Month 11, Day 26: It’s “Buy Nothing Day”

Watched Moore’s interview with Wendell Potter. Realized once again that we need him. Thought I’d send him a letter.

Dear Mr. Moore,

I just finished watching your televised meeting with Mr. Wendell Potter. It is extraordinary how much is packed into your short encounter. Congratulations. You have enacted Gandhi’s dictum, “the objective is to bring your enemy not to his knees, but to his senses,” through your work as a documentarian.

But I’m not just writing a fan letter, here. I want to urge you to train your cinematic sights on the massive smear campaign waged against climatologists and climate science; it’s not just filmmakers that giant corporate interests would distract, discredit and destroy.

Climate change is the ultimate health care issue, and climate scientists are as close as we can come to planetary physicians. James Hansen, Michael Mann and countless others have reported clear and consistent findings for decades. Just as a cardiologist tells a coronary patient: change your habits or die, these scientists’ conclusions are unequivocal and their implications identical. And the campaign against their integrity and their message is eerily similar to that against you.

Climate change is also the ultimate capitalism issue. By overspending planetary environmental resources by a huge factor, the consumerist engine has become a self-destroying economic system that will cause massive tragedy as it goes down. Now that they’re “people,” giant corporations should be expected to understand that the long-term survival of our civilization, species and planet is essential to their own. Are they going to sacrifice all the rest of us to preserve their margins and bonuses?

Looks like it.

Thank you again for what you’ve done already to influence our world. If we make progress in building a government and a society that embodies genuine generosity and truthfulness, it will be in large part because of your efforts.

Please make a film on climate. Your voice could make a difference in this debate, and we (all of us) need all the help we can get.

Yours Sincerely,

Warren Senders