Environmental Thread

Earthquake in Japan

The 7.4 magnitude Earthquake in Kumamoto, that killed at least nine people and has had 44,000 people evacuated due to fears of aftershocks and volcanic activity, is reckoned to be the worst for 100 years. Although I know there has always been quakes, it is possible that this one has been caused by Global Warming. There’s a theory, that as the planet warms due to the pollution we create, that the ice caps of the planet will melt. Due to this, the pressure w...hich is pushing down on the earths tectonic plates, will decrease and the plates will shift. This will cause more and more earth quakes, volcanic activity, and even tidal waves, as time goes on. This is just a theory of course and there’s no need to get despondent, it’s just another reason why we all have to put pressure on our Governments and power companies and car makers to start making the changes we need, to make the planet run on renewable energy. We’re all in this together and you can’t be neutral on a moving train!!!

 

Thinking about how many people don't give a fuck about the environment gives me zero hope.

 

I think the attitude is changing and most people can still be reached. It's mainly because main stream media doesn't report on environmental issues or when they don't present the reasons for the floods and forest fires ect that they do show. I feel Obama did a great deal to high light the issues and attempt to change the way the USA is powered, personally I think it's a real shame he can't just remain in power.

 

I don't think it's that people don't give a fuck, it's just that people don't want to go out of their way or change their daily lives all that much. Most people are willing to recycle or ride share or something that's fairly easy and doesn't take too much effort, but as soon as something becomes even slightly inconvenient, most people are done.

 

Yes, but what else has been suggested? We see all the time that Global Warming is an issue, but I hardly ever see solutions.

 

it's disheartening that it's possible that a man who doesn't believe in climate change may become president

 

I totally agree with that! In my country few people recycled until they were provided at their home with a separate bin for that purpose and now everyone does it!

 

I agree. I don't have a solution, unfortunately, other than people should be mindful about things. Problem is, it's such a large change that needs to happen, that unless people are truly making huge changes to the way they live, it's not going to be significant enough to make a real difference. Major policy changes would also have to take affect. Our food system alone is detrimental to our future. There are A LOT of contributors to the problem, and I have no idea where to start or what cause to fight for, so like many others, I kind of take the laissez faire approach and just keep doing nothing.

 

You know to me at least there seems an obvious solution to the problems the world's got right now. Oil is running out, the West cuts deals with any nation who can provide it and secure future rights or installs puppet Governments to control it. Our infrastructure is dependent on said depleting fossil fuel and it is also destroying the world's eco systems AND we're ALL just out of a massive economic depression. SO start refitting the planet to run cleaner and solve all 3 problems. I mean think of solar panels alone, you could pay people to fit them on all houses, to build them, people to train how to fit them, convert factories to make them, and that's a lot of jobs. And that’s just solar energy, that’s not including wind, Geo Thermal, electric car production and hydro energy!

 

I think the issue is more to do with those in power than individuals not wanting to be inconvenienced. Recycling and lifestyle changes can only go so far when the world still runs the way it does. The way I see it, the only way out is the death of capitalism.

 

Honestly I don't know the best route. Like you said total collapse isn't ideal, but significant progress isn't really happening. In an ideal world (in my opinion), we'd see reforms within the current system that would eventually lead to a more socialist global economy. Realistically, that won't happen anytime soon. And much later could be too late. We're probably already doomed.

 

This might not go over well with some users, and no offense to anyone, but having kids is a huge problem. We have trouble sustaining the population now and people are still cranking them out.

That's what I mean, though. I'm particularly thinking of people I used to work with who wouldn't even recycle. They didn't care enough to take that simple step. We couldn't have recycle bins in our backroom because people would use it for trash, and those same people wouldn't take a minute to walk to the breakroom to recycle. I've seen maintenance people throw cans from the recycle bins into the trash compactor lol. That's the simplest way to help out and that alone is too big of a step for what I've perceived as the majority of people. I hope I'm wrong with that last bit and I was just exposed to the wrong individuals. I used to always get weird looks and have to explain myself while emptying my recyclables from my locker at the end of the week. It's like it was a foreign concept to them. Like it was some hippy-bullshit that they were above.

This an extreme example - then you have people like this:

I think I need to get out of this state, but moving away from the problem doesn't make it go away.

 

Gonna have to disagree with you there. Yes, overpopulation is a problem, but it's not the biggest problem. Overconsumption of resources caused by capitalism and greed are more to blame.

 

Agreed on the latter being huge. We're going to have another billion people in the next 10 years contributing to the problem, though. That's an extra billion people wasting way resources and producing more trash and emissions. Obviously 10 year-olds aren't going to be driving gas guzzlers, but give them 10 more years. The strain and greed is just going to pile up. I feel like it's only going to get worse unless everyone kicks it into high gear, but the more people we have, the more effort we need to put forth to slow the negatives. At what point does the scale tip in our favor, or does it at all?

edit: I'm not trying to be right on all of this, by the way. I don't have all the facts haha. Please inform me if I'm off.

 

Absolutely. The fact that the average citizen isn't willing to do much is only a very small part of the problem. The real issue is greed and capitalism feeds it.

 

My main problem with the over-population argument is that it's often used by Westerners to derail conversations about overconsumption. (not saying that's what you were doing though). I've seen it nicknamed the "too many brown people" before, because often it'll be used to shift the blame from people in wealthy/""developed"" countries to countries in Asia and Africa with higher population densities.

 

The people spinning it around like that should be the first to stop reproducing. I talked about overpopulation with someone I know and they added comments that were somewhat similar to that. I felt like it trivialized everything I said.

For what it's worth, one example I keep thinking of is a white woman I saw in a grocery store with 5 kids. She was yelling at them, too because she couldn't control them. It seemed so unnecessary to me. That's 5 more people that everyone has to compensate for. They're growing up in progressive Arizona (lol), so how many kids are those 5 going to have?

I'm sure that's cynical and irrational, but that's the road my thoughts go down haha.

 

. . . our great war is a spiritual war, our great depression is our lives!

Former mayor of London Ken Livingston has spoken up about the banking crisis.
“ I wouldn’t have gone for austerity- we would have reduced the debt substantially by handling the situation the way Roosevelt handled the Great Depression in America back in the 1930’s. He spent billions building dams, motorways. . . He got people back to work, paying tax, instead of claiming benefits. That way the economy w...ould have started to grow”

I agree with that, but I think the ideal solution to the situation would be to get the world ready for renewable power. Just think about the amount of jobs the conversion to solar power alone would create. Building or converting the factories to make panels, training and employing people to fit them. . .

Then there’s the construction of wind farms, drilling for Geo Thermal heat, building hydro plants along the coast. If we focus on that, not only would we help the worlds economy vastly, but we’d be preparing for a sustainable future and maybe we wouldn’t be in the mess of Food Banks and Legal Loan Shark companies we’re in now!

 

drive a small car and recycle

 

ARGUING WITH THERMOMETERS

Climate scientists have warmed that Earth is perilously close to breaking through a 1.6c upper limit for global warming, JUST EIGHT months after the target was set!!!!

Met Office data shows average temperatures are up more than 1C in 11 of the past 12 months – peaking at 1.38C in Feb and March. That figures shows it will be “impossible or AT LEAST very difficult” to achieve the 1.5C target, it has been said by Stanford University professor Chris Fi...eld.

Of course ALL of this is reversible by ending a reliance on Fossil Fuels and fully investing in renewable energy, and if worse comes to worse, even nuclear plants and the use of Carbon Capture
techniques.

And it’s our duty to put pressure on the people who can make this happen and create a demand for change before it’s too late!

 

Flash Floods in Macedonia

At least 21 people have died and six more are missing after flash floods hit the Macedonian capital, Skopje. Sixty people are in hospital after being hurt in the floods and 1000 more were forced to leave their homes as the storm hit last Saturday. Many homes are without power and the Government has declared a state of emergency!

Yet more evidence of drastic climate change. The way I see it is we face a future with an ever decreasing land mass and an ever increasing population. The time to act is now! And real action is needed, not just setting unrealistic targets that are then blatantly ignored!!!

 

NEW NUCLEAR POWER PLANT IN UK

The UK government has given the go ahead to build a new Nuclear Power station in Hinkley Point. The plant is the first one built in a generation and everyone - including Green Peace – is losing their shit about it. I normally support Green Peace but I think they’re wrong on this point. Nuclear power is a good stop gap between the move from fossil fuel burning plants and the establishment of a fully green power network, as it doesn’t add to global warming in any significant way.

Some people fail to understand that it takes to time to fully establish a power grid based fully on renewable energy and that Nuclear power is relatively clean and produces very little waste.

There’s also some critics who say we can’t fully power the need s of our populace and it’s infrastructure on clean energy alone, although I’m not entirely convinced by this as Germany gets nearly ALL of its energy from renewable sources? However IF the critics are right here, there may be a need for similar plants like this.

There’s always those who argue about the safety of such plants, but as a whole, globally, - apart from your Chernobyl's and most recently Japan's Fukushima - nuclear plants have a pretty good safety record. There is the problem of nuclear waste and what to do with it, but that problem dims in compassion to the need to cut carbon emissions.

I think the main problem people have that when it does goes wrong, it REALLY goes wrong but right now I think it’s this country’s best bet.

 

The Future of Energy

Students of Bishop Ullathorne Catholic School are among the first in the UK to have taken part in E.ON's new "micro mix" workshop which helps pupils investigate renewable energy sources and the role these will and are playing in the nation’s energy mix.

The Year Ten pupils designed and built functioning micro models that generated electricity using wind, solar and hydro power.

Suzanne Doxey, “community relations manager” at E.ON said:

"There's an important message here around how we, as a society, meet future energy demand and we hope that our Micro Mix workshops will help to generate interest and highlight the future importance of green energy for a new generation. "

 

i live in a town where there is a nuclear power plant and i use to take swimming lessons at the beach literally a quarter mile from it (probably less cus theyre literally on the same road and you could make a song load on your car radio between the two lmao)
that explains the leg growing out of my forehead.