David Letterman's Global Warming Rant: "We Are Dead Meat" (VIDEO)

"We are dead meat," said David Letterman last night in the midst of a lengthy rant on global warming. He blamed a lack of leadership over the last several decades. He also said he didn't think that little steps like reusing party toothpicks or turning lawn clippings into mulch could possibly help.

WATCH the clip:

Related: Grist's David Roberts complains that Thomas Friedman, the guest on the show, failed to be interesting at all.

Who did a better job -- Friedman or Letterman?

Comments

[TekBoss]

Huff Po is screwed up (again).

Here is the link:

http://www.cbs.com/latenight/lateshow/video_player/index/php/953125.phtml

[svengalifx]

McCain/Palin '08 - 10% Maverick 90% Bush

100% Lies

[jedonspring]

love your comment!

[LogicNow]

LOVE THAT.... hope you don't mind if I use it on occasion! =)

[dadw5boys]

Simple Truths come from the strangest places.

[Davee1]

Dave's always been a pollyanna.

[drumz]

Talking about yourself again I see.

[ruddie]

Never could stand Letterman much.
But he's right. Worse than all the atmospheric damage civilization
has caused.. is the fact that we have used the ocean's as a toilet.
Dead zones are growing.. reefs disappearing... and fish stocks
being destroyed. The thing is no matter what policy's we adopt.
we have passed the threshold of being able to change it.
Future generations will suffer.

[hypnus]

The good news; we won't have to worry much longer about global warming. McCain and Palin are going to flash fry us all.

[crazylikeafox]

You might want to go out that way but I don't. Make sure those two crazies don't win this election.

[TorontoNDP]

Weird that Letterman, for all his personal carbon emissions, is the only person who, outside of climatologists, is correct on this issue. People who talk about their hybrid cars or dependence on Middle East oil are like folks talking about getting the boat bailer out on the Titanic. We could have done something about this in the mid-seventies. Those who did nothing in the past thirty years, i.e. the Baby Boomers (the same people responsible for the current 'Me First Middle Class' ideology of self that put Bush in the Whitehouse) are morally responsible.

"We are dead meat." He is absolutely right.

BTW, I don't drive (don't even have a lisence), and I don't use AC. I'm such a nerd I unplug my electronics when I leave the house. Even though it is utterly, utterly pointless.

[All57States]

Who knew David Letterman had the ability to read a book?

Seriously, why would anyone value his opinion on anything? He is a stand up comic who has a talk show, for this we are supposed value his opinion?

[MikeDu]

Are we supposed to value yours?

[adamsmith]

He should read the scientific data that shows global temperature reversed itself 10 years ago. Man made global warming is a psuedo religious cult for the brainwashed socialist.....

[KillTheMessenger]

Care to show us the temperature time series that has reversed itself?

http://www.actewagl.com.au/education/_lib/images/Sustainability/Sustainability06%20-%20Global%20mean%20surface%20temp.jpg

Please show me how you can fit a statistically significant negative slope to the last ten points.

:-)

[drumz]

bwahahahahahahahahaha
Do you have an act? Cause you're good, real good.

[BandsofBlack]

"Man made global warming is a psuedo religious cult for the brainwashed socialist"

To what ends?

[hannitysux]

Comedy is intellectual...

[NicoleAnon]

Sometimes it is and sometimes it's not.

I think George Carlin was brilliant and I did respect him but most comediens aren't reading books because they're too busy focusing on their careers. I've heard Jon Stewart does read the books when he has the writers on his show.

[OrganOfThought]

Absolutely! Some of the public people I respect the most are comedians: George Carlin (what a loss), Bill Maher, Eddie Izzard, Chris Rock, Jon Stewart and sometimes even David Letterman. There are many others.

[drumz]

Did your hero Rony Raygun ever read a book? And I do know your other hero's preferred reading, My Pet Goat.

[DaOne]

Well said Trig.

[wadda]

I'm slow, but I got it...and will use it.

[kmtb]

Shut-up, Dave. Most of live very modest lifestyles. It is you, the rich and famous, who abuse our natural resources. I do not live in a 25 million square foot house w/ two other people. How much energy does your house generate?? How do you travel, Dave? 1st class or private jet. Reflect on your lifestyle before you rant.

[drumz]

What do you know about his lifestyle? I know he commutes to work like millions and certainly not in a private jet.
You sound like a rethuglican who's against anything an entertainer says unless it's Lush, Hannity, BillO the Clown or the biggest jokster of them all Rony Raygun.

[SwingingFromCenter]

Lol I love this line of thought: "It's not MYYYYYYY fault, it's the rich and famous's fault!"

Got news for you bubba...anybody who owns an SUV leaves a bigger carbon footprint than this guy does, in all probability.

So get back to driving around at 12 miles a gallon by yourself while yapping on a cell phone and sipping on a latte that you won't even recycle.

[drumz]

Please stop the lumping of SUV's: I have a 96 Explorer with tuned exhaust and intake. I change and recycle the recycled oil every 3,000 miles, keep the tires inflated properly and the engine tuned. It has 165,000 miles on it and I get 26/21 MPG.

[Futumpsh]

Need better wording here. I OWN a SUV but I bike to work. I pollute FAR less than a person in a compact car who uses it for commuting.

But agreed, blaming the rich is a bit ridiculous.

[KillTheMessenger]

"Most of live very modest lifestyles."

Error #1. It would be correct if you had said that most people believe that they live modest lifestyles. But as a fact it simply not true.

"It is you, the rich and famous, who abuse our natural resources."

Error #2: The rich and famous occupy approx. 15% of a typical passenger plane. Everyone else is one of those with the modest lifestyles. The ratio is even worse on a highway.

"I do not live in a 25 million square foot house w/ two other people."

Error #3: Neither does anybody else. 25 million square feet are about a square mile or so. Have you ever seen a house with a square mile of living area?

Three strikes and you are out.

[philipwitak]

i didn't have the luxury of watching the televised program but i did view the clip accompanying this blog. here are my questions: what in hell is the audience laughing at? are they all idiots? is this the caliber of thinking american citizens possess?

if so, its hopeless - we are all screwed.

[karronna]

Problem is letterman supports mccain and is acting like a schoolboy with a crush about Palin. How does this fit in with ideology? Write to him and ask him.

[ShawnMichel]

Letterman is a registered Democrat, so no, your information is wrong. He has not come out in support of anybody; but it's pretty much a shoe-in he'll go for sanity, that is to say Obama.

[WillPower]

Did he mention why he keeps the studio at 50 degrees while taping the show? He says it's to offset the hot lights.

The staff usually have to wear sweaters or coats even in the summer heat. That extra energy use shows that there's another hypocrite in the global warming argument.

[MikeDu]

Are you saying Letterman's energy use during TV broadcasts somehow proves that the planet *hasn't* reached a crisis point? What has one to do with another? You don't need to be a registered pilot to recognize when your plane's spiraling down.
When my father was born the population of the U.S. was 160 million mostly rural citizens. When I was born it was still under 200 million. Now its shot passed 300 million - all jammed into cities - and continues to grow exponentially. And our mega-corporate masters in their wisdom have exported all the decent working class jobs and have already pumped the planet 2/3rds dry of its oil reserves (all burned into the atmosphere, by the way). To quote Letterman, we are dead meat.

[dadw5boys]

When the audience fills the seats the temp shoots up very fast !!!!!!!!!!!!

[KillTheMessenger]

Let's say a couple million people are watching the Letterman show on about one million tv sets. The average tv set consumes about 100W. So that's 100MW of electric power consumed by the people viewing the show.

I would be surprised if the total power demand of the studio it is produced in is much higher than a couple hundred kW.

The energy used on the AC is insignificant. That does not make it better, but it simply does not matter what the temperature in there is for the overall environmental effect.

[Opsimath44]

Ahhh, the Rockefeller Center Energy Conspiracy.

Geez, there's a conspiracy behind every rock, isn't there?

[MonoApe]

Proof? No? Didn't think so.

Just more "I'll pull this 'fact' out of my arse" to prove what I'd like to be true.

[groucho]

Thank you Dave for saying what needs to be said on national tv. Please keep talking, this country is filled with ignorant people, like the ones you noted, we have to educate. Thanks!!!!!!!

To the negatives about his cars, you don't know what he is doing in his private life, this was a good thing to do, regardless of your accusations of hypocrisy. We have to start.

[yodaveg]

OK, I'm with you Dave. Questions: How much carbon does your racing team put into the air? How many acres of grass are mowed at your house? How do you commute?

You can laugh at recycled party toothpicks. But by your logic we should all just give up. We're dead meat, right?

Well, I'm mad as hell and I'm not going to take it any more.

[Oomingmak]

Rock on, Mr. Letterman.