Global Warming Satire

I sometimes wonder if all the debate on global warming has become a joke. Political cartoons and the media have had a significant impact on how we view the issue of global warming and global climate change. What makes the news of course are the "end of the world" scenarios if we don't do somthing to stop global warming. In "The Happening" episode of South Park shown above (1:54), illustrates how much influence the fanatics of global warming has had on pop culture. Is this what it has come down to? Easy jabs at our political leaders, late nite comics over exagerating and compartamentalizing the issue to socialsit tree hugging hippies? Global warming has been talked to death that even the global warming jokes sometimes fall flat. But why are there jokes about global warming the the first place? Popular TV shows have illustrated how global warming has been percieved by our leaders for the past eight years such as Will Ferrell's vignette on SNL. It seems everywhere you go, the topic of global warming has become today's never ending reality TV show. One of those guilty pleasure shows we just can't seem to take our eyes away from. If this is such a concerning issue, why has it become late nite fodder? Is this our way or resigning ourselves to the inevitable truth? I remember in a psychology class reading how when people get nervous they use humor as a defensive mechanism, or a way to deflect the issue by trivializing it. Well, i'm not a psychologist, but i'm beggining to feel that the media, while bringing attention to the issue, has been responsible for also decreasing the scientific message of global warming and has now become the laughing stock issue. The effects of global warming are real, and because we live in an industrialized wealthy nation where we may not feel it's effects directly, does not mean it's not happening. This article by Michael Specter who is a writer for The New Yorker writes about the impact of global climate change. The people who live in the slums of India i'm sure don't see the humor of global warming, instead they worry if the water they are drinking will kill them, or if there will be sufficient rain fall for vegetation. These are the stories that truely deserve front page exposure and perhaps then we can start doing something about global warming and stop making the issue into satire.