Toad is right in saying that most of the people in this thread will be dead, before the full effects of global warming are felt. Most of us in this thread, with the possible exception of Angus, are secure on landmasses that won’t flood or melt, for the time being.
But whether or not you believe that anthropogenic greenhouse gases contribute to global warming, and even if you don’t believe global warming is happening at all, I believe there’s still a compelling case for developing and using alternative fuels.
Those who support the continued use (and therefore continued dependence upon) foreign oil do so because they feel the US economy would suffer harm any other way. But wait – oil prices were running at close to $78/bbl until a few days ago, when fallout from America's sub-prime mortgage debacle caused the price to ease back towards $70/bbl. But that’s just a temporary blip, and the price will bounce back, spurred on by demand from China and India. Which means that America will once again be spending around a billion dollars a day on imported oil. The price is set to go much higher, and I believe $100/bbl is possible within 2-3 years. When that happens, remember where you heard it first. And when that day comes, America’s expenditure on imported oil will be $500bn per year, or one trillion dollars every two years. And yet the folks supporting continued use of oil say that the alternative would “harm the US economy”. Oh yeah, and spending $500bn per year on imported oil will not?
Folks might argue against ethanol on the grounds of difficulties growing the necessary crops, or that it would be a stopgap measure. Well Brazil is already doing it, and Sweden too. Indeed, it is anticipated that all cars on Sweden’s roads will be running on ethanol by 2020. And, if ethanol does turn out to be only a stopgap measure, at least it would be a Made-in-America stopgap measure while we develop something else.
Guys like Lazs want the free market to control everything, forgetting that new fuel technologies take time to develop. Hydrogen fuel and nukes are not simply going to fall out of the sky, and land right side up in a neighbourhood near you. Even if a programme of building nuclear powered electricity generating facilities were to be started today, it could be 10 years before the first station came on stream and began to deliver power. That is why action is required now, to avoid the inevitable situation by which OPEC oil becomes so expensive that America’s dependence upon it screws the US economy.
Someone up above said that “oil would be around for a long, long time”. I would say that oil is in its twilight years. The United Arab Emirates exports around 2.5m barrels of oil daily – about one eight of what America consumes and 45% of the total UAE portfolio of export commodities. A yet the UAE spends billions of $ developing tourism. Now why would they do a thing like that, when they’ve got all that oil? Maybe they know something we don’t?
The same person is dismissive of any branch of science that does not deliver results which are 100% accurate 100% of the time. He’ll mock weather forecasting, for no better a reason than the forecasters don’t always get it right. Yes I know that they don’t always get it right. But I also know that in the field of aviation, any pilot worth his salt obtains an en route weather forecast before taking to the skies. But to the rednecks of this world, if ONE weather forecast is hosed, then “meteorology is crap” or, to use the current vogue term from the redneck vernacular, it’s “junk science”.
Such individuals forget that science is often a voyage of discovery, with findings being disclosed along the way – just as the link between smoking and cancer/heart disease was first announced in the 1950s – much to the mirth of the tobacco lobby – but was proven much later.
Another, most peculiar, approach to science is the theory of Lazsotology, in which the “scientist” starts out with the results he wants to “prove” eg. “it’s the sun stupid”, and then goes in search of material with which to support his position. Someone like Lazs will seize upon ONE (flawed) tv programme and present it as “fact”. He’ll point to a (flawed) document, clearly written by a Big Oil sympathiser, which tells the reader what the reader wants to hear. As was pointed out, the level of anthropogenic CO2 released annually was understated by a factor of four in that document, but this BIG LIE is dismissed as a “minor detail” in the field of Lazsotology, and is therefore irrelevant. Yeah right! The actual figure was downplayed because it’s what worried Americans wanted to hear. Um, can you say… agenda?
Hitler was a threat. Global warming is not
– is what gtora2 said. I agree with half of that. Hitler was indeed a threat. He was a threat when he invaded Austria in 1938. He was a threat when he stormed into Poland in 1939. He was a threat when he began gassing Jews along the way. But wait – America was dismissive of this threat until 1941, preferring instead to bask in the status of a neutral country rather than to act against the threat of Nazi tyranny. It wasn’t until a direct attack upon American interests (7th Dec. 1941) that America finally decided to take that threat seriously.
It’ll be the same for global warming: Until
American interests come under some sort of direct threat, a huge swathe of America will go on in the belief that global warming is not man made or is not happening at all. Maybe when it gets so warm in California that the frosting on gtora2’s donuts melts and slides off into his lap, even he will concede that there is a problem.
Right now, GTOra2 says that global warming is not a threat, by which he means it is not a threat to America in 2007/2008, and maybe for a few years beyond that. But it certainly is a threat! Low lying countries in equatorial waters such as Bangladesh are at serious risk of becoming submerged – already happening. Various organisms can no longer survive in what was their natural habitat – already happening. And, as an example, even the English blackcurrant is reportedly under threat because of a series of mild winters which cause it to develop too early in the next summer season –already happening. Anyone who’s had an education (and I realise that does not include everyone in this thread) can tell you that allowing the food chain to be porked up this way is not a good idea because loss of one species of animal or plant will affect organisms further up the food chain and, ultimately, us. But what does GTO care, as long as there’s a Dunkin Donuts on the block – do they even make blackcurrant donuts?
Still gtora2 is right about one thing. He’s more of a man than I’ll ever be…
… about 200lb more!
