Your 2 cents, And you want change?

[unjonharley]

Every one talks about the weather.. No one ever dose anything about it.. I have heard that all my life. Right now big wigs from around the world are coming together "again". By fuel burning planes, trains and car. There coming together to point finger and "talk" about the weather. Again after all the expended hot air. No one will do anything about the weather.

If this day, all man made pollution would stop..Applying this great brake would not start to slow the pollution damage now in motion for another thirty years..

Many specie have adapted to the changing weather, climate change and pollution. The question is: Can the human adapt? Even if we started "adapting" today most humans will be gone in what we measure as a life time.

That's my two cent sand I don't expect any change

[BAS]

I think that we would not see any reversal to the damage for about thirty years somehow makes people feel "safe" about doing nothing. I won't really help within their lifetime, so it isn't "real".

[gaminwench]

and isn't that a shame.

*We* have the audacity to think "this planet only needs to last through *my* lifetime";
completely disregarding those who come after ...

sad.

[theCryptofishist]

We will adapt. We are a very adaptable (or "weedy") species, with oral and written communication to save and spread winning ideas. The world will become hotter, Canada will be come more like the states, and the states will become more like Mexico, in rainfall and other climate ways. Broadly speaking, of course.
There are lots of ideas out there on how to slow down and reverse the damage. Some of them really crazy. Others, well, wide spread roof top solar and painting the rest of the roof white might not be so very difficult and might slow things down. Also useful when the power grid goes out... That's the only thing I can think of right now, but I do run into ideas, so people are coming up with them. And I think, hope, that people with a better knowledge of the issues are evaluating them. What we can do (we being ordinary schmucks) is to keep pushing for solutions, provide support for the experimentation that we need to get lots of data on how to change things...


Oh, crap, I'm sorry...

[ygmir]

I like those ideas like painting roofs white, or parking lots...........more greenhouse gas is probably created, and heat trapped, by the manufacture and external effects, of it's creation, than the paint would ever reflect.

[ygmir]

dp

[unjonharley]

The auto industry has the ability to change.. But they are not going to give and inch.. As long as they can stuff the big thing down buyers neck for the market share. The powers to be give the auto until 2020-30 to to change..

I say tax the shit out of car over x horse power.. Tax the shit out of gagites added to the car..

Speed, 40 000 people dead even year from 1949.. Detroit tells the public there dick is to short if they can't do 100 miles an hour.

Distractions, 40 000 people dead even year from 1949.. Detroit tells the public they need more onboard toys to fiddle with while driving.. Or they wont get the hot chick on the billboard.

DUI, 40 00 dead ever year from 1949. Your state law reads: You can get this drunk but no more.. Your allowed the get impaired and then "you" must judge if you still under the limit..

The only way to change the auto industry is for people to change.. The only way to get people to change is to hit them hard in the pocket book..

Hit the public in the billfold and they will demand the auto industry to change.

We don't need new power plant.. We need to turn the light out when no one is in the room.. The whine for large buildings is : It would cost to much to have some one turn the lights out and back on.. That's what computers are for... The house across the drive from has 10 100watt lights on the building.. They can aford it. (Igot mine fuck you).. Tax the piss out of 'em. Why the hell dose a bridge have to be outlined in lights all nite..

[trilobyte]

People have been doing something about the weather for years. As for trying to counter the effects of climate change, people have been trying to improve stuff for years, too. Big sci-fi stuff like covering glaciers to keep them from melting are one thing, but even the little stuff that makes no discernible difference (recycling, reducing carbon footprint, etc) is still doing something.

[unjonharley]

Yup,
Big industry and big gov shaking there finger in my face.. Telling me recycle, reduce, reuse, use less, turn the lights out and pay through the nose to wallstreet .

The little shit joe public dose is comic. The fat boy are laughing at us..

But i'm a worker ant.. I will adapt and go on.. The big grasshoppers jump out the window come winter on 'em

[Elliot]

One word: Overpopulation.

[gyre]

The geological record shows that earth will survive.

However, we are extraneous.

[BoyScoutGirl]

One word: Overpopulation.

Agreed; pretty much everything comes back to overpopulation.

[gyre]

History says overpopulation will take care of itself.

[BAS]

Apparently, my brother has been winning arguments about abortion by pointing out that overpopulation is to blame for nearly all of humanity's current woes.


Upsettingly, Our Glorious State Leaders are considering penalizing the buyers of fuel efficienct cars with increased taxes and fees because now people aren't buying enough gas, causing state revenue to dip. It is all a part of that mentality which got Paul Ryan sent back to Congress even after his concrete block like attachment to Mitt Romney's Titanic-like Presidential bid helped expose his thinking.

I'm having trouble sleeping, which has apparently cranked up my cynicism level.

[graidawg]

can i pay in pennies? I do have some cents but they aren't easily accesible. what if i pay with a 5c piece do i still get change?

[theCryptofishist]

So then the question becomes what to do about over population.
I'd hate to go to a "one-child" policy. Not because I don't think it's warranted, but because it's just complicated and brutal.
So, apparently the best thing is education of women and girls and having them enter the economy, rather than just the household labor. Once their labor becomes valuable, the equation of interrupting their productivity to produce a child changes.
There might be some value in some sort of retirement care in places that don't currently have the same, as that's a force in China at least.

[unjonharley]

We could go all Hitler all over the place..Along with the jew He cleaned out all the nut houses. Of all the war pictures I saw.. I didn't see one power chair. The pictures of soldiers were very young strong people.. Everyone else went to the shake and bake..

This earth is not over crowded.. It's the halves pushing the have not into
smaller and smaller areas.

It's all in order.. We are beganing to see Soylet Green.. It may be hard to see through the fog of lies..

[BAS]

I'm not really sure, outside of education. There does seem to be some evidence, assuming I am recalling correctly, that increasing people's possibilities has the side effect of, in general, the people in question putting off having kids. People tend to want to explore their individual potential first, then have kids when they've gone as far as they can. (Or maybe boredom is alleviated by sex...?)

My brother mostly used the overpopulation argument back in college, and at that age it is just considered cool to win an argument, not to follow through with what to do after winning.

I feel like I am coming down with something, again or still! So my answers might not be the best. Sorry.

[trilobyte]

I don't know, I think 7 billion+ is crowded. Sure, the poor are packed in more tightly in the smaller spaces and the rich just seem to keep turning the screws, but its also a case of way too many people in total. I also think population centers have to do with other factors besides poverty. Some parts of the planet are desolate and sparsely populated for a reason, they can't support much life. Other bits can support lots - and do. The net result right now is that with this many people the planet's resources are at the breaking point. The amazon is running out of rainforest, the sea is running out of fish, and a myriad of less sensational problems are occurring - none of which would be as alarming if there were a third as many people on the planet.

[Box Burner]

One word: Overpopulation.

Agreed; pretty much everything comes back to overpopulation.

We would already be going off planet if the space program had been in private hands instead of gov.

[wh..sh]

Hello!
In my country, with 1.2 billion population, poverty and illiteracy plays in big role in population growth.
Sure, there is a considerable % of people who aren't aware of various birth control processes and options that is available out there.
And for many people who live below poverty, sex is the only good thing or entertaiment they experience in their life time.
That said, it also has a lot to do with the culture. India is very family-oriented culture based on various joint family concepts.
For most, having no children (or even one) is not an accepted or a desired lifestyle. As it stands with my generation, we are pretty standarized to two children per family concept.

That said, India is one of the places where you witness extreme adaption. Resources are horribly short!!
System is not perfect, just like many other things. When we were kids, we would have 2 hours of rationed water supply.
We would fill our reservoirs and for any need for extra water meant having to walk few blocks to a community water boring-pump.
Just last year, I was at my uncles, and they do not have power supply for almost 8 hours through the day.
These things are just part of our lives. You would find the most innovative adaptive skills in Mumbai monsoon, it will blow your mind!

Humans are extremely adaptive! But, this whole thing is a vicious cycyle. The worse earth's climate gets, the more we dip into resources and the more we dip into resources, the worse we make everything.
We are slowly but surely changing the way we think and the way we live. As everything we will reach a tipping point and everything will start all over again.
I mean, except for few ice ages, Earth was ice-free, wasn't it?

[theCryptofishist]

We don't know that. It may simply not be possible. And even if it were in private hands, there'd be lots of government support, like the opening of the West via the railroads.

[BoyScoutGirl]

History says overpopulation will take care of itself.

Perhaps, but I think most of us are hoping the whole Earth doesn't go the way of Easter Island.

[Ugly Dougly]

That's a somewhat messy solution.

[gyre]

I agree.
It may not be wholly pleasant.

But it has happened before.

[unjonharley]

History says overpopulation will take care of itself.

Perhaps, but I think most of us are hoping the whole Earth doesn't go the way of Easter Island.

Those people were a bunch of stoners

[Ugly Dougly]

I agree.
It may not be wholly pleasant.

But it has happened before.

See that narrow line of ash and detritus in the sandstone? That's something that they called "civlilization".

[Elliot]

History says overpopulation will take care of itself.

See that narrow line of ash and detritus in the sandstone? That's something that they called "civlilization".

I love it! Maybe we should call it "sillivization".

[gyre]

The thin grey line.

I never said it would be pleasant.

It's suggested it will be mostly plastic, though I'm unconvinced.

[Captain Goddammit]

Goddammit Unjon are you fucking CRAZY??!!! Do you realize you're suggesting the government GREATLY expand it's role as our "parents", telling us even more what we can and can't do, increasing taxation... are you CRAZY??!!!! You want the government micromanaging our lives more??!!!
YOU of all people??!!!

Funny, but I don't remember Detroit ever forcing me to buy anything!
Taxing cars over a certain horsepower is ridiculous. There are so many holes in that logic! Where to even begin... originally, in the late '60s and early '70s, it was the insurance companies penalizing high-horsepower cars, so the manufacturers simply underrated them.

Now you can buy extremely powerful cars because they figured out how to make power AND be efficient. Today's base-model V6 Mustang is more powerful and more efficient than a 1990's model GT with the old 5.0 V8. That's progress!!!