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So let us see. You say you care about the environment yet you use electricity, oil, plastics and heavy metals? Hmmmmm......
The problem is that I do not have a lot of money to afford many of the expensive green alternative products . I want to but I have to do the best I can.
So far the ice cores can only provide us a glimpse into the Eemian warm period. But we can already tell that Eemian climate was significantly warmer than the climate of the current Holocene interglacial - probably about 5°C warmer.
Previous Inter-Glacial Periods were much warmer than today.
The question you should be asking is, "Why is it cooler than normal?"
Practice what you preach.
Environmental damage doesn't stop at borders. The Arctic has environmental damage that has drifted up from South America.
Also, for deniers of global warming, expecting states to take care of it is ludicrous. If one denies, then no govt will do anything. Even if one accepts the settled science, states don't have the money and oversight necessary to handle some things. Then they'll go running to the EPA. Big oil spills and accidents damaging the environment, damage from a neighboring state's activities, etc.
Then if a big corporation has to be sued to stop activities, or sued to clean up damage, that's too large a task for states to handle. It's very costly, requires a large staff, and takes years. Only the fed can handle some of those things.
State politicians are reliant on voters who get money from state activities. They can't be expected to clamp down on those activities, or the politicians will lose their jobs.
The country has an interest in the WHOLE country following environmental rules and policies. Damage to the Gulf affects ALL the states along the gulf. Air pollution drifts over to the rest of the country.
The likelihood that the collective understanding of anthropogenic climate change will change is very high, but it doesn't mean that it will be disproved. I think that's where you and I will begin to disagree.
The will try mightily to dismantle the EPA but some of the clean air and clean water rules that govern have been codified by Congress into laws in a way that will make it impossible for them to easily get rid of all regulation.
Nobody is going to dismantle the EPA and any law can be changed by Congress assuming it's Constitutional. It's going to be much easier than that anyway, the things Obama likes to point to as accomplishments whether it's environmental policy or the Iran deal were done unilaterally. The quote is "I've got a pen and I've got a phone." Because he has not worked these things through Congress they are just as easily undone by Trump with his pen and his phone. Obama has no one to blame but himself.
I have read that the US has such a large supply of coal that it could meet all of our energy needs for a very long time but that there is really no way to make coal clean enough to avoid polluting the air like they have done in China.
This is not well known but a lot of the pollution in Chinese cities is from residential heating. Controlling pollution form a few large sources is expensive but doable, controlling it from 100's of millions of small sources is impossibly expensive and impractical.
This was never much of issue in the US because we have/had Northeastern Pennsylvania anthracite coal for residential heating. It's expensive to mine and is still primarily used for home heating, other uses include water filtration as a replacement where sand would be used. Production and it's use started to decline in the 20's as oil took over but it would have been used in cities all over the eastern part of the country in particular the eastern seaboard. You can find pictures of places like Pittsburgh covered in coal smog but that is industrial pollution from soft coal.
Anthracite is nearly pure carbon, it produces no soot when burned. China does not have the anthracite reserves to do that. They are using a very low quality soft coal.
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Your name suggests you know a lot about coal.
I try. My username comes from long line of coal men. My Great Grandfather delivered coal to residential homes with horse and wagon, I was fourth generation in that business up until about 2006 but I wasn't using a horse and wagon. The Oil man, the gas man, the coal man.
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I found an article that discusses the different new ideas they have for making coal cleaner in the future it discusses pulling the co2 out of the coal and storing it.
That is going to be expensive and you need to store it until some other tech comes along to utilize it. I would suggest it will not happen. Industries are always trying to find a way to capitalize on their waste stream and that is probably what will happen here. For example CO2 captured from a fossil fule plant can be used as feed stock for algae based bio fuels, this effectively removes the CO2 emissions from the power production end of it.
There may be some other tech that comes along. Lawrence Livermore laboratory recently demonstrated an accidental discovery they made where CO2 can be converted directly in ethanol using nano technology. If it can be scaled it's a game changer,
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I also feel bad for the coal miners because of the diseases the job can bring.
Black lung is a disease that can affect anyone working in industry where a lot of dust is present, they have addressed these issues. As underground mining diminishes in favor or surface mining it becomes even less of an issue.
Last edited by thecoalman; 11-11-2016 at 08:31 AM..
State politicians are reliant on voters who get money from state activities. They can't be expected to clamp down on those activities, or the politicians will lose their jobs.
And in what alternate universe is that not an even bigger problem at the federal level?
I can respect this. Perhaps it's not the science as much as what we intend to do with the observations and data we have collected.
A great example that I can think of is chimneys. I live in a New Urbanism inspired development based on conversations shared during the 1992 Planet Summit in Rio de Janeiro. It's not quite worked out as intended, but I think overall it's a better style of community than most. Property values would demonstrate this...
In any case, after the first few years into development they banned the building of chimneys. Only a very small percentage of homes have real ones. Everyone else has these crappy natural gas inserts that I can't stand. They're ugly and inefficient at heating. Meanwhile I know of people without these kind of housing restrictions buying these improved wood stoves that burn and capture in a way that make them safe for the environment. One of my favorite personal finance bloggers, frugalwoods, was recently talking about firing up hers for the first time this season. It's awesome looking.
Now that the Republicans have taken power and have control of Congress, the presidency, and soon probably also the Supreme Court how do we protect our environment? I assume they will now attack clean air and water regulations and allow companies to pollute all they want to . What can we who care about the environment do to continue to protect it when those who make the rules do not?
SERIOUSLY, what have you done in the past two weeks outdoors to plant trees and remove invasive species as part of protecting our environment?
As an conservationist, I actively work to protect and preserve the environment where I live in Louisiana.
However, I do not blame or ask others to do this work. The government is not here to protect our environment.
SERIOUSLY, what have you done in the past two weeks outdoors to plant trees and remove invasive species as part of protecting our environment?
As an conservationist, I actively work to protect and preserve the environment where I live in Louisiana.
However, I do not blame or ask others to do this work. The government is not here to protect our environment.
We the people protect the environment!
I would have to drive in order to go plant trees somewhere. I do, however, pick up trash when I'm in my neighborhood and unfortunately there is a LOT of trash being thrown around the retail centers and park and ride. When we're really in the mood we pick it up and dump it at the door of the HOA.
Now that the Republicans have taken power and have control of Congress, the presidency, and soon probably also the Supreme Court how do we protect our environment? I assume they will now attack clean air and water regulations and allow companies to pollute all they want to . What can we who care about the environment do to continue to protect it when those who make the rules do not?
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