Doing my part for energy conservation (merged environmental threads)

[Voltes-5]

I have heard about that report, the first time about a couple or so years ago on the Rush Limbaugh radio talk show, on the study of the Antarctica actually growing not melting. I wonder why nobody is talking about it when some newcaster report that the ice is melting due to global warming. :cool:

[Kandoo]

Have you been to the Artic, I have a couple of times. the first time i went there our ship had to brake ice inorder to get to the town, now days you motor right up. by-by ice.

[fst h2o]

Liek OMG!!!! 1 instance of there being less ice in one specific spot at a different time!!!! The world is coming to an end...

 

Edit: I suppose that was uncalled for, but one specific instance of something happening doesn't make any kind of a case for it being a trend. There are studies out that show the arctic ice-cap shifting it's center, much like the Earth's magnetic poles shift over time, thus explaining a lack of ice in one area.

 

Has anyone read State of Fear by Michael Crichton?

 

I personally don't care if the theory of global warming is true or not. I have great faith in the human race to overcome any obstacle.

 

Have you been to the Artic, I have a couple of times. the first time i went there our ship had to brake ice inorder to get to the town, now days you motor right up. by-by ice.

[KimTjik]

I personally don't care if the theory of global warming is true or not. I have great faith in the human race to overcome any obstacle.

Hm, one more believer.

 

It looks like this thread has become more of a testimony of faith than "doing my part for energy conservation".

[fst h2o]

IMO, there are already viable solutions to burning fossil fuels for energy, they are just more expensive. Eventually fossil-fuels will become more expensive than other solutions, and those solutions which are "less" harmful to the environment will start to be utilized.

[Angry_Games]

I'm still amazed that some humans actually believe that they are not causing harm to the planet....hundreds of millions of cars spewing out filth, tens of millions of factories spewing out filth...*sigh*

 

and yet some 'thinktank' puts a scientist or two in their pocket and tries to yell louder than everyone else "OMG Global Warming is a MYTH!!!"

 

yet ask any of the scientists that are involved and they'll all tell you the consensus is about 95%-98%

 

so I still scratch my head at anyone that says that 95%+ of scientists all agreeing on something STILL ISN'T ENOUGH PROOF

 

That is just pure ignorance.

 

Listen to right-wing conservative talk radio where they scream and yell about liberals and how their God is the only god and this or that

 

then poll the rest of the country

 

these right-wing nutjobs make up less than 15% of the voting public, but because they scream the loudest they seem like this giant group poised to take over the country (and they pretty much have).

 

it is the same with this global warming thing

 

you got 5% or less of the world's scientist STILL claiming that global warming isn't real (and hey, do yourself a favor and check where their paychecks/grant monies are coming from...), and because the corporations and government (oil companies/coal companies/USA gov't) that backs them has piles of money and these ultra-minority groups scream the loudest, somehow it has convinced some of you to believe their nonsense.

 

But hey, don't take my word for it. Check out all the polls of actual American citizens. As dumb as they are, more than 85% in EVERY POLL believe global warming is real, because like Americans from the good old days that could actually think for themselves, they ignore the 5% of screamers that claim its a myth and realize, like me, that when 95% of all the scientists in the world agree...then that's probably a pretty damn good indication that something is real.

 

 

Oh but a few of you screamers will try to pick apart this and say "what scientists" or claim that those scientists are not REAL scientists or they aren't weather/climate scientists etc.

 

Stick it in your yam-hole kids.

 

Because honestly...its the same as some of the . that goes on around here.

 

95% of us who are experienced and more skilled than you will ever be at PC stuff say "Don't use this psu...it is bad and can kill your hardware!!!"

 

and 5% of you rush right in and scream "bull crap I'm using a 200w version of that psu and these guys are retarded and idiots don't listen to them!!!!"

 

 

or Ntune...same thing with Ntune

 

*sigh*

 

 

we have a saying here...it only takes one idiot to ruin it for the rest of us

 

typical in society, millions of people do their thing every day and don't bother anyone...and it only takes on jerkoff to do something stupid like ingest a bunch of inhalants or something and now all the sudden the rest of the country who used the damn thing responsibly now has to suffer.

 

You see where this is going?

 

You people...are nothing but sheep sometimes. Especially when you continue to believe absolute nonsense. And you try to throw all of these 'facts' to promote your argument when your facts just don't stand up on their own.

 

 

 

 

personally, I have ZERO faith in man

 

man, by nature, is corrupt and power hungry

 

 

oh, but you say, Angry...that simply isn't true!!! Look at all the great persons throughout time!!! All the great achievements!!!

 

and I say to you

 

check this out...more people have died in WARS that were started by power hungry douchebags than all of the great humans and their achievements combined all throughout human history.

 

This is a fact you can try to spin but you cannot because it is the truth.

 

humans by nature are liars, they are selfish, and they don't honestly care about anyone but themselves.

 

You might not be like this, but you can name more people you know like this than you can name those that are good decent honest people.

 

 

You got an SUV, and you want your buddies and neighbors with SUV's to sell them and get a hybrid cuz goddamnit they are driving up the cost of gas and making pollution worse

 

but by God there's no way you are going to get rid of YOUR SUV

 

hell no

 

 

 

I have zero faith in humans. We are a rotten lot, and honestly we deserve to be wiped from the face of the earth and hopefully dolphins or some other species will evolve and take better care of the planet than we have.

 

But any species that evolves to take our place will probably face the same pitfalls and fall into the same behavoirs and traps that we have, and they themselves will end up wiped off the planet or destroying the planet.

 

 

but hey, like most of us, I shouldn't really care about global warming or anything like that because even if I live to be 100 years old, the planet will still be ok and then when I die who gives a %T@#$#@ about your kids and future generations right? We won't be around to worry about it. So lets all live for the now and drive pollution utility vehicles, lets only burn coal for power, lets run down the streets spraying CFC's into the air from aerosol cans, etc

 

 

 

 

oh

 

 

 

 

hey

 

 

 

 

remember when they first reported the Ozone layer as depleting at an alarming rate????

 

 

omg you remember that too???

 

 

I bet you don't remember the backlash about how it wasn't really that big of a deal and the companies that made CFC-based products like aerosol cans and Freon for your air conditioner etc...they didn't want to spend the money to change, and they fought and fought and fought and fought and fought hard....but they lost, and now we care about CFC's.

 

 

Problem is...we didn't have oil companies with 9 billion dollar PER QUARTER profits paying big money to mercenary scientists and thinktanks to fight the perception that their bull crap is causing a problem as bad if not worse than ozone depletion.

 

I mean, wtf...we all cared about the ozone, but these days we'd rather be bombarded with crap saying how global warming is a myth.

 

 

Unless those of you that believe this crap still believe that the ozone depletion was a myth.

 

 

 

jeez

 

 

 

you know...the earth using CFC's that depleted the ozone...there's a PERFECT case of man causing global harm

 

 

and yet

 

 

you think that we CANNOT possibly be responsible for global warming?????????

 

 

man I can't wait until I am dead. Hopefully the Netherlands or Sweden or Switzerland will let me in their version of the afterlife where people actually can think for themselves and aren't follower-sheep that believe we didn't harm the planet, believe that we didn't give native Americans smallpox infected blankets, and Christians didn't go around the globe killing MILLIONS of people for not believing in THEIR version of God (and still do at this very moment).

 

I don't want to get stuck in Stupid-Heaven where everyone is fat, lazy, can't spell or use proper grammer, and believe someone because they scream the loudest at the top of their lungs.

 

 

thas just my 2 cents tho...

[CPDMF]

I knew this going to be a good thread. Do I do all that I can? No I don't, but I will not say that people don't harm the planet. I harm the planet myself in my recreation, Although I do try to make my engines as efficient as possible and burn alternative fuels (methanol). Am I willing to give up what I love to do so you can breath easier? Not really. I don't believe in after-life either.

[red930]

Regardless of the method, combustion is still combustion. Natural gas, ethanol, you name it, it still burns to produce CO2. Last time the CO2 levels were this high on this planet...oh...wait a minute. *ahem* Last time there were high CO2 levels, this planet entered into the last ice age. Eek.

 

The temperatures are slowly rising. Notice more bugs out nowadays? Less cold winters means less mosquitos get killed, and the further north they head. Whatever, we can always find some new chemical that kills bugs, right? *sigh* I'm more worried about Greenland and Antarctica. A little melting here and there. Ok, so let's say they keep melting. Less ice in the polar caps means less reflected solar radiation (water certainly absorbs more than the ice -- which reflects a large portion of it) Less ice, more accelerated warming. And so on.

 

Where does the ice go? Uhhh...well, let's see. Into the ocean. I guess I won't be looking for any water front homes... But what about the Netherlands or Japan, or any other countries that are really close too, or less than the current sea level?

 

So, what to do, then? Well...some people have figured it out. Take BP for instance. Petroleum, right? Well, they're also the largest supplier of wind turbines. At least some people are thinking.

 

Wind turbines may be able to help a little bit, but we're still using them too little to make a whole lot of difference. Coal is still widely used in many countries as a source of power, but man does it do a number on the environment. Nuclear is becoming used quite readily in some countries, like France. Although...where do you put the nuclear waste? Maybe we can shoot into space and forget about it. Why not the moon? I mean, what do we use the moon for, right? Ok, scratch that, it's probably too expensive to piss off some aliens. We'll just put it underground. In remote locations. In a concrete chamber. *sigh*

 

Maybe we should just stick to technologies that we know how to use without lots of byproducts. Water, wind, waves even. Water's an awesome power. Take a look at Niagara falls. That station takes care of half of the power load from the entire state of NY. Granted, there aren't too many places where we can put in huge turbines. Ok, next option...wind. Wind's good. You plop a large windmill in an area that has lots of airflow and you leave it there. Voila! Power. Too bad people think they're ugly. Maybe we should paint flowers on them. Ok, so maybe that'll take a little while to work out... Waves are nice. You can use the pressure created by the swells of waves to force air through a turbine. Cool, huh? So where are these things? The technology is here (and man do we have lots of technology), but there just aren't enough willing people to make it happen. It just seems like a lot of people have a happy-go-lucky mentality that if we keep on doing the same old things nothing'll change. *shrug*

 

So, overall, what do we need? Less combustion (cars, powerplants, you name it). Less waste (that always helps, right?) More recycling (damn straight). Localized farming (let that one sink in. Good local [fresh] food that doesn't need to be shipped all over the place) I'd like to see more trains/trolley cars/metrorails/etc. Hell, run 'em off the power grid. Mass transportation has always proved useful. And where the hell are the electric cars? I remember they made some in the 90's, but where'd they go? Plug it in overnight, take it to work the next day..?

 

Ok, well, that's a little harder for the average person to do (with exception to reusing stuff/recycling more). So, then...start thinking about using less power. Compact fluorescent lightbulbs use like 13W a piece. Man, that's not much. More efficient electronics work too. Appliances with EnergyStar. Hell, even more efficient power supplies for your sweet computers. (85% vs 70% makes a difference) Even just simple things like turning off the lights when you leave a room make a difference. It may not show up quite as much on your electric bill as a more efficient washing machine, but it may help you out to subconsciously be more energy-savvy. Did I mention saving money?

 

It might take a while, but sooner or later it's gotta be done. We can't pollute and trash the planet forever. These weird things called consequences might happen. None of these changes'll happen overnight. I just ask that you think before you act.

 

//end rant

[Evil_inc]

I just replaced all of the bulbs in my basement with screw in florecent lightbulbs. Mostly due to the fact that I have the lights on all the time and they were almost all burnt out.

 

a 6 pack of 60w equivelent bulbs was under $10. They only use 14w so I save more than 75% on power and since bge just increased there rates 72% then I am still saving money! Also each bulb has a 9 year warranty (10,000 hours) and looks exactly the same as my previous lighting.

[Angry_Games]

i got to say (after all this time) that I have yet to have to replace any of the flourescent bulbs that replaced all my regular light bulbs

 

normally I would go through a 4-pack of incandescent bulbs...every other month?

[Evil_inc]

Now all I need is florecent or led lightbulbs that look nice so I can replace all of the ones in my house because almost all of the others are exposed.

[Guest nibs]

I would caution anyone who is buying florecent lights to stay away from the Lights of America brand that can be found at Wal-mart (and who knows where else) while they are less expensive then other CFL lights of the five I bought around a year ago 3 failed in less then 30 days, 1 went up in smoke in less then 60 days, and the other one (a 3-way bulb) became a 1-way bulb and then went up in smoke in less then 3 months. The two-pack of GE bulbs I bought at the same time are still going strong.