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Environmental concerns, preserving earth’s natural fresh water supply, land fill leakage, radioactive run-off, plant and animal extinction, habitat destruction, road construction
Today more than anytime before we are witnessing what I define as the hijacking of true environmental concerns. What now leads as the number one environmental concern I believe is motivated by greed and power and is truly insignificant compared to some I will describe below.
Preservation and Protection of the Earth's Fresh Water Supply.
This includes Land Fill Leakage, as eventually every landfill will leak.
Road construction and Road Salting.
Agricultural, Live Stock, Industrial and Radioactive Run off.
Plant and Animal Extinction.
World Wide Fishing Practices, like trawling and so on.
Do you mean Exxon's or Halliburton's Greed and Power?
The hijackers are Exxon, Peabody Coal, all the utility companies, and Halliburton who are financially supporting the lies by the extremely few scientists who are paid 'skeptics'.
The most significant concern for all civilization is climate change created by burning fossil fuels. The powerful fossil fuel companies, in bed with the president and vice president, have control over ALL decisions made by this country, including invading a country for control of their oil. This 'war for oil' has destroyed this country, both politically and financially, so that a few can become rich. We've killed thousands, maimed even more, ruined a country, and have no hope of gaining the respect of the world again. The financial condition in this country is horrendous, with skyrocketing food and fuel prices and people losing their homes and jobs. All because of this 'war for oil'.
We have the knowledge and capability of creating clean fuel, but with the powerful fossil fuel lobby worried about profits, it's not moving fast enough.
If we don't stop burning fossil fuels and reduce the rapidly increasing global temperature, civilization is doomed.
The world's glaciers are melting; where will people in Asia and South America get their drinking water? The sea level is rising, creating havoc for people living in low-lying areas. As the Arctic melts, it is creating more global heating by absorbing the sun's rays. At the poles it is heating more rapidly, creating the fear of melting permafrost, which will create more warming. The list of climate change events happening around the planet is endless.
There are many environmental issues in the world, but if you dismiss global climate change, you have your head stuck in a hole.
The most significant concern for all civilization is climate change created by burning fossil fuels.
Just curious Airedaly, how has burning fossil fuels had any impact on the temperature of the Earth's Troposphere?
Quote:
Originally Posted by airedaly
The powerful fossil fuel companies, in bed with the president and vice president, have control over ALL decisions made by this country, including invading a country for control of their oil.
Why are you so angry with the Petroleum industry? This industry employs hundreds of thousands Americans, provides you a safe and secure standard of living and helps you with your freedom to go anywhere you want to throughout the world! It also has aided in the development of wonderful drugs that help us live longer! And let's not forget that fossil fuels help prevent people from freezing to death during the winter months!
Quote:
Originally Posted by airedaly
We have the knowledge and capability of creating clean fuel, but with the powerful fossil fuel lobby worried about profits, it's not moving fast enough. If we don't stop burning fossil fuels and reduce the rapidly increasing global temperature, civilization is doomed.
What do you mean by Clean fuel? Last I knew, the gasoline car I drive is a Zero Emissions Car! Absolutely no Air Pollution!
Quote:
Originally Posted by airedaly
The world's glaciers are melting; where will people in Asia and South America get their drinking water? The sea level is rising, creating havoc for people living in low-lying areas.
The worlds 150K Plus glaciers have been melting for the last 12 thousand plus years since the end of the Pleistocene Era. This is nothing new! SUV's did not melt the glaciers! Sea levels have been rising since then as well and it is rising at a less significant rate today. Airedaly, you need to study your Geology to get your facts straight.
Quote:
Originally Posted by airedaly
There are many environmental issues in the world, but if you dismiss global climate change, you have your head stuck in a hole.
Sorry Airedaly, but I have to disagree with you on what you have written. But I did click to give you points for your efforts! Global Climate change is a mute and insignificant environmental issue especially compared to the destruction we are doing to the Earth's fresh water by dumping all of our human waste into landfills, which always leak into our drinking water supply. These new so to say Green Light Bulbs also find their way into land fills and leak Poisonous Mercury into our water supply as well!
Not until we develop the technology of fusion powered cars will there be a cost effective and safe fuel source for our personal transportation. Solar, wind, bio fuels, and fuel cells either do not provide the energy we need or just are not economically efficient! Actually today, if we wanted to save fuel costs we should be building more diesel heavy rail trains all through out our country with accessibility for all of us! We also should be exploring for more potential oil wells both on land and especially off shore like the California Coast. This way we will not be running to the Middle East for our so called Blood Oil!
One last point Airedaly, according to the National Audubon society many Wind Energy Farms Kill More Birds of Prey each year than have all the Oil Spills added together since 1995!
I always laugh when people complain about the new lightbulbs having mercury. The same people who complain about that often have NO problem tossing tons of other mercury laden products into the trash- like cell phones, computers, GPS systems, and almost anything with an LED backlit display. If people knew what kinds of chemicals they were coming in contact with every day just by typing on a laptop...
If global warming would get people off their romp and actually be responsible for themselves and their way of life, I don't care what the term is. It's easier to sell "global warming" and "green" to people who can't conceptualize the greater issues of a dwindling safe drinking water supply (which will be the greatest issue to face the 21st century, I guarantee), ewaste being shipped illegally to Asia, and other issues that generally don't affect them in the present. For the record, I think people who have no science background whipping out their psuedo-science anti-global warming schpiels are laughable but extremely tragic as well.
The biggest problem in the US is the fact that there is NO accountability towards companies or consumers for the reduction of e-waste/electrical waste. The EU has amazing laws forcing companies to have a measure in place to take back things like computers, GPS systems, gaming systems, MP3 plays, cell phones, etc so these products don't end up in the waste stream leaching off chemicals. In the US, there's NOTHING so insightful.
My environmental chem class recently did a project where each team was assigned an electronics product to research the end of life analysis. With the exception of Apple products, across the board there was little information to be found for how the consumer would recycle these products. In most cases, the most a company would say is to "safely dispose of the product in accordance with municipal regulations". These same companies in Europe will take back all of their products and recycle them for free. Americans generate more waste in general than any other country and complain about how we can't eat tuna anymore because of the mercury.. but that's largely our own fault. These products should never hit the waste stream, especially when so many components are recyclable and resources are FINITE. The EU has also banned the use of many chemicals in commercial goods. The US isn't there yet either despite the fact that most American electronics companies have completely complied with EU standards for their consumers in Europe.
I hope the earth keeps heating up just so we can see that a warmer earth is not a bad thing. A cold earth is a VERY bad thing. The very reason the earth's population has grown so much is because of 2 things: warming temperatures and industrialization. I like things the way they are if we could just learn to use our resources wisely instead of wastefully, and get rid of actual pollution in the air and not worry about CO2.
Global Climate Change will alter this planet significantly
"Global Climate change is a mute and insignificant environmental issue ," says climate voyager. He is WRONG!
He is perpetuating the myth that climate disruption will not affect civilization. Global Climate Disruption will devastate mankind. When the planet heats up 7 degrees C, there will be no way man can exist. No amount of a/c will help when there is no food and seawater has taken over our fresh water supplies. CO2 concentrations are already over 350 ppm. Are you willing to experiment with 500 ppm and see if humans can exist? It's not an experiment I am willing to proceed with. Read some of Dr. James Hansen's (NASA Goddard Space Institute) papers on CO2 levels:
If we don't insist that the world's governments cap all carbon, our children are doomed. But I guess you guys don't care. You think it's all a big joke. How very sad.
And my anger towards fossil fuel companies is deserved. Imagine someone dumping toxic waste in your house for the last 150 years and not cleaning it up. It's the same thing with carbon emissions. The fossil fuel companies have dumped crap into our atmosphere for years; they should be responsible for cleaning up the mess they left behind. But, no, they just take their $Billion profits and laugh at the world!
If this idiot president had spent the hundreds of billions of $$$$ on alternative energy instead of invading Iraq, we could have solved this problem.
500ppm would be great! I wouldn't need to buy CO2 generators for optimum greenhouse vegetable production. Keep on rising CO2!
Now if we could just figure out how to eliminate the real pollutants that cause asthma and respiratory disease, and get the chemicals and pollutants out of our waters, we would be working on something environmentally significant since it is something WE CAN CONTROL, unlike an imaginary ability to control the temperature of the planet.
500ppm would be great! I wouldn't need to buy CO2 generators for optimum greenhouse vegetable production. Keep on rising CO2!
Now if we could just figure out how to eliminate the real pollutants that cause asthma and respiratory disease, and get the chemicals and pollutants out of our waters, we would be working on something environmentally significant since it is something WE CAN CONTROL, unlike an imaginary ability to control the temperature of the planet.
Tnbound2day your point is well taken and actually it gives me hope that there may be more good thinkers and skeptics out there like you as opposed to the Pop Culture Cable News Junkies who are so easily scammed by snake oil salesmen like Al Gore and George Bush.
If these Carbon Footprint Kl Aide Drinkers would turn there attention to say "Making Landfills Illegal, or making regulations where if you make it you then must offer to recycle it! This alone would significantly help with keeping a healthy fresh water supply.
Not to many people realize that Al Gore is making $$$$$ on his little avocation. The only thing Green about Al Gore's Global Warming Movement is the $$$$ he is making off this scam with his "Generation
Investment Management Fund" AL Gore is chairman of this fund and cleverly according to their own documents, GIM intends to invest in, or buy companies poised to cash in on Global Warming concerns. Thus making tons of cash off new government programs that will use their companies and receive mega bucks from billions of tax revenues!
Many also do not realize that Al Gore benefited tremendously when the Clinton Administration gave Al Gore's invested Oil Company, Occidental Petroleum. the bid on the 3rd largest Oil Field in the United States, The Elk Hill Naval Oil Reserve field near Bakersfield CA. Gore cashed in good $$$ on this deal as well!
There is so much hot air on both sides of the CO2/global warming issue that it isn't funny.
One one side, it is absolutely preposterous to think that we can burn a good chunk of the carbon that took millions of years to sequester in the earth's crust in less than 200 years and not have it do SOMETHING to the earth's climate. What that is will be some sort of serious climatic disruption that may seriously threaten the ecological balance of the whole planet--exactly what that disruption will be may be up to theory and conjecture right now, but it's going to be something, and we probably won't like it.
On the other side, the people who love to blame the big, bad energy companies for this are looking in the wrong place. Those companies are in the business of selling energy--and they are only selling what people are demanding of them.
The real problem is people. Simply, there are too many people demanding too much, and too many people who aspire (quite naturally) for the higher standard of living. Our desire to procreate and better ourselves is having the now very undesirable effect of having such a vast impact on our resources and ecosystems that we now are threatening our own well-being. Since no one seems to have much desire to curtail either their procreation or material desires, we--as a species--are probably going to bump along our ravaging path until we pass some sort of ecological breaking point--be it global warming, resource depletion, or some other problem--and precipitate a major die-down of the human race to a level consistent with what available resources will support. That, of course, will be a catastrophic, inhumane, brutal, inglorious end to a whole bunch of people, but--sadly--probably inevitable.
The opinions about that can be pretty well divided into these camps:
1) The complete total dip****s who think this could never happen--that some sort of miracle will save us, or at least them.
2) The half-dip****s who don't think it will happen in their lifetime, or in the lifetime of their children, grandchildren, etc., etc.
3) The near dip****s who think that it is going to happen--probably sooner than most people think--but have no idea what to do that could prevent it.
So, the only real question is how, where, and how soon?
"In the long run we are all dead." -Economist Lord John Maynard Keynes
There is so much hot air on both sides of the CO2/global warming issue that it isn't funny.
One one side, it is absolutely preposterous to think that we can burn a good chunk of the carbon that took millions of years to sequester in the earth's crust in less than 200 years and not have it do SOMETHING to the earth's climate. What that is will be some sort of serious climatic disruption that may seriously threaten the ecological balance of the whole planet--exactly what that disruption will be may be up to theory and conjecture right now, but it's going to be something, and we probably won't like it.
On the other side, the people who love to blame the big, bad energy companies for this are looking in the wrong place. Those companies are in the business of selling energy--and they are only selling what people are demanding of them.
The real problem is people. Simply, there are too many people demanding too much, and too many people who aspire (quite naturally) for the higher standard of living. Our desire to procreate and better ourselves is having the now very undesirable effect of having such a vast impact on our resources and ecosystems that we now are threatening our own well-being. Since no one seems to have much desire to curtail either their procreation or material desires, we--as a species--are probably going to bump along our ravaging path until we pass some sort of ecological breaking point--be it global warming, resource depletion, or some other problem--and precipitate a major die-down of the human race to a level consistent with what available resources will support. That, of course, will be a catastrophic, inhumane, brutal, inglorious end to a whole bunch of people, but--sadly--probably inevitable.
The opinions about that can be pretty well divided into these camps:
1) The complete total dip****s who think this could never happen--that some sort of miracle will save us, or at least them.
2) The half-dip****s who don't think it will happen in their lifetime, or in the lifetime of their children, grandchildren, etc., etc.
3) The near dip****s who think that it is going to happen--probably sooner than most people think--but have no idea what to do that could prevent it.
So, the only real question is how, where, and how soon?
"In the long run we are all dead." -Economist Lord John Maynard Keynes
THis would make a great term paper!
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Do you mean Exxon's or Halliburton's Greed and Power?
