It’s about time for a needed bit of humor – which is so very hard to find when discussing the science of climate change. A St. Olaf College classmate of mine named Jeff Strate is the producer of “Democratic Visions”, a community cable access program featuring interviews, stories, satire and commentaries about and by Minnesota progressive lefties and moderates. Democratic Visions is handcrafted by volunteers from Eden Prairie, Hopkins, Minnetonka, Edina, Bloomington and other suburbs of Minneapolis.. In one of their recent programs, Jeff interviewed an alleged “Professor of Negativity”, played by humorist Jon Spayde, who does his best to help us understand the value and beauty of embracing the abundance of bad news that is right at our fingertips every day. While I am sometimes accused of seeing only the down sides of climate change (assuming for the moment that there are, indeed, some up sides), I am not, at heart, a pessimist. I would, in fact, like to see the problem of climate change be successfully addressed. Since that is not happening, however, I am also ripe for conversion to the dark side, a transition that the Professor would like to help the likes of me with. See Jeff Strate and Jon Spayde’s satirical attempt to serve this function in the U-tube video below.
ericgrimsrud 
What drives the U.S. economy is free enterprise. Can the solutions to climate change, racial unrest, and healthcare be found within the free enterprise system? I think the answer is teamwork — government and private sector partnerships. For starters, a tax on carbon would speed up the private sector’s faith in green energy investment.
By: David A. Grimsrud on August 13, 2016
at 12:28 pm
It seems you don’t have many fans left other than brother Dave and I. The video above was excellent although somewhat dated by the fact that Kasich was mentioned as a candidate for the GOP presidential nomination.
What I loved most was the characterization of Republicans as “Negative” given that they have in their feeble way opposed the enlightened Democrat administration.
Barack Obama has been in charge for over seven years but somehow he is not responsible for:
* Setting race relations back 30 years.
* Putting a target on every policeman’s back.
* Leaving Iraq open to a takeover by ISIS/ISIL (the JV team).
* Wreaking economic havoc at home:
http://republicbroadcasting.org/news/obamas-real-legacy-in-9-charts/attachment/image-2-2/
[Response from EPG: Galloping, I did not realize that it was Republicans who were being cast as the negative ones in this video – that is, the Chicken Little gang among us who think the ski is falling. If so, thanks for the insight.]
By: gallopingcamel on August 14, 2016
at 7:57 pm