Ouch.
That’s right, I said a corset. Because while the rest of us move into the 21st Century, Bill Hobbs, press flack for the Tennessee Republican Party is still living in 1909.
What else could explain his lambasting of “Earth Hour” as “the latest environmental wacko campaign?”
Bill says:
On average, life expectancy from birth for the average American has increased 120 days every single year since 1870. The American life expectancy has skyrocketed from 47 years in 1900 to 78.1 years in 2006. One of the contributors to rising life expectancy: refrigeration, made possible by electricity. Energy usage also makes possible better housing, better healthcare, safer transportation, etc.
As author Indur M. Goklany noted in his book, The Improving State of the World: Why We’re Living Longer, Healthier, More Comfortable Lives on a Cleaner Planet (Amazon: $15.56), our increase in life expectancy in the 20th Century was very much related to America’s rising prosperity, which itself was fueled in large part by coal and fossil fuel consumption, including burning coal to generate electricity.
Typically conservative mindset – what was good for us in the early 1900s must be good for us now. Stop! Don’t change a thing! Because you must admit, child labor does keep the kiddies off the street. And women, you’re so over your voting rights anyway, right? Not to mention your career and your ability to own property. Jim Crow got it right, building codes and food safety laws are a bunch of hooey, and hey, who needs that radio you people are so fond of?
Bill thinks that it’s a sad irony that “liberals of the early 1900s pushed such programs as rural electrification and the creation of the Tennessee Valley Authority to improve the lives and economc prospects of millions of Americans…but today’s liberals are urging people to turn off the lights and turn their back on prosperity.”
The real sadness lies in Bill’s backwards thinking. As much as conservatives would relish the chance to revisit 1909, we can’t go back. The world is in a constant state of change and the decisions we make to address these changes should be based on current scientific information and what’s best for us now, not on what was best for us 100 years ago.
So we joyfully move ahead with tomorrow’s “Earth Hour,” because its very existence defines what we do: advocate for better conditions for everyone – not just a select few.
UPDATE: Bill is not alone in his arrested development. Hiya, Krummy!
UPDATE II: Who’s the most anti-environmental state legislator? A member of the TNGOP, of course!
[...] I suggested before that if you liked the dated views of the Tennessee Republican Party and their spokesantediluvian, Bill Hobbs, then you shoulda put a corset on it. [...]
[...] Slap a Corset on Bill Hobbs And Call it a Day That’s right, I said a corset. Because while the rest of us move into the 21st Century, Bill Hobbs, press flack for the Tennessee Republican Party is still living in 1909. What else could explain his lambasting of “Earth Hour†as “the latest environmental wacko campaign?†Bill says: On average, life expectancy from birth for the average American […] Read more… [...]
[...] of taking the high-road, said he sees it as an opportunity to have a conversation. (We say, just slap a corset on [...]
I’ve got it! Now I understand. Since there was progress made from the Industrail revolution.. It’s all good!! Well time for a snack, think I’ll have an apple,nah an orange, hell what’s the difference
At least if he is a dinosaur, he may end up fossilized in some of his precious coal some day.
Bill Hobbs is a dinosaur.
sometimes, going without something makes you more grateful for it, and less likely to take it for granted. that’s what Earth Hour is all about. we need to be conscious consumers.
Bill Hobbs is just doing his best to reject Lamar Alexander and the national Republican party’s call for conservation.