----Global warming----

[Rodion Romanovich]

As ever, we are being told to cut down on petrol and energy, as people tell us if we dont we are going to be swimming down to tesco's in our hot wet mess...


I just want to see your opinions on the matter

Whether the americans are killing us all by driving their SUV's around their 'rugged off road boulevards'?

or if it is a load of hogwash and a natural process?

Personally I vote for a happy medium, being slightly annoyed at the US and their love of SUV's around urban areas, and thinking it may be semi-natural

But the earth is definately changing..

That's about my view too. We're passing the point where our effects go from being of minuscule proporiton compared to natural processes to being the major heating effect on earth.

What we need is restrictions and control over the market to slow down market development of environment-harming products somewhat. It's nothing new really, we already have regulations of different kinds even in the most extreme capitalist countries. We just need the products to come to the market with a small delay, so that science gets time to catch up with new technology and make it environment friendly. Making the market lag just a decade or two after where it is today would make a huge difference, again reducing human impact to microscopic proportions compared to natural processes. Of course for such regulations to work it's necessary to make a more fair treaty than Kyoto if the USA is to accept it (but there are also claims from some that Bush wouldn't accept any trade restricting treaty no matter how fair it was).

[Lentonius]

just look at this, and our generation are gonna be affected i think...


by that time ill be around 42...

[Lentonius]

Also, if we could only use more nuclear power without people screaming 'chernobyl'

Nuclear power is safe if properly maintained

It is non-polluting

It is fairly cheap


Yet most developed countries are still shutting down their power plants because of a nuclear scare...

it was ukranian technology at it's worst- what more can i say?

[Lazul]

I agree, but the nuclear waste?

[Viking]

I agree, but the nuclear waste?

Blast into space and send make it collide with the Sun, or dig it down in some secure places; as we already do today.

@Topic

The Americans aren`t killing us, but some(millions of) poor asians that live 1 meter above sea level.. I don`t see any natural causes to the current warming. What causes ice ages is the orbit of the Earth, but Earth is not in any special orbit for the moment.

[AntiochusIII]

Blast into space and send make it collide with the Sun, or dig it down in some secure places; as we already do today.

Blasting into the sun sounds nice but it is way too costly right now. Throwing things out of the atmosphere requires some effort.

And "secure" sites are hard to find. Here in Nevada the Yucca mountains controversy continues; for those who're not in Nevada, the area is supposed to be the latest dumping ground of nuclear waste in the US (Nevada has always been a good prospect, what's with all the weird facilities and all) but the people opposed it stubbornly, citing radiation dangers, especially as the trains which will transport the waste will go through the heart of Las Vegas, as their core reason, and they feared any terrorist, or just a freak accident, can affect the fastest-growing city in America.

Nuclear waste is a problem.

Personally, I use public transport and a bicycle, but that makes sense, to me anyway, as a city dweller. However, I can see that many other people need cars.

Be glad that you have one. In cities like Vegas or other sprawling suburban cities, cars are the only means of transportation that makes sense. The location (be it shops, schools, etc) you need to go is too far away to walk or bike, and the public transportation is nonexisting.

But of course, I still can't find a way to justify suburban SUV's. Sure, it's freedom, and we can't do a heck about it, except hoping the government (well, I never hoped ) would finally put some environment-friendly regulations on SUV designs; but they'll never pass through the corporate lobbyists.

[solypsist]

bad idea - what would happen if a rocket exploded on takeoff? or if the waste was released into the atmosphere futher up instead of successfully taken to the sun?

Blast into space and send make it collide with the Sun

[Rodion Romanovich]

Actually, contrary to what I've seen mentioned here, the USA still has more pollution than China, even though China have a MUCH greater population. However, China is steadily increasing it's pollution due to industrialization. But this very moment, blaming all on China isn't correct. It's China in 10-20 years we should worry about. USA and Western Europe together still have almost 40-50% of all pollution. Plus there's the end-user pollution which is more difficult to predict. Most European and American factories have fixed their chimneys and stuff, but the end-user often throws away the stuff, or the stuff pollutes poisonous stuff during usage. Such pollution has scientifically been shown to often being as huge as the factory-stage pollution once was, but it's very difficult to get a full overview of it's proportions.

BTW about nuclear waste: most containers containing them below earth eventually rust of degrade, so they need to constantly change containers, and one must count on leakage of perhaps 25 % of the contents. But Uranium is limited in quantity and it has actually been shown that we may run out of uranium in a century or less; contrary to what is widely believed about nuclear power it's a fossile fuel form. However there are experimental reactors which are more effective, but they produce materials that can be used for making nukes very easily, which makes some politicians want to forbid them.

[Viking]

And "secure" sites are hard to find. Here in Nevada the Yucca mountains controversy continues; for those who're not in Nevada, the area is supposed to be the latest dumping ground of nuclear waste in the US (Nevada has always been a good prospect, what's with all the weird facilities and all) but the people opposed it stubbornly, citing radiation dangers, especially as the trains which will transport the waste will go through the heart of Las Vegas, as their core reason, and they feared any terrorist, or just a freak accident, can affect the fastest-growing city in America.

Well, well; it doesn`t have to be transported through 'the fastest-growing city in America'. It`s always better alternatives.

bad idea - what would happen if a rocket exploded on takeoff? or if the waste was released into the atmosphere futher up instead of successfully taken to the sun?

I forgot about that, butI think the containers with waste could be made strong enough to survive an explosion, and should be sent up in smaller quantitys. Still security problems exist, so I will drop that idea. Hrmpf.

[kiwitt]

I agree, but the nuclear waste?

Once buried deeply in concrete (possibly in Antartica), it would do less harm than the current coal, oil and gas fired chimneys, to our health.

[master of the puppets]

i think that we are just speeding up a natural process.

[Ironside]

Also, if we could only use more nuclear power without people screaming 'chernobyl'

Nuclear power is safe if properly maintained

It is non-polluting

Although it has improved a bit though and new methods is tried, nuclear waste is still a problematic pollution issue.
Your correct that safety problems is almost a non-issue in western countries though.

[Alexanderofmacedon]

I do believe that our atmosphere is being depleted, which would contribute to global warming.

I think walking places is a good idea, which is something I do, but I do get lazy , and when I do I make sure to get a carpool.