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46. GLOBAL WARMING IS HOPELESS 1: WHAT I'VE LEARNED IN RADIO - NEW OCT. 2007
My interest in, even, lightly, my research on, global warming goes back decades. But I think my definite decision to write at length on the subject goes back to the beginning of this decade, connected to my work as a radio producer. As I say elsewhere on this site, I've worked with the best talk radio has to offer. That includes major political talkers, of course, but also Ralph Snodsmith of "Garden Hotline", the finest horticultural talk show possible. A sweet, brilliant, superbly knowledgeable man, Ralph Snodsmith is also a firm believer that the idea of human-induced global warming is a bowl of crock: All climate change is natural, part of the ongoing ups and downs of Earthly existence. Our little pre-show chats on the subject moved neither an inch. The writer's fantasy: He will write a work so powerful, and so true, it will sweep all before it, all objections, all indifference, storm each doubting human fortress like a Mongol. I did finally present my work, in its bound form, to Ralph. We'd worked together for years. I thought we had...He never read it, never referred to it in a last few desultory chats on the subject. (I was hurt, not just frustrated.) Talk show host Lionel, not a liberal, not a conservative, a sort of off-the-wall but brilliant libertarian, who liked irawrites.com enough to talk about it on air, even bring me on...I gave it...never read...or referred...I was...certain regular station show guests I talked to about it, who I was sure...no interest...year after year passed...I waited for one call from the public on the subject...that call never came...I can't tell you the trivia callers have called about...sometimes with passion...crying over the passing of their cat or dog...Britney Spears...hosts continued to ridicule the idea on air...a few accepting it, but whimsically, comically (of all things) (potentially the next Black Death), then moving on...still doing "Garden Hotline"...and sometimes we do an hour on a topic...say, lawns...only lawns...we will only accept calls on lawns...we state, very clearly...the calls keep pouring in...orchids...mole problems...peach trees...the public human race wants what it itself wants...nothing else matters...I AM ALL-IMPORTANT THE ME...that message written by humanity in the stars...I want...orchids...mole problems...peach trees...SUV's...coal...air travel...do not you bother me...I have learned a lot in radio.
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