A Convenient TruthMike Rappaport

I haven’t seen An Inconvenient Truth.  I assume the title is meant to refer to the fact that global warming is an inconvenient truth that must be addressed, even though we wish we didn’t have to.  It is this aspect of the title that bothers me, because it seems to me that, for many people in the environmental movement, global warming is a Convenient Truth.  As David Friedman said, and I quoted a couple of days ago:

Global warming provides arguments for things that a lot of people,mostly left of center, want to do anyway shift lifestyles away fromautomobiles towards mass transit, reduce consumption of depletableresources, and the like. Environmentalism is in part a real argument,in part a religion, in part an aesthetic; the second and third partsmake people too willing to accept the first.

Saying it is an inconvenient truth, like they feel real bad about cutting back on these aspects of modern life, is just spin.