Question Earthority!

“Is the analogy ‘appropriate?’ No doubt there will be a great deal more huffing and puffing on that question, which ultimately has no answer. To me it seems more fruitful to think carefully about what the analogy does and doesn’t mean, and what’s it’s trying to do. Why do we judge the Holocaust unique in history? It’s not the sheer number of deaths — there are episodes of human history in which more people died in a shorter period of time. Stalin and Mao killed more people. Wars and diseases have killed more. What gives the Holocaust its unique place in history is its origin in the deliberate intent of a single person and the chilling industrial efficiency with which that intent was carried out. What’s notable about global warming is that you get the industrial efficiency and the horrific result without the intent.” (11/26/07)