Yeah my idea too, that governments should be giving the good example first and hand tools for citizins to prevent global warming. Unfortunately lots of people prefer not to waste a single penny when it comes to environment friendly products or services and so are governments who often don't have environment/global warming high up on their priority list.
It is easy to say to start with administrations, but for people from developing countries (China etc), they wanted the same kind of luxuries as developed countries (EU etc) without implementing adequate policies to maintain the balance between prosperity and waste of resources... Like in China, you can't just say "we should use renewable energy" when coal or nuclear, energy sources with higher efficiency (than solar and wind and hydro power), can't even meet the demand for power for the entire country... And for developing countries, they would do anything to maintain prosperity, which means, they will use loads of chemicals for manufacture and agriculture, they seek luxuries (such as a fuel-inefficient but pretty car etc)...
Well, right now it is a serious issue as the government is setting a bad example for their citizens regarding Global Warming. As a world power, America declined to sign the Kyoto plan. We already realized that companies are abusing our gullible system, such as health insurance, and the notorious oil factories. Capitalism plays a major role in how we are reacting to this crisis. I believe the only method that stands a chance against Global Warming is by informing our younger generations, who will someday make a difference in our society.
Which reminds of an article i was reading this morning about polar bears that will be extinct bc of global warming. i feel sad for all the animals that have to suffer bc of humans technologies. We creat convenience for ourselves, yet we are killing other species. -censored
Well-written double issue of "Time" i could read a few months ago about global warming. For example about 51 things you can do for avoiding this proccess. Personally, i think that global warming is a normal periodic climatical change of Earth. In the Middle Ages climate was cooler ( f.e. there were "shops" on the Baltic Sea, then ). It's normal thing in history of our planet. There was warm period but next there was cold period. Today, human only speed up this warming. And of course our and next generation will feel it.
While it is possible that the global warming is just an overblown paranoia of natural periodic climate change of the Earth, I cannot refute the possibility that human activity on Earth, including pollution and whatnot, is causing the climatic change to pick up its pace. The result? Life forms on Earth unable to cope with rapidly changing climate and extinct, disasters, including drought, famine, flood etc on a scale never before seen (by human history anyways). And lastly, what if the "natural periodic climate change of the Earth" hypothesis is wrong? Are you, or any of us (and our descendents), willing to risk it? I personally am willing to sacrifice some personal comfort to avoid a possibly impending doom... What about you?
@ Owatari I dont think the warming used to go up to the predicted degrees and consequences foretold as it is right now. Predictions are made that by certain yrs some coastal city will be submerged in water.
I remember reading something like that in Vanity Fair (NOT the green issue, if it interests anyone to know), comparing satellite photo of current cities (I think the three were NYC, SF Bay area and DC) vs. predicted submergence according to water level (if that make any sense at all)
^ Imma gonna migrate to the mountains just to be safe. They predicted a few more cities also, but i cant recall which ones.
hiake;405177 I wanted to say that human activity is not as influential as some people / scientists would like to see. In my opinion now people can't see real dangerous results of global warming because of global stupefaction. I mean that global warming has stopped be a scientific hypthesis. Now it has become a some kind of ideology, a religion. It has become an unquestioned mediumistic fact. And thanks to it big-people can make a political career, can get some grants for researches, can promote new eco-goods. Look on Al Gore for example - new pope of a new religion? hiake;405177 As I wrote, it's depend how we interpret a term "global warming". In my perspective this hypothesis is not wrong because global warming exists since Eart has born. But I can agree that it's not at all. There is another side of this problem. How big is this human influence? We feel and we'll feel changes. But what will be this changes like? I think this submergence ( what wind2000 wrote about ) is only a prediction...of scientist who really like movie "The Day After Tomorrow". Big changes coming soon? BE AWARE? hmmm in my opinion just : not at all. But on the other side I can agree that people should do something. Becuase -as I wrote - they speed up this process. We can't stop it. We can only slow our impact. But not by listening predicition of New Commercial Nostradamus'es but do something...Do..."Do" in global way. What should we afraid of today? I think in the next years the biggest problem will be not a global warming ( really Tokyo or NY will not become "water cities", not now. Era of dinosaures didn't passed so fast. ) but problem of oil. It is a problem. Now draughts it's not a problem for Biggest. Africa is not important for them. Vanishing Maledives as well. The problem are energy resources. What BIggest of biggest and Arabian will do. PS. > sorry for not well-organized post.
While I do not deny there are a shiny crusade (and opportunists) for this debatable cause, I will not personally REFUTE the possibly truth of global warming. Human influence can be VERY big, and very long lasting. It is of course true that us humans are nothing but infinitestimally small group of organism (relative to the Earth), but as a collective, we can do more damage than we think. Water table had been reduced due to excessive extraction (and in turn, causes droughts and water shortage especially in the Middle East). Destoryed eco-systems by introducing foreign species (which in turn lack predation for population control). It is insincere modesty to think our impact on the Earth is small, the amount of resources we extract, the rate we destory (or at least alter) Earth's recuperating mechanisms such as rainforests and wildlife. From that, I would say it is denial of responsibility to say "human impact is minimal to none" Energy should not be a concern if only nations around the world invest more funding into the researches on alternative (and renewable) energy sources. Oil is an inefficient, polluting, limiting (non-renewable) energy source, it is bound to be a source of much mayhem sooner or later. On the other hand, if you ask me what would be the most sought-after resource in the next few decade, I would say it is water. Fresh water which is being extracted limitlessly, polluted without a second thought. Before anyone see it coming, we are all going die of thirst or poisoned well.
I agree. I don't see how anyone can deny the impact we have on the Earth Unfortunately a lot of nations aren't taking the issue seriously. Like I said before if it has to start anywhere it has to start with the administration. I agree. Unlike oil, which can be replaced with other renewable resources, water can't. We only have a limited amount of drinkable water and with the growing population and demand I wouldn't be surprised if there are conflicts over this important resource.
Open-minded view. But what about "crusaders"? Yes, of course. I can agree that human impact can be big...but results of it ( when we say generally about some process ) are not so fast like many people would like to see. Remember that Russian had time to avoid vanishing of Aral See. We can avoid Chernobyl etc. Making mistakes and that's way many part of Earth has become destroyed. In this way - quite fast. I can agree. In this was fast but we are talking about global warming...I mean, human activities are destructive but it's not only one resultant of global warming And of course It's not that I don't condemn human's stupidity ( foreigng species, tropical forests etc ). But we talk about global warming - it's a bit another issue.
Maybe "preachers of a new religion" describe those opportunists better? You lost me there... Would you mind explaining again? I don't want to reply with a mistaken impression of what you want to say. IMHO, global warming is just one of the results of human stupidity. While human stupidity is not the ONLY cause of global warming, I can safely say we wouldn't have to worry about it in such urgency if there was no contribution of human stupidity towards climate change (which includes forest reduction, pollution etc) Of course US is different, that nation only prospere after industrial revolution, one of the primary productions is automobile industry. US attacking Iraq for its oil reserve, you got that right, but only because economy of US is based so heavily on automobile and cars and various such things. Alternative energy source will and HAVE TO become popular once we ACTUALLY are running low on oil. Right now, every nation on the map is trying to make one last attempt to get maximum profit from this oil business with minimal investment... What can I say? It's human nature to be short-sighted. US will be suffering (and sooner or later, invade some bystanding nation with water resource like Canada) if Canada declines to export water into the US. China may not suffer as bad since their expectations of fresh water is much lower than US... They can probably survive on lesser water (as they had been doing for many years now, at least in the rural areas) I can just see a war over water resources just around the corner...
Lol, ive been gone for 2 hrs and a debate has started. Imma gonna come check it out later. @ Hiake... Wind's ark not possible at the moment: 1. Me not married 2. Dont have children 3. Backyard not big enough 4. Too poor to buy those woods 5. Im a complete idiot in the domain of building 6. Ill perish before i can complete the ark, so i better not attempt -bigsmile
@Wind> 1. Me not married 2. Dont have children I am sure the LONG time you are going to spend building the ark , you can find yourself a girlfriend/wife and sire some evil offsprings 3. Backyard not big enough We should always start small... not overly ambitious at first 4. Too poor to buy those woods You can make do with styrofoam? 5. Im a complete idiot in the domain of building Dummy for building an ark is your new best friend 6. Ill perish before i can complete the ark, so i better not attempt [/QUOTE] Don't be pessimistic, one can always hope -devil
Waiting for them...but i am not so optimistic Sorry of course...night here and my brain has almost broken down. What I tried to say it was a fact that global warming is not only caused by human. As I wrote it's only speed up. Other say, if there hadn't been the Industrial Revolution in XIX ( imagine life without factories etc. ) then integracial ( this global warming ) would have become later. But now is another. We have many factories and we speed up this process. Maybe it'll become for 100 years, maybe 1000years or maybe we have now it. What about Aral or Chernobyl. It was happen by dull ambition of politics, stupid economical politic. But ok i can agree thanks to this situation we can make global warming ( although i prefer "speed up" ) GM as a human stupidity? Hmmm in one way yes...but if we are talking only about "bad" things we can miss other "good" things ( for example techn. innovations which are made by not-eco-factories ). But i can agree that urgency is needed. You can think same...Mr. X too, Ms Y, too but what about Biggest? We're just pawns. Short-sighted. Maybe here's main point. But really ( it's another issue ) it's hard to belive that US or China or Russia want to change her mind. I am not so optimistic in this issue. You know, I don't really worry about global warming so much. Coming on philosophical area i can say that our world is changing so fast...Poland 15 years ago was completely another...I am worry about some kind of dogmatic war. Some shock which can hit even our generation. Not big water in cities but something more predictable
