Diesel as a clean fuel is just another example of the sustainable carbon-based energy era. The real advances are happening within the fossil-fuel family, not outside of it. Julian Simon is right. Human ingenuity has triumphed in market settings. We do not need central planning or carbon pricing.

The other side is just going to have to wake up to the fact that CO2 is not a pollutant but is a net positive for living things. That might be tough for those with an agenda (cap carbon to cap capitalism), but to the open minded it is the way forward to focus on real problems and get happy over modern life.

http://nofrakkingconsensus.blogspot.com/2010/02/audis-green-police-superbowl-ad.html

Cheers!

62. CMann says: February 8, 2010 at 11:10 pm
A lot of people want to believe that the greediest choice is the greenest one too. That is a major problem in a society that refuses to make hard choices and these morons are that ones Audi is tapping into. Jacob Weisberg nails them: http://www.slate.com/id/2243797/

Here are four that caught my eye:

4. Christopher S. Johnson says: February 7, 2010 at 10:25 pm
“The Audi ‘Green Police’ Superbowl ad was a dumb mistake. Why play into the fanciful fears of the right-wing paranoid set by reinforcing a fictional fascist version of society’s transition to cleaner tech? It’s was like a paranoid Libertarian’s wet dream.” ….

25. Craig says: February 8, 2010 at 1:31 am
“I’m not sure about Audi’s marketing strategy in this commercial. More interesting to me is what it may say about the public’s perception of “greens”.

Unfortunately, much of that perception is deserved. A large number of ecologically conscious people on the left seem to want to fight the climate battle as consumers rather than citizens.

I witness this daily in my hometown of Minneapolis. I see well meaning people obsess about the choices they are presented as consumers in the marketplace. Paper or plastic. Organic clementines versus the cheaper non-organic kind. Take that vacation in the Bahamas or stay home.

I don’t mean to belittle such people. All of these questions are important and we as consumers can certainly send a powerful signal based on the choices we make. And undoubtedly conservation is an important part of any real climate solution. But when a green lifestyle becomes equated with moral superiority, it then becomes self defeating. A great number of these lifestyle choices are based on economic status or political persuasion. If you have enough money, you can be green. If you are liberal, then you calculate your carbon footprint.

Many individuals on the left seem to think that being green somehow gives them an elevated status. Quite frankly it comes across as pure snobbery. And a great number of people who, for whatever reasons, choose not to be environmentally friendly are turned off by this.

The central battle is not in the marketplace. The real struggle is in the public forum. To prevent a destabilized climate we are going to need to reorganize our energy economy. Considering the forces arrayed against such change, this will be the most difficult political movement in history.

So here’s my message to many liberals: Put down the organic tomatoes. Pick up the phone and call your representative. And then ask your friend to do the same. And then confront directly the next person you hear calling climate change a hoax. Ask him if he is willing to explain to his children fifty years from now why he took an ideological stand on a non-political problem.”

43. Christopher S. Johnson says: February 8, 2010 at 10:55 am
I think there is some confusion here in this thread about what the complaint is. Its NOT that we can’t take a parody or laugh at ourselves. We can. The ad even had good comic timing. The problem is that it stokes a fire in a population that literally believes their lives are about to be taken over, ala “1984?.

52. Bud Man says: February 8, 2010 at 4:24 pm

Great you brought this up. I can see how the ad could be offensive to those of us who are concerned about all of these issues, but I also think it’s a bit of a test of our ability to laugh at ourselves. (I did.)

I think this ad is similar to other ads for this Super Bowl that were about manhood being under seige. (Note all the offenders in this ad were male.) Basically, the theme is, “in a world where you have fewer and fewer choices, you can still do the right thing, plus keep your vroom vroom vroom, in an Audi”.

I think it was a relatively gentle joke. We have to acknowledge that even the relatively minor rules and changes coming into place now are frustrating for those who didn’t grow up with them. Humor can simultaneously express and ease frustration. I think Audi managed to accomplish that here, within an American idea of what’s funny. Not bad.