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Dang, I guess Al Gore was right

Discussion in 'Anything goes' started by HejiraHenry, Jan 3, 2007.

  1. Jones

    Jones Active Member

    I just know that this will be the first year in recorded history that the Ottawa canal won't freeze over. That's nuts.
     
  2. Mighty_Wingman

    Mighty_Wingman Active Member

    Again, though, no one's arguing that we're in a warming trend. I'm not arguing that.

    But there's a big gap between "The world's getting warmer" and "It's all our fault."

    And for that matter, there's a medium-sized gap between "It's all our fault" and "We should re-orient our industry, city-planning and culture to stop it."
     
  3. Jones

    Jones Active Member

    Mighty, here's my take on it.

    So, okay, it's getting warmer -- pretty freaky warm in places like my hometown.

    I'll concede that we can't say with 100 percent certainty that our pollution is causing it; neither can we say that it's not. We just don't know.

    So why don't we err on the side of caution and try to cut our pollution? Because then, the worst case scenario is, we've polluted less. Best case scenario, we've maybe stopped the planet from turning into mush.

    I can understand the argument that we don't know what's causing global warming. I don't understand how the next argument is, So we shouldn't do anything at all.
     
  4. Frank_Ridgeway

    Frank_Ridgeway Well-Known Member

    What are you Canadians going to do when your igloos melt?
     
  5. Batman

    Batman Well-Known Member

    The argument is, we (as in the United States) have done plenty over the years to lessen pollution. Cars, power plants and industries are, for the most part, dozens of times cleaner today than they were 30 years ago. The problem is that other emerging nations like China and India are several generations behind us in terms of technology and throwing plenty of crap into the air. They aren't subject to the same strict rules we are -- nor the even stricter rules they're trying to bind us with.

    So while the U.S. is constantly improving its technology and getting cleaner, those other economies are picking up the pollution slack and not giving a shit about it. In the meantime, our economy goes in the tank because of it -- lesser technology abroad translates into lesser costs; a cheaper workforce lowers the cost of their goods; and back here in the good old U.S. of A. we lose manufacturing jobs and the economy slowly crumbles as we lose our spot as the world's premiere nation. It's not the only factor in the whole equation, sure, but it is a factor.

    In a nutshell, I don't believe most Americans resist the idea of less pollution. In true American fashion, they resist the idea that they need to sacrifice and do something while the other guy does nothing and is rewarded for it.
     
  6. Ben_Hecht

    Ben_Hecht Active Member

    Jones gets it.
     
  7. JackS

    JackS Member

    Regarding some of the latest posts:

    First of all, I'm not sure anybody is saying warming is ALL the fault of humans. Given the cyclical nature of weather over the eons, there is no way to say that. I'm certainly not saying it, anyway. But if you do some serious reading on the issue, virtually no expert says we're not at least contributing to warming. If you can't stomach Al Gore, read Field Notes From a Catastrophe by Elizabeth Kolbert.

    Furthermore, most of Batman's post is bullshit, pardon the lack of civility. For example, while our cars are indeed cleaner than they were 30 years ago, there are way more of them, and our MPG standards are the worst in the world. The W-O-R-S-T. Overall, no one is "throwing more crap into the air" than the "good old U. S. of A." It's not even close.

    If we take the lead on reducing pollution, other nations will follow. Hell, a lot of nations and even many of our own individual states are already adhering to Kyoto standards even though our federal government won't sign off on it.

    Lastly, the idea that our economy is in the tank is baloney. It's not spectacular, but it's not crumbling either. Certainly, we are more of a service economy than we've ever been, but as one man put it, what parents ever want their kids to grow up and follow them onto the assembly line?
     
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