Time to end war against the earth

Very good, that is what I was asking for... There are a lot of people that run around claiming the sky is falling but neither explain why nor do they propose solutions.

With that said, I think you might for the most part be "preaching to the choir" in this forum. Most drive a Prius and most likely do some or most of those other suggestions. This family does anyway.

 

Another place we can save a lot of energy is in our buildings.
Our buildings actually use more energy than our transportation.
Luckily, some people/companies are beginning to discover that green building is cheaper in BOTH the long run and the up front costs

 

This is one of the few places I think that the government could take the lead on demonstrating the viability of this. With as many building and institutions, etc that the government owns, this could be a wonderful case study. Just replacing the lighting alone nationwide could reap big savings over x number of years... Probably already has been done to some extent.

The point is, it doesn't require huge, overbearing laws to make some real, incremental progress in this area.

 

Sadly, there are people even in this forum who believe that oil will never run out, that carbon dioxide has little or no effect on climate, and that technology will meet all of humanity's food, energy, and resource needs.

As for driving a Prius, at this point every molecule of CO2 added to the atmosphere hurts. Saying that you're "helping" by driving a Prius is like saying that you're "saving money" when you buy a car you didn't actually need because it was priced $500 below MSRP. You may be hurting the environment less than driving an SUV the same distance. But you're still hurting.

I'm just saying, let's be honest about it. The greenest among us is still pushing us towards the precipice. Does it "help" to push a little slower? No. It hurts less, but it still hurts. In order to stop damaging the environment, we'd have to adopt a lifestyle none of us (including me) is willing to adopt.

What's the solution? I have no solution. With over 6.88 billion people in the world, and increasing exponentially, I don't think there is a solution.

 

Step 1: ignore China and other developing countries
Step 2: target 100% sustainability at regional and national level, only going international if other countries come to sign up
Step 3: that's the hard bit...

AGW isn't the end of the world, that's probably a billion years away.

 

True Dat!. But it might be the end of the world as we know it!

 

There is at least one population researcher out there that sees the population trends flattening out. I forget the same of his book (just remember that he's a Brit). He was on the Daily Show several months ago, and his arguments seemed quite reasonable. It basically revolves around the fact that more and more women have the opportunity to have careers, and when that happens the birth rate really drops off. He pointed to this phenomenon occurring in Africa and S. Asia, two places that are currently driving population expansions. We'll see, I suppose.

 

That's why I hate those bloody "Save the Planet" slogans. Sod that, the planet could give a @$%# how habitable its surface is and it's not going anywhere for quite sometime. We, OTOH, ought to be careful. The slogans should be "Save our arses", not "save the planet".

 

multiply, and SUBDUE the earth.

 

Hey Wait! I thought that the world was supposed to end in 2012

Better cash out my 401k now and drink from the cup of life with both hands :tea:

 

http://t0.gstatic.com/images?q=tbn:ANd9GcQVG-gMGK-IOVdW-azrvt_0W3_NxZpacQLxCdZ8xJFK7IZhY7847w

 

It may be flattening, but +6 billion is more than the planet can reasonably sustain IMHO.

Icarus

 

Actually, the Earth has around 4 billion years to go before the sun engulfs it. But we can survive only in a fairly narrow range of conditions, and reliable agricultural production requires a stable climate with predictable rainfall on fertile soil. And while humans can survive without fossil fuel, six billion of us, closing in on seven billion, cannot survive here all at the same time without a very large amount of energy to run our machinery, and there are political and economic forces strongly opposing investment in sustainable energy for the time when fossil fuel runs out. Basically, the very old, very conservative, very self-centered men who run our economy do not want to invest in infrastructure for the next generation because they see no benefit in it for themselves. And demagogues find it very profitable to appeal to religious prejudices and ignorance by decrying scientific understanding of the present situation and likely means of dealing with it.

The sky is not falling. But every civilization collapses when it exhausts its resources. Every civilization thinks it will last forever, but no civilization ever does. Our civilization is poised for collapse as we exhaust our resources and fail to make the transition to alternatives.

Once again, you beat me to it.

 

Excellent!!!

 

Perversely, we seem to refer to death and destruction as 'wealth creation'. The economy and the environment are diametrically opposed.