Doing my part for energy conservation (merged environmental threads)

[Banusflakes]

Here in the big dirty apple we get to fork over cash to ConEd every month for our electricity bill. Once when I actually read something on the bill other than the dollar amount due, I noticed something called ConEd "solutions," which allows you to choose to have your electricity come from Wind Farms and Solar Arrays owned by the ultility. My roommates and I switched to this and to be fair, it is more expensive. But it is nice to know that the energy we use comes from clean, sustainable resources. I'm sure other utility companies have similar options.

[Angry_Games]

I dont belive that we should wait around for our "leaders" to come up with a plan that may work. This is a democratic goverment and we are ruled by ourselves. It could be entirely more effective if we were to create an effictive plan and push that, rather than wait around for something to save us. It does suprise me how little motovation people have (no offense) when it comes to the matter of preventing the decay of our only home.

heh, thats why I said

 

I do my part...I can only hope others do their part while we wait for our leaders to come up with a real plan

 

because it takes all of us, not some government decree, to do our part

 

if we waited on the government, they'd come up with a plan in 23 years, that cost $233,323,433,494,593,904 and would actually allow 113% more crap into our air lol

[Angry_Games]

I'm sure other utility companies have similar options.

ya we wish this was the case...

 

here in Idaho, we have ZERO coal-fired power plants, and some good number of hydroelectric plants (which are excellent, but they create their own problems, especially salmon/steelhead spawning/fishing)

 

we are one of 4 states that does not have a coal fired power plant

 

i wish we were (states that had dirty power production) able to have a choice...ConEd sounds slightly progressive (sorta like BP is trying to become in the petroleum industry)

[red930]

OK boys and girls, it's time for the ExRoadie rant!!!

 

Rant ON

 

Global warming is real and measurable. It's happening right now and will continue to happen until the earth cycle changes to a global cooling cycle.

 

There is a great deal of science that proves that the greenhouse gasses that have been released into the atmosphere since the beginning of the industrial revolution are contributing to the temperature rise over the last four decades.

 

Since the collapse of the Soviet Union, socialist have been counting on global warming to be the next big boogie man. They are determined that there be a socialist "world" government if it's the last thing they do.

 

The "Kyoto Protocol" is nothing more than a tool to penalize the capitalist countries and reward the communist/socialist countries. All you have to do is read it and you will see the facts laid bare.

 

China is exempt from any form of emissions control in the protocol. All of Africa is is exempt.

 

Only the capitalist economic countries have quotas on emissions.

 

I smell a rat!

 

Simply put, if the U.S. government agreed to all stipulations in the Kyoto Protocol, the U.S. economy would be damaged by between 12 and 20 percent depending upon who's numbers you like. Of course we could agree to it then not implement it but that would be dishonest at best and wrong for sure.

 

As far as global temperatures are concerned, we've been in a warming trend since the last ice age. Go figure, it's getting warmer every year. Climate scientist must not talk to each other very much because they release conflicting data every year.

 

Just the other day a NOAA scientist released a paper claiming that "global warming lead to hurricane Katrina and Rita"(his exact words). A scientist that works right down the hall from him released a paper stating that global temperatures were down the last two years.

 

Guess which one made headlines? BINGO!

 

I have no doubt that the Earth will be warmer in the coming years than it has ever been. I'm sure greenhouse gasses have contributed to this warming trend.

 

The natural release of greenhouse gasses has been occurring since the first dinosaur fart. There are billions upon billions of tons of methane hydrates stored beneath the muddy bottom of the worlds oceans. That stuff was in the air at one time and will be again ,but right now it isn't so the earth is cooler than it was.

 

Global Dimming is the theory that the atmosphere is dirty keeping light energy from hitting the surface.

 

Solar Dimming is the measured output of the Sun by orbiting satellites.

 

The Earth does a pretty good job of self-regulating. As the atmosphere gets warmer, more water evaporates. This water clings to particles forming clouds. Clouds reflect sunlight causing the atmosphere to cool. Pretty neat huh?

 

Did you know that grasslands capture and sequester five times the amount of carbon dioxide than forests? Cut down all the trees and you might save the planet!!! Just kidding about cutting down all the trees. Most of them maybe? lol

 

How come the weather guy will say it was the "hottest day since 1911"? What made it so damn hot back then?

 

Then again, it is so true what Carl Sagan said "It is difficult to look critically at evidence that agrees with our prejudices".

 

Rant OFF

 

ExRoadie

[Evil_inc]

First, when forrests are cut down it is mostly for farmland now because they already have tree farms from which most of the worlds paper comes from. The farmland can be overworked because this is sometimes cheaper than rotating crops and become barron. This means no grasslands, no forrests, and no life.

BTW does anyone know if the light reflected off of solar pannels would have an adverse effect on the enviroment? Some one could easily buy 500,000 acers of land in navada with very low anual taxes, fill it with solar pannels, get an electrical line run out there by the local power company, sell energy to them for a while to pay off the solar pannels then just kick back and watch the cash flow in. (hey it saves the earth and makes you rich at the same time how bad could it be?)

[red930]

BTW does anyone know if the light reflected off of solar pannels would have an adverse effect on the enviroment?

See albedo...

http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Albedo

[ixtapalapaquetl]

On a slightly different topic...

 

One of my biggest pet peeves are "Recycling Snobs" - you know the people that flip out when you put a plastic sack in the regular garbage? The same ones who diligently fill up 5 garbage bins full of recyclable goods every week? The problem isn't recycling, it's CONSUMPTION! Open your eyes, people. Stop buying crap and you won't need to recycle!

[Evil_inc]

On a slightly different topic...

 

One of my biggest pet peeves are "Recycling Snobs" - you know the people that flip out when you put a plastic sack in the regular garbage? The same ones who diligently fill up 5 garbage bins full of recyclable goods every week? The problem isn't recycling, it's CONSUMPTION! Open your eyes, people. Stop buying crap and you won't need to recycle!

 

Im with you all the way on that one. Although I would like to have the time to recycle more often people who flip out over one thing also anoy me.

 

You can also find alternativ uses for items. such as the way i made this bawls bottle into a lamp! lol

http://i44.photobucket.com/albums/f25/carl...j90/bawlsni.jpg

[Kandoo]

ixtapalapaquetl, Thats marketing for ya. Make a big butt shiney box and put a tiny little product in it. go figure?

[red930]

Yeah, seriously. Just look at the friggen food industry. Everything's in little packets. Sure, they're convient, only at the expense of the environment. It's much better to buy everything bulk IMHO. Now, if only there was a mandate that all packaging had to be recycleable...

 

Hmm...new thought: Seeing as oil is a fossil fuel (and isn't magically appearing at spawn points or anything ) we're going to have a hard time with teh plastics when they run out. Guess packaging might fall behind on the list of priorities. My chemist friends remind me of how many things are produced with/from petroleum derivatives.

[Evil_inc]

Almost every kind of lubricant except for syenthicts, rubber, tires, tar, most plastics, duct tape, gasoline (duh), I belive the plexi glass is too...

[function8]

lubricant? what are we talking about here?