Canadian Newspaper Asks ‘Is Al Gore Bad For Your Mental Health?’

February 23rd, 2007 10:04 AM

This one is too good, folks, and requires all liquids, combustibles, and sharp objects to be safely stowed. Everybody ready? Good.

An article in Thursday’s Toronto Star deliciously began (emphasis mine throughout): “Is Al Gore bad for your mental health?”

I’m sure that question is a simple one for most conservatives. However, this issue appears more complex – and hysterical – for Canadians:

The message of environmental destruction being delivered by Gore – and a host of others in recent months – is proving too much to handle for some who feel helpless controlling the forces of nature.

That's only the beginning, folks. This gets much better:

Tears. Sleepless nights. Rage. They're all part of a thought-provoking anxiety over the environment that's being likened to the feeling many had a half-century ago when nuclear war appeared imminent.

Unbelievable. The media, almost certainly led by soon-to-be-Dr. Al Gore, are fomenting so much fear about this issue that it’s approaching Cold War hysteria. Unfortunatey, I’m not sure that there are any bomb shelters strong enough to prevent this absurd message from getting in. Regardless, the article continued:

"Sometimes I do cry and I don't think I'm the only one," said Jenny Greenop, 23, an environmental studies and biology major at the University of Toronto, when asked about her views on the state of the planet.

"I always joke that as soon as we enter into this program we should be given a good dose of Prozac because a lot of the conclusions are kind of depressing and suggest solutions are beyond our control."

Sadly for Canadians, one of the primary causes of this depression was in their country yesterday spreading more doom and gloom:

Gore, the former vice-president of the United States and environmental visionary, was here yesterday to headline a symposium on global warming. Demand for a seat to his Convocation Hall lecture crashed the U of T's ticket website with 23,000 hits in three minutes – testimony to how hot he is.

One mother, unable to get tickets to the show, called U of T and lamented that her daughter, a high-school student, has been unable to sleep since seeing Gore's An Inconvenient Truth and hoped seeing him live would make her feel better.

Look at just how far this nonsense has actually gone:

For others, particularly young people, there's deep anger that even though the message of global warming has been in wide circulation for more than a decade, governments, including our own, have not only done nothing but have actually deepened the problem, said psychotherapist Eimear O'Neill.

"There's an anger and a rage," said O'Neill, a self-described passionate environmentalist and U of T lecturer whose practice includes the link between ecology and personal as well as communal transformation. "They're asking what are the people doing who are supposed to be protecting us.

"I think it's more than anxiety. I think it's terror."

O'Neill finds similarities between the way people feel today about global warming and the threat of nuclear war back in the 1950s and early '60s "because it's a human threat to life and the environment."

Unbelievable. But, it gets worse:

Education experts have coined the term "ecophobia" for the feelings of dread and helplessness some children experience when confronted with dire messages about the planet's environmental collapse.

Bombarded with lessons about the destruction of the rain forest, disappearing species and a melting polar ice cap, some researchers fear today's youngsters are being overwhelmed by the prospect of environmental disaster.

Absolutely amazing. And, it’s guaranteed to get worse before it gets any better.

This raises a pivotal question: Can anybody save the planet from Al Gore and his Global Warmingists?