American Morning: Slow Down To Save The Environment

Last week at NewsBusters we noted how conservative commentator Pat Buchanan on MSNBC’s "Morning Joe" summed up global warming hysterias as just another "neo-Marxist idea for the transfer of wealth and power from people to elites." Now it seem that rival cable morning show "American Morning" has proved his point by highlighting a Japanese group fighting modern-day convenience with a vengeance.

On today’s "American Morning," CNN highlighted a group taking global warming hysteria to a whole new level of absurdity. The group called "Slow Life" says "the earth can't keep up with the speed of modern living. The environment losing ground to conveniences like the power hungry vending machines found on every Tokyo street corner, gas-guzzling cars and life’s outright excesses."

CNN’s Kyung Lah tried to link fast-paced lifestyles to global warming. Aside from interviewing one regular person on the street who claimed she could not afford to live a slow life, the only other person interviewed by CNN for the story was a professor sympathetic to the "Slow Life" gospel. The irrational professor claimed, "The problem is wealth. Actually it is wealth that has been producing poverty and that has been causing environmental crisis."

Lah not only failed to interview any critics of global warming but CNN reporter Kyung Lah ended her report by claiming, "Carrying your own utensils like these portable chopsticks can over a lifetime save dozens of trees. A small step towards repairing a seemingly insurmountable problem."

Of course, there are dissenting opinions, such as Wall Street Journal columnist Bret Stephens noting the hysteria is a "mass neurosis," but those voices are muffled, if not muted in everyday CNN coverage.

CNN appears to be quite the dutiful disciple of founder Ted Turner in fanning the flames of global warming hysteria. A NewsBusters blog from April quotes Turner arguing, "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." Fear not America, "American Morning" has informed us that we can steer clear of Turner’s predictions by staying away from power hungry vending machines, gas- guzzling cars and all of life’s other "outright excesses."

The relevant transcript is below:

Kiran Cherty: And the issue of climate change will be a key topic during the G8 Summit. So we're taking a closer look at an environmental movement that's sweeping Japan. It’s called "The Slow Life". And it's urging people to move out of the fast lane to help save the planet.

Kyung Lah: Good morning, John and Kiran, the world's leaders are gathering here in Hokkaiddo to try to solve the world's problems at the G-8 Summit. But one Japanese movement says the solution isn't with them, but with you at home. Everything moves so fast these days, in a 24/7 global economy the scramble to be first, the richest, never let's up. And then, there is this place the slow café where the coffee comes with tranquillity and customers slow down and think.

Keibo Oiwa: We are too fast. So we have to slow down again.

Lah: Professor Keibo Oiwa calls this slow life and it's a movement now sweeping Japan. Slow life says the earth can't keep up with the speed of modern living. The environment losing ground to conveniences like the power hungry vending machines found on every Tokyo street corner, gas-guzzling cars and life’s outright excesses. Slow life asks, does Japan really need a 20 million energy sucking electric toilets that warm and wash your rear end?

Oiwa: People used to say the poverty is the problem but I disagree. The problem is wealth. Actually it is wealth that has been producing poverty and that has been causing ah, environmental crisis.

Lah: The solution doesn't lie with the government leaders attending this week's G-8, says Slow Life, but with the individual willing to walk instead of drive, reuse instead of throwing away, conserve and adjust life to earth's natural pace. Electronics like the Blackberry --

Oiwa: What does this do?

Lah: -- They don't even know about here.

Oiwa: You must be tired.

Lah: If you have to carry one just to keep up, slow life is easier said than done. "I want to lead a slow life", says this woman, one of japan's millions mid-level salary workers "but I can't actually do it, not in reality." Even if you can't quit your corporate job and grow your own food, slow life says you can make small strides. Carrying your own utensils like these portable chopsticks can over a lifetime save dozens of trees. A small step towards repairing a seemingly insurmountable problem. John, Kiran?

John Roberts: Beautiful setting like that, a slower life does seem possible.

Cherty: How about it. Can you imagine though trying to hand your Blackberry back. I am sorry, it’s part of my new slow life mission.

Roberts: Don't call me. I'm not available on weekends. I don’t think that would fly.