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Politics "Under democracy, one party always devotes its chief energies to trying to prove that the other party is unfit to rule -and both commonly succeed, and are right."
-H.L. Menken |
04-17-2006, 08:01 AM
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#1
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Join Date: Apr 2006
Location: Neverwhere
Posts: 320
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It's the End of the World as we know it...or is it?
Alright.
I picked up the Green issue of Vanity Fair this weekend. I must admit firstly ...
1. I was disturbed by all the vanity and flair having never read this rag before
2. The environmental articles within piqued my interest and so I bought it.
And that is the only reason I would buy this issue because lately I have shed a few of my more conservative beliefs. One is that the environment can get along just fine no matter what we do to it. I am not to the point of a treehugger yet, but I might be someday, hell, I don't know it is all very fascinating to me.
This may have all been hashed out in othe threads but with the onslaught of titanic hurricanes, tsunamis, melting ozone, and other associated diminishment of global natural phenomena, can we say with any authenticity that we are killing the world faster than anyone ever expected? Or cares to admit? Or cares to think about?
I say yes to all three. Now tell me I'm wrong....(or not).
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04-17-2006, 09:06 AM
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#2
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Join Date: Sep 2005
Location: Columbia, S.C. (USA)
Posts: 363
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mother earth is preparing for a massive 'spring cleaning'. and when she's done, those that are left won't have to worry about politics or global warming or rags like vanity fair.
__________________
~E.D.
~v~ ~v~ ~v~
"What if everything around you
Isn't quite as it seems?
What if all the world you think you know
Is an elaborate dream?
And if you look at your reflection
Is it all you wanted to be?
What if you could look right through the cracks?
Would you find yourself [or]
Find yourself afraid to see?..." -NIN
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04-17-2006, 09:21 AM
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#3
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Join Date: Dec 2005
Location: Behind you ... (well, if your back's to London)
Posts: 1,001
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I've pretty much fallen into thinking that the world won't be here long enough for my generation to die of old age. I haven't researched the topic much, BTW - my knowledge on the subject is all pretty mainstream - so maybe this view is just a product of films like Armageddon and The Day After Tomorrow (which I haven't even bloody seen), and the constant media hype about ozone damage and global warming and climate change... I don't know. I should probably look into that. I guess it's kind of important, after all.
l I recycle whenever I can, switch off lights when I leave a room (and get extremely irked at people who don't) and to be honest, I don't really know what else to do. I wish governments would take a more active role, anmd that generalstatement is the best I can offer on the subject. All in all, yes, I agree that we're bollocksing up the planet beyond redemption.
__________________
The meek shall inherit the earth. Just as soon as the rest of us have finished with it.
A dream is just a nightmare with lipstick ~ Toni Morrison
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04-17-2006, 05:46 PM
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#4
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Join Date: Oct 2003
Posts: 4,587
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In Europe we are forced by law to adhere to green laws. Everything is regulated, and it's a good thing, especially since most countries here will be independent of oil and other fossile fuels in the next few years.
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04-17-2006, 06:49 PM
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#5
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Join Date: Feb 2004
Location: Michigan. middle of f**ing nowhere.
Posts: 175
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Here in the states its a bit harder to fix the NRG problem than just a few green laws. But we're working on it...
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04-18-2006, 07:27 PM
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#6
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Join Date: Apr 2006
Location: Neverwhere
Posts: 320
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I wish America would get with the program. As unpopular as the notion may resonate in this thread, I was a strong Bush supporter in the early days and right around 9/11. However following the Hurricanes and various Iraq mishaps, I switched to become a Conservative Democrat. I am most liberal on enivronmental issues and I never imagined, say even 5 years ago, I would become a tree hugger.
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04-20-2006, 08:36 AM
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#7
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Join Date: Oct 2003
Posts: 4,587
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I was quite impressed the US car companies are taking initives to put out flexfuel vehicles. Problem is, they are fighting the oil companies.
ABC did a great piece on it, which I was impressed by. They are pushing the new E85/flexfuel vehicles for next year, and have even sponsored NASCAR to help promote the idea.
Of couse oil companies have to carry flexfuel at the pumps, and right now out of the 170,000 filling stations in the US, a little over 600 offer E85. And oil companies aren't looking forward to adding more, even though under laws pass last year they are supposed to have 2000+ ready to offer E85 by the end of this year.
It's a start, and better than nothing.
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04-20-2006, 09:19 AM
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#8
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Join Date: Mar 2006
Location: Austria
Posts: 311
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Quote:
Originally Posted by a Simple Poet
titanic hurricanes, tsunamis, melting ozone, and other associated diminishment of global natural phenomena, can we say with any authenticity that we are killing the world faster than anyone ever expected?
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Researchers have correlated solar variation with changes in the Earth's average temperature and climate - sometimes finding an effect, and sometimes not. I believe there is an effect, maybe too small so every dumbass will notice it. (Just want to mention the level of UV light sent to our planet changing during the sunspot cylce and it´s effect on the ozon layer, or how the energy from sun affects our daily life.)
Point is - maybe we tend to forget that we already had hard winters and rainy summers, and a lot of "normal" ones inbetween. Same´s true for hurricans, tsunamis etc.
But I think we humans definitely exhaust the planet we´re all living on and on the long run this can´t turn out all right, right?
__________________
"Jump off roofs with me"
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04-20-2006, 09:55 AM
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#9
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Join Date: Jan 2006
Location: Right now in England but I am an American
Posts: 162
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They also have a few Hydrogen fueling station. There are about 49 in the world and half are in the U.S. That is going to help out a lot.
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04-23-2006, 04:50 AM
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#10
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Join Date: Oct 2003
Posts: 4,587
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Hydrogen is a waste. Look into it more. The bush admin is now trying to push it. Know why?
The various other methods like hyrbids, ehtanol, etc. have proven much more effective in saving consumption. And those alternative fuels have years of research behind them. This year, bush cut funding to those fuel programmes and beefed up hydrogen research instead. Why?
1. It stops research on technology that is just starting to show benefit. By moving funding away from it to hydrogen they can kill many programmes that are actuallying showing results. By putting even more into hydrogen, it appears the bush admin is funding research into alternative fuels, but in reality, they are killing off research in progress to start with almost a fresh slate into new technology that will take years to get where they stand today in other alternative fuels.
2. It takes more fossil fuels to make hydrogen than is saved by using it as a fuel source.
3. All hydrogen related production companies and distribution companies in the US are owned by....care to guess what one company owns them all? I'll give you a hint - starts with 'H'.
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04-23-2006, 07:00 AM
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#11
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Join Date: Jan 2006
Location: Right now in England but I am an American
Posts: 162
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Do you have any idea what type of hydrogen the german car compinies are using to make their concept cars? They use a simple base, wich is just H1. They extract that out of water. They use M.S.O.G. to take pure oxygen, or at least 95% pure oxygen, out of the air. The product is water. They use the chemical reaction to power the engine.
Get a clue. E85 is a short term sulition. It is just somthing to help out right know. Electrice and Hydrogen are the future.
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04-27-2006, 03:50 AM
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#12
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Join Date: Oct 2003
Posts: 4,587
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http://www.motherjones.com/news/outf...ma_375_01.html
...What Bush didn't reveal in his nationwide address, however, is that his administration has been working quietly to ensure that the system used to produce hydrogen will be as fossil fuel-dependent -- and potentially as dirty -- as the one that fuels today's SUVs. According to the administration's National Hydrogen Energy Roadmap, drafted last year in concert with the energy industry, up to 90 percent of all hydrogen will be refined from oil, natural gas, and other fossil fuels -- in a process using energy generated by burning oil, coal, and natural gas.
Such a system, experts say, would effectively eliminate most of the benefits offered by hydrogen. Although the fuel-cell cars themselves may emit nothing but water vapor, the process of producing the fuel cells from hydrocarbons will continue America's dependence on fossil fuels and leave behind carbon dioxide, the primary cause of global warming.
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