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Yes I realize that. About the use of the land being deforested, I mean. I like to discuss the facts of environmental issues but truth be told, I do not have a strong opinion about what we should do. I used to, but I have become cynical about the whole thing.
We have the reasoning ability to see the problems we cause but due to a variety of issues, from basic human needs (like food) to just outright greed, we do not seem capable of living in a way that is less damaging to other species, to the planet, and ultimately to ourselves. I see no evidence that people will change; this is just who and what we are. So I pretty much just live with it. I like to post the facts that I see, mostly basic science stuff, and try not to get too opinionated on what we should do.
Simple lifestyle choices can have a huge impact and cost next to nothing... might even save.
Case in point...
I grew up in a family that was always environmentally conscious... as a child it was my job to take the aluminum rings off the necks of bottles so the glass could be recycled.
My Grandparents come from generations of a small Dairy Farm and they did not even own a can opener... only bought staples like whole cloth, sugar, coffee... etc... Grand Dad never had a soda in his life... but I digress.
For 30 years I have managed residential rentals in Oakland CA... garbage, trash is always a problem.
My family could go several months and not fill a standard residential 30 gallon trash can... I have tenants and a 96 gallon weekly service is not enough... the cans overflow...
Christmas is particularly a bad time... mountains of trash left over from all the plastic made in china toys... almost to a certainty it will all be tossed away over the coming months... even bicycles needing only a tire pumped up or a chain adjustment are put out for collection... it really does boggle the mind at how much trash some generate.
I was 17 years old before I tasted my first soda... it just didn't exist growing up... I've actually had to deal with problems with residents because a full garbage bag over a month of aluminum cans disappeared... flats of Soda consumed as a staple...
Which gets back to my point... just how hard is it to separate recyclables from trash on collection day or better yet think about it when buying in the first place?
President Carter said wood IS America's natural resource a tax policy provided tax credits for installing wood stoves and inserts... it was the patriotic thing to do and now in the SF Bay Area is prohibited and those with grandfathered units are looked down upon as scofflaws.
You said "Most of that mercury in your soil probably came from China. "
Of the anthropogenic sources 1/3 comes from the US based on "recent estimates" according to your source it said NOTHING about the amount coming form China specifically. Meanwhile, as of the mid 90s it was 60% of the anthropogenic mercury in the global reservoir came from the US. As soil mercury (typically divalent) tends to be inorganic, it has a long residence time, meaning it has been there for years, much of it being there since before agencies like the EPA forced the coal industry to begin limiting the amount of Hg.
So no, most of the mercury in the soil in the US did not "come from China". If you cannot admit you were fibbing when it comes to things like this, why should we trust anything you say.
I don't know... one log can provide heat for a season... it certainly took 40 to 50 years to grow.
But when a tree is blown over in the forest the area almost immediately springs to life in the new found sun... Blackberries seem to grow at an alarming rate as do wild grasses etc here in the Pacific Northwest... maples propagate quickly and 4' a year is typical.
My friends lived overseas in a bamboo forest and the growth rates of the bamboo forest was astonishing...
Wait, are you trying to say plants can grow as quickly as wood burns?
Are you also saying that wood decays at the same rate it burns?
NO... I'm saying I don't keep a fire burning 24 hours a day for 365 days a year.
I'm saying the wood I use is storm fall... never harvested from living trees.
I'm saying it may take me an entire year to burn the wood from a single log and in that entire year rapidly growing plants have taken it's place.
Of course it has long been Public Policy to let wild fires burn unless homes are in danger... the environmentalist have said wildfires are part of the Natural Order and even required for some plants to germinate... I was in Yellowstone when the decision was made to let fire consume vast area of the National Park...
Yet... when I want to have a small fire on my EPA Certified stove on a cold winter night it is me that is the problem???
NO... I'm saying I don't keep a fire burning 24 hours a day for 365 days a year.
I'm saying the wood I use is storm fall... never harvested from living trees.
I'm saying it may take me an entire year to burn the wood from a single log and in that entire year rapidly growing plants have taken it's place.
Of course it has long been Public Policy to let wild fires burn unless homes are in danger... the environmentalist have said wildfires are part of the Natural Order and even required for some plants to germinate... I was in Yellowstone when the decision was made to let fire consume vast area of the National Park...
Yet... when I want to have a small fire on my EPA Certified stove on a cold winter night it is me that is the problem???
This is a long thread, someone said burning trees is the biggest issue with carbon output?
Do you not see the dangers of fracking and other forms of pollution ? Don't you want clean land, air, and, water for your children ? How would you protect that without the EPA?
We survived 10,000 years without the EPA.
Life will go on without regulating the water in puddles and ditches.
This is a long thread, someone said burning trees is the biggest issue with carbon output?
Heating with wood came up and I can see where a Trump Presidency could roll back the EPA on this.
I've got more wood than I know what to do with... most just rots away... have never sold any but giving away much over the years and a lot went to seniors/low income households.
Which gets back to my point... just how hard is it to separate recyclables from trash on collection day or better yet think about it when buying in the first place?
Which illustrates my point - it is not hard at all but many people simply don't care enough. It takes a carrot and stick (like exorbitant trash pick up rates and refunds on recyclables) to get people to do what is basically a good thing. But then people complain about big government passing too many draconian laws. We should do those things that make this planet better because it is the right thing to do, not because someone made us do it. But people won't, and that is why I am cynical about the whole thing.
Can you tell me what the exact proper temperature of the earth should be? Thank you in advance.
A proper temperature of earth? There is no such thing by earth standards, only by some humans' personal standards of what they think would be ideal temperatures for themselves in their own personal locations.
Perhaps you should re-phrase your question to be more specific about whatever it is you're trying to understand about earth.
We survived 10,000 years without the EPA.
Life will go on without regulating the water in puddles and ditches.
We lived 10,000 years without penicillin and the development of antibiotics (or some did).
Should be go back on that as well?
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