that's a lot of freaking gold farmers http://www.msnbc.msn.com/id/31941966/ns/tech_and_science-tech_and_gadgets/
ROFL! Too bad almost all those web users use the web at a crappy net cafe or through their phones. I didn't realize China had 1.3 billion people. That's a very large soylent green market right there...
Didnt obama have some sort of conference with the world leaders about reducing green house emissions (or something to that effect)... didnt china get offended by the suggestion?
All of the members of the G8 agreed to reduce greenhouse gas emissions by.... I believe 80% by 2050. Don't quote me on the exact numbers, since I only saw it on some news show.
They're probably looking at the emergence of alternate fuels and realising that it's actually doable without much fuss.
I could swear I heard china in there tho.. and they refused because they felt it would hurt more than benefit. =/
china needs to just create flying vehicles already seeing as how they have so many people, why not just go up? lol
I would be shocked if any of these countries made any of these targets by 2050, or ever. People claim oh reduce this reduce that but at the end of the day, if I have to choose between paying for my needs (rent, food, gas) or paying higher taxes for pie in the sky plans like that, I'll choose my needs first every time. I find it funny watching scientists on both sides of the green/global warming argument. On one side, you have people claiming nothing bad will happen from greenhouse gases. On the other side, you have scientists claiming everything from moderate change to "The Day After Tomorrow" scenarios. When I counter them and tell them that this past year has been the coldest, wettest year for my area (NYC Tristate Area) in as long as I can remember, they continue rambling on about Global Warming. Every time something bad happens with the weather, Global Warming is blamed. People blamed it for Hurricane Katrina. Though supposedly Global Warming gets worse every year, no one noted the lack of major hurricanes last fall. Hell, in January, I was in upstate NY and there was a 2 week stretch where it *never* went above 20F. Locals told me this was the coldest they could remember in a long time. I even had people try to convince me that Global Warming is to blame for the cold! I believe that eventually, changing the composition of our atmosphere is a bad thing. But I also believe that we are not facing any immediate doom of climate catastrophe. Do I think we should be spending some money on renewable and clean sources of energy? Yes. But saying that in 40 years we will do this and that doesn't really help the situation. It just pleases the masses of "go green" people, while not actually doing anything other than wasting tax money to fly political leaders around the world. If they really wanted to do something, they would do small, incremental changes every 1-2 years.
well, they've been trying to establish small changes for the last several decades. we're seeing peramanent changes in salinization levels of oceans, possibly resulting in some extinctions as well as less atmospheric UV shielding. sure, the earth will survive and possibly regenerate the damage we are doing, but the changes being called for are to halt the damage. perhaps limiting should be a higher priority for realists, but i wouldn't fault them for trying. as for me, i ride a bicycle to work 3-4 days a week, driving around 400 miles less a month and walk to places for food that are under half a mile away. if even a million americans started doing similar, that's a small step, but its a small step that will barely even slow down the damage being done. which is why china, india, and other emerging industrial powerhouses need to be part of the solution. for every 10k people that do something like i've done, there's probably 5M of them that are driving now.
this is the first year in recorded history that the fabled northwest passage has been totally free of ice...global warming? maybe... the new "great game" is now for ownership of the north pole..as the super powers of the past fought over the middle east/asia..now they are shuffling for position for the north pole. They all realize the ice is melting and the riches there will be accessible. Russia had planted its flag on the sea floor at the north pole.. You might think one cold year proves there is no global warming. oh well....some think man didn't land on the moon too. You might look into the flat earth society..I think they need more members.
Do you believe everything a man with a labcoat tells you? Every time I read up on the subject, I read conflicting reports. Even the Global Warming crowd can't agree on what will happen. They all just plug in incomplete datasets into computer simulations, and spit out whatever the computer says. Lets compare this with the banking industry. A computer model told banks that granting mortgages to people with no job and no income was a moneymaker. I think we all know how this turned out. Until I see some better evidence of Global Warming and negative impact, I cannot support spending money on crock green initiatives, when the money would be much better off going to places like education, healthcare, and infrastructure. People think the money to pay for all this stuff will magically appear. We will see how many people support initiatives like this when everything is 10x more expensive to cover the costs of these "green initiatives". You say the ice is melting, but, who cares? There is no way to know that this has never happened in Earth's history. Hell, if it frees up access to natural resources at the poles, you could even argue that it is beneficial. Please, tell me one major thing the US is currently doing that is "green". Nothing, because everything they plan now goes into effect 10-20+ years down the road, after these politicans are long out of office. If you say we will reduce carbon emissions by 80% by 2050... let me put this into perspective... assume the country continues to drive the same amount (increase in drivers cancels out with decrease in driving distance per driver). In order to achieve an 80% reduction, we would need the average car fuel efficiency to be ~125MPG. This is completely obsurd and unrealistic... even today's most fuel efficient hybrids don't get 1/2 of that. And don't even tell me "cash for clunkers" is a green initiative... its part of the auto bailout to help dealers clear their current stock of cars. Hell, even things like hybrid cars are a green gimmick. The environmental damage caused by mining for the battery offsets any benefit from increased fuel efficiency. Even for electric and fuel cell cars, the energy has to be generated somewhere, so even though they are marketed as Zero Emissions, they really aren't.
I'm waiting for the computer that plugs in the entire universe into it to predict something... it may be a long wait though. and a computer didn't say to ignore the risks of subprime borrowers. that comparison is fallacious and unrelated. Also, the chemical composition of ice cores taken from polar regions tells exactly how long these miles of ice have been there. the melting of ice caps and removal of ozone is beneficial? well, i guess i can agree that we should put more money into education, but that doesn't prevent the selective science acceptance. how about tax breaks for using solar power collectors or the large scale incorporation of wind power in high wind regions of the country? are they "major" things? i guess it's all in perspective, but the first step in innovation isn't going to be cheap and easy. to say we shouldn't take it because it won't do everything is defeatist and delaying the next step down the road when it's even more urgent.