Background: I recently debated Gerd Johnsson-Latham of the Swedish Ministry for Foreign Affairs on her assertion that men are primarily responsible for global warming. Johnsson-Latham authored a 2007 study called Gender Equality as a Prerequisite for Sustainable Development.
Our debate was taped for a UK documentary called The Greener Gender. To learn more, see my recent blog posts Glenn Debates Swedish Official Who Claims Men Are Primarily Responsible for Global Warming (Part I), Part II, and Part III.
While discussing gender and global warming with Johnsson-Latham, I was reminded of some “blame it all on men” comments from filmmaker Michael Moore in his book Stupid White Men. In my column Michael Moore, You Used to Be My Hero (Fredericksburg Free Lance-Star, 2/8/04) I wrote:
“In the chapter ‘The End of Men’ from Stupid White Men you cite declining male birthrates as evidence that ‘Nature is trying to kill us off’ and that men have done ‘plenty’ to ‘deserve this.’ Men have ‘made a mess of our world. Women? They deserve none of the blame. They continued to bring life into this world; we continued to destroy it whenever we could…how many women have spilled oil into oceans, dumped toxins in our food supply, or insisted that the new SUV designs had to be bigger, bigger, bigger?…[Men] are working overtime to wipe out this beautiful, wonderful home we were given free of charge…no wonder Nature is getting rid of us.”
“On Politically Incorrect with Bill Maher you asked ‘how many women have created factories that have polluted this environment?…most of the crap in this world came from a guy” and said “[It's not] female fishermen doing all that extra fishing, ruining the oceans. It’s the men ruining the oceans. Name a woman who’s ruined the oceans.’
“The central flaw in all of these statements is so obvious I wouldn’t bother pointing it out except that it seems nobody else has. Yes, Michael, few women have created factories which have polluted the environment, just as few women have created factories which have produced the staples of modern civilization. You vilify men for large SUV designs without giving them credit for the miracle of modern transportation. You blame men for ’spilled oil into oceans’” without giving them credit for the millions of metric tons of oil which are transported by sea each year, almost all of it without incident.”
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