Re: I'm Melting!!!

Mike Brown24/07/2006 12:38

I have hope that reason will prevail over the current
ignorance, denial , and greed.
D

Sorry Dar, I don't share your optimism.
MJRB

Hmmm me too Mike. If you'd asked me 30 years ago, I'd have said the USA
would likely lead the world on many environmental issues. I was wrong.
There did seem to be an acute awareness and the will to make changes amongst
the younger generation back then.

I'm rather pessimistic about today's lack of awareness on all sorts of
issues: climate change and human impact on it from fossil fuel burning;
reduction or control of all other greenhouse gasses; water conservation,
forest fire prevention; deforestation; over fishing; land grab and
development, finite resource and waste management, reclamation and recycling
and a myriad of other environmental issues.

But without the USA taking part - or better taking the lead - we will go on
collectively destroying the planet and ultimately make a great deal more of
it virtually uninhabitable. The world's richest country is one of the most
technically advanced, but also itself the biggest burner of fossil fuels and
the biggest global polluter - so there is a real need for the USA to take a
lead. That's not to say that Europe and Japan - in particular - and others
should not also take radical steps to control burning and reduce emissions.

The deliberate spreading of misinformation about global warming (why is this
stuff coming almost exclusively from the USA), is a crude way to undermine
attempts to reach any global policy of reducing carbon emissions amongst
other things. It does undermine attempts to bring the growing economies of
nations like India and China on board and to act responsibly in this
worldwide joint goal. Why should they bother?

Aircraft pollution in this regard is immense. Aircraft get us thousands of
miles fast - at speeds of 500 miles an hour - but at what cost to the
environment? They use even more massive amounts of fuel and even more for
take-off! Although today's jet airliners are hugely more fuel-efficient
than early passenger jet engines, the numbers of aircraft and flights
proliferate and contribute markedly to adverse climatic change.

It is a sobering thought for instance that a large jet airliner carrying say
250 -300 passengers across the Atlantic) produces as much airborne pollution
(carbon monoxide, carbon dioxide, nitrogen oxide and sulphur dioxide etc) as
each and every one of those passenger's private motor vehicles would produce
in a full year ! The Kerosene fuel itself has not changed for 40 years.
Other fuels or mixtures would be less harmful... so why are we not using
them?

We burn more and more oil, gas and coal than ever before on a global scale.
We also waste more energy on a global scale than ever before. Bright lights
burn in our towns and cities while we sleep. Billions of kilowatts wasted
for what? We still drive around in big gas guzzling vehicles; we watch the
decline of environmentally friendly rail travel for both passengers and
goods transport and see the proliferation of more heavy polluting trucks on
the road in its place...

Yep there's a downside to today's cheap flights and cheap fuel for sure.
Well be all long dead, but our descendents will surely curse us in our
graves as they wake up to another day of record temperatures, food and water
shortages and power failures and oil and fuel shortages. Their descendents
in turn will likely suffer from even more problems - increased exposure to
radiation, skin and other cancers, food and water shortages... The wake up
call has long since passed.

It's more than sad, because the stupid, short-sighted greedy people
spreading this debunking nonsense won't be around to answer for their crimes
when the *** really hits the fan on this planet in the current and next
century. To paraphrase IIRC a former US President - *We ain't seen nothin'
yet !* But our great grandchildren will see it and suffer because of our
selfishness and greed.

CR

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