On April 17, 2007 at 18:45, ChrisMc said...
I doubt
you’ll see China or Russia abandon their pollution-producing
infrastructure in a timely fashion. Environmentalism is
a luxury for rich western countries. The rest of the world
is still trying to emerge from shacks and shanties and
get through their own Industrial Revolutions.
Yeah, that is the scary part... Some of us that have been enjoying the good life might be a little more acdcepting in terms of life-style adjustments, if you were an impovershed country, that suddenly has a booming economy and are jumping on the mass consumerism bandwagon, driving big-assed gas guzzlers and all --- how can you convince those people that --- hey! we have a little problem here guys!!!
The fact is that change will be influenced largely by
the market with SOME government intervention. That may
come in the form of tax incentives or limited regulation
of uses of energy (i.e. CAFE standards on cars). When
people can buy energy-saving (money-saving) products that
perform as well as their older, energy-hungry products,
they will. And pollution will be reduced. It should be
pointed out that the US has already cut their own pollution
output in half over the past 30 years. This, as the US
economy has outgrown other western countries year after
year. More on that stat here:
Yep... and worldwide, by reducing the use of flourocarbons, the Ozone hole has just about gone away --- (Or so they say)... So, that gives me some hope that our kids and grandkids might be a little less apathetic about the environmental problems, and maybe come up with some actions and effect some positive change.
One scary statistic is that if the Ice Caps continue melting at a fast clip (like they are doing now)... the oceans could rise by 20 to 21 feet --- 3/4's of the worlds' populace live in the coastal regions -- and those folks would be looking for higher ground!
But heck, maybe this warming climate ISN't all do to man's spewing of carbon... maybe some of it is due to a natural cycle that comes along every few thousand years or so... It would still be nice to have cleaner air and water.
If anything else, this might help reduce the number of kids who are developing Asthma & Allergies... My kid has them, and his doctor says that Asthma & Allergies are now, like massively epidemic -- due to our air & water quality.
