daily

According to media magnate Ted Turner, avoiding immediate action on climate change will result in a "catastrophic" conditions including widespread cannibalism in only a few decades. In a PBS interview with Charlie Rose on Tuesday, Turner decided to get down to the nitty gritty concerning his views on climate change and the ensuing drought, crop failure, and breakdown of society. He didn't mention cats and dogs living together, but it definitely had the sound of Bill Murray's speech from Ghostbusters. Has the man gone mental? Or is he the next Nostradamus?

Ted Turner's a smart man -- I'll give him that -- but is he going a little overboard with the bleak predictions? This is the kind of rant that could kind of get out of control in the media and really cause some embarrassment for the whole green movement. Not that everyone would disagree with his version of the future, but this is kind of Ted Turner's equivalent to standing by the highway with a sign that says 'the end is near.' It just doesn't look good. From the interview:

"Not doing it will be catastrophic. We'll be eight degrees hotter in ten, not ten but 30 or 40 years and basically none of the crops will grow. Most of the people will have died and the rest of us will be cannibals. Civilization will have broken down. The few people left will be living in a failed state like Somalia or Sudan, and living conditions will be intolerable. The droughts will be so bad there'll be no more corn growning."

To be fair, most of Ted's interview didn't sound like a pitch for a zombie movie. I just finished reading The Road, and some of the scenes that Ted described sounded a lot like Cormac McCarthy's post-apocalyptic nightmare world. I'm not saying Turner is wrong, but I think it might help to tone it down just a bit -- especially with the cannibalism thing.

[via Ecorazzi]