The Environment

[roquefort]

"Thanks for correcting me there. I must have read the article wrong."

 

No sweat. I did electronic engineering at degree level and electrical machines were part of it (and I really should have remembered that `rotor' is a term usually applied to AC motors rather than DC BTW, but the principle is the same).

 

Electric motors make a lot of sense (and have for a long time) for electric traction in situations where the vehicle has to start quickly, then keep up a reasonably constant speed, for example trains or trams. For cars it's a lot more complicated, since you have lots of slowing down and speeding up in traffic, sudden accelerations and braking and so on. Hopefully these obstacles will be overcome.

 

Of course electric motors aren't really prime movers -- the power has to be generated somewhere else, e.g. a power station burning whatever (and the same applies to hydrogen as a `fuel').

[t3hf4ll0ut]

I find Global Warming to be utterly ridiculous. If global warming happens to occur, it won't be for another hundred something years. By then we will (hopefully) discover this whole GW shinaniganz. Even so, I will not be alive then. I don't care. That will be their problem.

[Orchidea]

i dont really care. I won't be hanging out when/if the climate change is noticeable.

ill just concentrate on the NOW and the women. k thx bye

[antonkr]

I find Global Warming to be utterly ridiculous. If global warming happens to occur, it won't be for another hundred something years. By then we will (hopefully) discover this whole GW shinaniganz. Even so, I will not be alive then. I don't care. That will be their problem.

BRAVO

[UncleRoe]

the problem with global warming is that nobody does care.. they all say,give it another 100 years,by then i'll be dead and we will be technologically advanced enough to fix it.. then 100 years down the line..some bloke..probally of the same ancestory says " give it another 100 years"

 

It's very real.. unless you have another excuse for entire glaciers disappearing..oh and the water mass expanding..entire coastlines being swallowed up.. one i live near on that note,mountainous landscapes being turned into barren valleys..but it's ok cause we can always leave it to our childrens children to take care of it for us..

 

 

 

"why do today what someone else can do tommorow"... /lame

[IxionInc]

Nobody does care at the moment, till it creeps up their ankles and bite them in the rear.

 

The probably think Global Warming isn't an issue, since by the time it really gets bad, they will have colonized the moon and mars, and they'll just clamber into the little rocket ship, and go their merry way...

[JamesTJ]

1 Solar activity has an effect on the climate: http://zebu.uoregon.edu/~soper/Sun/cycle.html

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

http://geography.about.com/od/learnaboutth...ilankovitch.htm

 

Here's a snippet from the end of one article:

 

The amount of UVB light at 300 nm reaching the Earth varies by as much as 400% over the (11 year) solar cycle due to variations in the protective ozone layer. (...). During a solar minimum, the decrease in ultraviolet light received from the Sun leads to a decrease in the concentration of ozone, allowing increased UVB to penetrate to the Earth's surface. The sunspot cycle has been implicated in having effects on climate, and may play a part in global warming.

 

 

2 The Earth's magnetic field changes over time, and plays a big role in solar radiation penetration to the surface of the Earth. http://dsc.discovery.com/news/2009/01/13/m...ld-climate.html

 

 

So: is the Earth warming? - yes.

Are humans the sole cause of it? - no

Are humans even the major cause of it? - probably not, and arguing to what degree humanity is at fault solves nothing.

Can we stop it? Even if all 6 billion of us dedicate ourselves to working at it 10hrs/day 365days/year? - not unless we figure out how to manipulate the magnetic field of the Earth, or move our planet further from the Sun - and despite some recent Hollywood movies manipulating the core of the Earth, that's just not even remotely possible.

What can we do? - don't consume more than you need.

 

Alternatively we could do all we can (which is: not much) to encourage volcanic activity - like in 1816, when Mt. Timboro (or Tambora) erupted, causing a volcanic winter. http://www.hornpipe.com/ba/ba13a.htm or http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Year_Without_a_Summer

 

The volcanic winter DID cool the Earth, with recorded effects for more than 5 years - (and killed several hundred thousand people world-wide.)

 

3 As one who has participated in writing applications for research grants - I can tell you honestly - you don't get the money if you don't have a good reason to make the grant source WANT to give it to you.

 

Fear of (X) frees up money to do research.

 

Whipping up fear of (X) to get more money is a despicable act, but some people do it.

[del1diablo]

Alternatively we could do all we can (which is: not much) to encourage volcanic activity - like in 1816, when Mt. Timboro (or Tambora) erupted, causing a volcanic winter. http://www.hornpipe.com/ba/ba13a.htm or http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Year_Without_a_Summer

 

The volcanic winter DID cool the Earth, with recorded effects for more than 5 years - (and killed several hundred thousand people world-wide.)

 

I got a better suggestion, lets stop playing ignorant gods and start doing someting. The volcanic solution sounds like an extreme solution that might get out of hand, its not someting we should depend on at all.

We could start by enforcing simple rules:

• Enforcing somewhat realistic(as in doable, but just barely) pollution caps for ALL factorys(and similar) across the world
  
• Add on a tax thats actually directly spent on research on how to reduce the pollution
  
• Cars that spews out over X, may not be sold nor traded legaly, add on a decent scrap pawn for cars older than some age
  
• Etc.........
  

 

For the note: Pollution tax without anything is just an excuse to get money for the goverment is similar organ, if the money takes by that is not forced onto research and similar to do someting its even worse.

 

Humans are not the sole cause for global warming, but we are DOING someting are we not? We did not start doing anything til about 1800's, then we had a revolution in tecnology. We started to really burn of coal, wood, and all that good stuff. And we barely did anything to reduce it. We have seen smog, toxic air in citys, green rain, and worse. This revolution was Europa and after that spread over to other parts of the world, the industrial revoltuion. A problem is that 3rd world countries just start doing it and just increases the amount we pollute, or daughter companys from capitalistic countries of to 3rd world countries mining out the county along leaving it in a pollute pile of poo when there is nothing more left.

 

3 As one who has participated in writing applications for research grants - I can tell you honestly - you don't get the money if you don't have a good reason to make the grant source WANT to give it to you.

 

Fear of (X) frees up money to do research.

 

Whipping up fear of (X) to get more money is a despicable act, but some people do it.

 

:thumbsup: I'm with you on that one.

 

As long as we have the need for consumer goods, environmental destruction will not stop.

 

Sadly i agree............. But we can atleast stop doing the ridiculess, like always make new instead of resirculation a bit of it and simillar.

[Skotte]

<snip>

I got a better suggestion, lets stop playing ignorant gods and start doing someting. The volcanic solution sounds like an extreme solution that might get out of hand, its not someting we should depend on at all.

We could start by enforcing simple rules:

• Enforcing somewhat realistic(as in doable, but just barely) pollution caps for ALL factorys(and similar) across the world
  
• Add on a tax thats actually directly spent on research on how to reduce the pollution
  
• Cars that spews out over X, may not be sold nor traded legaly, add on a decent scrap pawn for cars older than some age
  
• Etc.........
  

<snip>

 

As an American I can see that a lot of people would be up in arms if their classic cars were suddenly rendered illegal to buy or sell (I wouldn't want classic car shows to be the 21st century speakeasy's) so I'd propose incentives for owning green machines (insurance & government refunds) as well as establishment of green alternative and conversions through the current automotive venue

 

I'd also think that water treatment facilities & hydro-electric dams should be retrofitted to be able to handle hydrogen production for vehicular use.

[Neuri]

How about a massive investment in public transport?

Using an alternative to ye olde infernal combustion engine?

Bicycles?

Horses?

Banning one person car travel?

Making polluters reprocess their waste?

Banning non-full airline traffic?

Localised food resourcing?

 

Whatever we do, however we do it; Planet Earth will get along fine, with us or without us for the next 4 billion years or so.