Well, I agree with you Beetle, neither one of us are stupid:aok
The second third and fourth largest economies in the world are Japan, Germany and the UK, and none of those countries has ever needed a nationwide fleet of gas guzzlers to achieve its wealth.
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Let me give you some facts. In 1970 I drove a car with a 7 liter engine. It weighed almost 6000 pounds and my gas mileage was in the 6-8 MPG range for city driving. In 1970, the US GDP was $1,035,600,000,000.
In 2005 I drive a car that has half the weight. My gas mileage is 25 MPG for city driving. The US GDP is $11,750,000,000,000. Let's do the math, shall we? I have archived a four fold efficiency in my fuel consumption, and the US economy has grown by an order of magnitude! It seems to me that as my fuel efficiency increases, my economy also increases, at better than a 2 to 1 ratio. This makes sense, since there is more fuel to burn for construction, manufacturing, and powering the Internet. Beetle, where, oh where, in these numbers, does it show that the US is not increasing the fuel efficiency of it's automobiles?
I ask again - if the US is not prepared to make cuts in greenhouse gas emissions, then how are we to avoid the ecological catastrophe that awaits the children being born in this century?
Rotax, you and I can both agree on one thing. We both know that you are not a stupid man. But I have to tell you, if you persist on not answering this one, simple, question, others on this board will begin to have their doubts.
This one is easy to answer, since it involves no engineering on my part. There are two ways to attack the problem ... well, three, actually, but I have no intention of slowing down US economic growth as a solution. The atmospheric CO2 levels are slowing down the re-radiation of surface heat from the earth. So...
1) Increase the biomass to absorb some of the excess CO2. In other words, plant a tree, or two, or ten. Contrast this solution to Brazil, which is burning off the largest biomass concentration on earth!
2) The oceans are the heat sink of the planet, so decrease the solar radiation striking the oceans. Place some large, thin, plastic sheets in geosynchronous orbit over the Pacific Ocean to attenuate the UV radiation. If it is still too hot, add more sheets. Getting too cold, remove some sheets. Works just like a set of venetian blinds on a window.
The cool thing about these solutions are that they are a net creator of jobs, which will, no doubt, give any self respecting Green a fit!
Care to give me the figures now on how much wealth you want to remove from the US economy?
-Rotax447