DALederle wrote:[... We] have to learn to take care of the environment we live in.
If nothing else, we're stewards of it, and should tread as gently as possible for the time we're here.
DALederle wrote:Just for the record I don't beleive in Global Warming.
This is best looked at in context. The version that's all too frequently slung around is that the hand of man is causing the whole problem. There's also the school of though that we're merely still in the process of clawing our way out of the last Ice Age. Then there's the more nuanced approach that takes both into account.
Is the place warming up? I'd posit "yes". From the viewpoint of my pathetically short life, I've noticed weather patterns changing, and weather notebooks I've examined from localities near where I live indicate a clear trend. However, I'm not willing to cast human activity a the sole villain (if villainy it is) because shifts like these are evident in the fossil and ice records. That said, should we -- as a species -- try to slow its progress simply to save our hides so we don't wind up in the very large statistical bin labelled "extinct"? I'd posit "yes", but doubt that we can do enough -- fast enough -- to make much difference.
I try to walk gently on Mother Earth. I drive a car that gets 30 MPG, strive to reduce the amount of stuff I buy (and then toss into landfill or incinerate); we're trying to grow some of our own produce in our yard, and we're supporters of local agriculture that has a tiny carbon-footprint compared to flying produce and meat in from South America or even farther afield. I turned the soil in our garden by hand instead of roto-tilling it. It's a rear-guard action; every Hummer or other SUV I see on the road makes my actions seem futile or worse.
We use cfl bulbs to cut down on electric use and run an electric lawn mower instead of a gas one. We shut things down when not in use and have seen a drop in our electric bill. This year we had new insulation blown into our attic and that has cut down on our heating/cooling bills.
The insulation will help, but beware of tightening your home up so much that you have no air exchange, for down that path lies "sick building syndrome". Powering things off may save in the short term but cost more later on as things need to get replaced because of expansion/contraction cycles, and using an electric lawn-mower instead of a gas one merely relocates the emissions from the (admittedly low-efficiency) mower engine to a big old power plant possibly thousands of miles away and doesn't take into account the inevitable electrical losses involved in transmission (which escape as heat, mind you). And CFL bulbs contain mercury. It's a balancing act.
[W]hen the hydrogen fuel cell cars were first being delveloped they extrated hydrogen out of the atmosphere. But big oil lobbied congress and made sure that poduction models had to have hydrogen tanks for filling. In other words, you can't buy a car that runs for free. You have to keep fueling it.
How many other tecnologies are out there being kept under wraps?
This is conspiracy theory and nothing more. Whilst it's a known fact that Hydrogen is the most common element in the universe (it's the simplest -- there's a connection there), it's so rare at ground level on Earth that it's virtually non-existent -- it "floats" in the heavier Nitrogen/Oxygen atmosphere (that's why it makes a great buoyancy material for lighter-than-air craft, save for it's unfortunate reputation) and winds up at the fringes of space or merely gets blown away in the solar wind. (The second most common element is the universe is Helium -- for the same reason, it's the second simplest, and a byproduct of stellar fusion, just like everything heavier.)
Can we do better? Yes, I believe we can. Will we do better? Somehow I doubt it. Yes, I am a pessimist; but I'm a pessimist who wears skirts so I don't have to turn the air-conditioning on as early in the year as I otherwise would, nor keep it turned down as far as I'd have to if I wore trousers.
