> Dan Minette <[EMAIL PROTECTED]> wrote: > > Behalf Of Deborah Harrell
<some snippage> > > Well, with the latest consensus report on > > anthropogenic global warming....I was alarmed > > enough, especially WRT 'a third of all animal > species at risk of extinction' My bad: that should have been more like 20% -- which is still bloody alarming to me. > > within the next century, that I > > walked around my apt., trying to see what else I > >could do about my energy consumption.... > I realize you want to do what is right, and I don't > mean this personally, > but the type of actions you are taking, if practiced > by all people in the > developed world (including say, the US, W. Europe, > Japan, Taiwan, and S. > Korea), would slow global warming by about a year. > It is significantly less > than what is needed to meet Kyoto, and that would > only delay global warming by about three years. <wry> Time to up the ante? I also: - shower only on days I'll be in public (that might be daily in summer, but only 3 days/week in winter) - wash only large loads of laundry, mostly in cold, occ. in warm, but never hot water - run my dishwasher < once/week, fully loaded only - combine driving trips, ie grocery/bank/library/etc. (which is why I haven't been posting as often; in winter weeks I may drive on 3 days, although in summer it's as much as 6 or 7) - turn off all lights except in the room I'm using - reuse various containers (like plastic water bottles) until they're worn out - recycle what I can (paper, aluminum, etc) - use ~ 2 styrofoam cups/year (when traveling) - use passive solar heat in winter when able (when the sun is shining, thermal blinds are open, when it isn't, they're closed) - use a bucket/pitcher to save water while waiting for it to get warm (goes to flush toilet or water plants) - etc, etc I really do try to think about what I'm doing WRT energy consumption; I'll bet that if everyone did the same or more (and there are those who make me look like a glutton!), it *would* make a significant impact. > That doesn't mean the situation is hopeless...but it > means _everyone_ taking > an honest appraisal of the costs and practicality of > _every_ proposed course > of action before anything is done. > > I've already proposed some modest suggestions for > cutting fuel usage: > raising the tax on gasoline by 50 cents/gal/year for > the next 10 years. It > would not be unreasonable to include the same type > of tax on fossil fuels > used in power plants....think of them all as carbon > taxes. The money could > be reimbursed to people with tax credits/cuts which > would keep it as an > incentive to change without it bankrupting lower > income people. > > Nuclear power should be allowed to compete as a near > zero greenhouse gas > emitter, along with other forms of energy (such as > solar or wind). <grimace> I now actually think that the carbon problem is so serious that, despite the as yet unsolved morass of how to safely store spent fuel for hundreds/thousands of years, we need nuclear as a bridge. <seriously, I have a horrible expression on my face as I type this... :P > > But, that wouldn't stop global warming. It would, > probably, delay it a few > years and minimize the impact before we can develop > technologies based on new science. > > There are a few candidates for that already: > nanotech solar power, fusion > power, and to a lesser extent, biopower. My > suggestion has always been that > we spend money on the science now, so we can have > engineering in 30 years. > That's a practical time frame. I'm all for the research, but without reducing consumption *now* we (well, really, like cockroaches and coyotes, we'll survive as a species unless most of the ecosystem collapses) will see societal disruption on a massive scale before the century ends. With globalization and minimal warehousing of goods, particularly grocery items, it takes only a few days for folks to get hungry and panicked. And what will happen when all those coastal/equitorial areas are flooded? Where will those refugees go: who will be willing to let them in? And what about all the animals who won't be able to go anywhere safe? Debbi Earth Day Every Day Maru __________________________________________________ Do You Yahoo!? Tired of spam? Yahoo! Mail has the best spam protection around http://mail.yahoo.com _______________________________________________ http://www.mccmedia.com/mailman/listinfo/brin-l
