It seemed clear to me that anyone watching Al Gore’s documentary regarding the condition of our Earth would be ready to help wherever they could. I was shocked to find that, despite the studies and his attempt to explain them in “real world” terms, some just didn’t get it. Upon traveling into the message boards of the website tied to this movie and elsewhere, I was discouraged to find people stating that the whole thing was a sham and that he didn’t explain things (i.e. how carbon dioxide was trapped in the atmosphere – the cartoon seemed pretty clear to me, what were they looking for??) that could have verified their point. It seems to me that many people simply do not want to put forth the effort required to approach issues such as global warming. I wonder what they think of this whole terrorism farce.
Further research has shown me that we can expect dramatic changes to many countries by 2045 with epic proportions by the year 2100. Now, I may not be alive then, but it’s likely my children will be and assured that my grandchildren will have to deal with the problems caused by displaced populations and lack of resources! My mother often comments that she cares what happens to the Earth because of my children. Unfortunately, this has not motivated her to become less of a consumer or to do at least a little bit of recycling. All I can do is sigh and step it up that much more in the hopes of making at least a small difference.
I believe our first order of business should be just that. Businesses generate a lot of waste and are the biggest consumers. Take a look at NASCAR. The tires used by each team in a single season could likely be recycled to pave hundreds of thousands (if not millions) of parking lots and roads. My recent stay at a local hospital opened my eyes to the usage problems they generate (almost paradoxically to the good they are trying to do). Every morning, two brand new trash liners were placed in the receptacles in my room – regardless if the previous liner had only a pair of gloves in it. Multiply that by 300 rooms! There is so much that can be done to slow our contribution to the problem and maybe more that can help us contribute to a reversal! I was unable to find out which elements we would need to send up into the atmosphere to neutralize the carbon dioxide molecules, but I’m sure there must be something. Also, in the interest of creating jobs for a few years, why don’t we organize teams to go into landfills and remove recyclable wastes (such as glass and plastics)? If someone were to look for something they can do to help the problem, there is certainly no lack of need. Unfortunately, there aren’t enough people taking an interest.
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Comments: 18
And our approach to buying vehicles. For every Prius sold, Americans snap up a dozen SUVs that get absurdly small distances per gallon of gas. Then we turn around and complain about paying too much for gas. Well who forced you to buy a Hummer, nitwit.
There are some studies that show that 85% of all waste in landfills decomposes over time. Opponents have tried to come up with alternative solutions with very little success. Idiots before thought we could dispose of waste at sea and this is still being done with all kinds of waste including radioactive material. There are actually waste satellites that have been sent up to orbit the earth! This presents a problem now because NASA has to track over 18,000 man-made satellites that orbit the planet. Recycling is good obvoiusly, but expensive and poorly regulated.
As far as hospitals, they are liable for the health of millions of people every year, and it only took a few lawyers to swindle billions of dollars from the health care system for them to regulate how often and exactly how much cleaning is done at every major facility across the nation. Mind you, these are in the public's best interest, but contaminents finding their way out of disposal receptacles and causing death by pneumonia is hard to believe. Gloves, trash bags, cotton swabs, bandages, uniforms, shoes, tongue depressers, digital temp reader covers, etc... you get the idea.
And then NASCAR. Use your head. How many vehicles are on the road today in the world? How about 500 million. That's 2 billion tires! I don't think the argument substantiates getting rid of the 32,000 tires NASCAR uses. Besides, opponents will just point to every professional sports team from every league and speak to the amount of jet travel, bus travel, beer drinking, cigarette smoking, and arena building that contributes to the problem. Well, maybe not beer drinking.
If you are really going to make a difference, stick to the main points:
POWER, POWER, POWER - almost everything that needs power needs coal. Reduce coal usage and force your legislators to go solar if possible
Vehicles - riding a bike seems primitive, but as long as you keep buying vehicles, Ford, Chevrolet, Toyota, Honda, BMW, Mercedes, Saturn, Mazda....you get the picture..... will keep convincing you they care by producing smaller, fuel efficient cars, LOL, yeah, right.
Yeah including fatass Al himself. Apparently the rest of us have to drastically change our lives to save the planet but ole Al gets to go globe trotting in a private jet, burning million of gallons of fuel, and he gets to live in a huge energy inefficient house. The guy's nothing but a hypocrite who needed to find a cause because the loss in 2000 was eating away at his soul.
I am so sick of every eco-nut telling me how it's been scientifically proven beyond a shadow of a doubt that mankind is the cause of the current global warming. In fact many scientists have come out against Al Gore and the whole global warming brou ha..only to be vilified by every latte drinking liberal though. That's the problem with the global warming debate...too much politics and emotion..especially from the left...and not enough real science.
Maybe the point is that most people cannot be bothered to always follow the finer points of what is going on in the world, and to understand it, and correctly respond to it. That is supposed to be why we have experts and a government.
Sadly we see what happens in our country when money is so scarce that experts are routinely bought, and politicians dance to the tune of those people with money as well. Not only do we not see action to fix things, we see aggravation of the many of the problems as those with money scramble to make the most of what they have left and find a new place to reposition their assets.
We have a systemic problem is what I believe. Our system is as polluted with money and undue influence as the atmostphere is with CO2.
It would be good if we can trust our experts again. If science becomes something people want to learn instead of mistrust. If lawyers and politicians can make their money helping the system run for everyone instead of gradually changing it to opeate only for the benefit of those who have exponentially growing bank accounts because of exponentially growing political contributions.
Now moving on to my reaction to the article. I think there are many good points brought up. I believe that the reason so many people are reluctant to believe what is emntioned in Mr. Gore's film because of who he is: a Democrat, a liberal. What people do not realize is that the issue of global warming and the like is not about political parties or a popularity contest for politicians. I think Melissa Ethridge described it well when she accepted her Oskar for her song in Gore's movie. She said something along the lines of: it's not about being Democrat or Republican; it's not about being conservative or liberal; it's not about being red or blue; it's about being green. I agree. It should be a universal effort, not for our own personal gain, but for the benifit of all who share this planet: present and future.
Finally, I would like to point out that this is a prime example of people being reluctant to change. Deep down they know that there is a problem, but they don't want to have to change the way they live. We have gron gluttonous. We overuse, destroy, and abuse our resources and now we are beginnig to pay the price. To any who reads this, I ask you; please do what you can. It will help you, your family, your friends, your children, and everyone around you. We can make a difference and be known throughout history as the generation who changed the environmental world. What do we ahve to loose? Even if we aren't causing global warming (which is more than unlikely), we still owe it to ourselves, the earth, and others to clean up the mess we made. I'm only 15-years-old. I have to live here for a lot longer than most of you have to. Please, do me and everyone else a favor; do what you can to solve this porblem, no matter how small your contribution may be.
>> you don't know the size of the jet he travels in, for
>> all we know it is most likely small, in an attempt to
>> waste as little as possible.
Nice try Jack ... you get an "A" for effort, but the argument
that - since we do not know what kind of jet Al Gore flies in
that maybe it is as small as possible, we do not know, does
not refute the argument that Al Gore is a hypocrite for
flying in jets at all.
That argument to me is absurd and does not need to be
refuted in the first place. If Al Gore did not get around in
the acceptable way people at his level get around we would
not hear from him at all - not that I like him that much. The
carbon that Al Gore would use compared to the total carbon
load weighed against the need to someone to take this issue
up is a win.
Sylvia .... if you think Al Gore lied during the campaign, go back
and listen to what George W. Bush said. To show up and shoot
that one-liner out there doesn't make a lot of sense.
Talk about lying.. GWB lies pretty much everytime he opens his mouth.
BTW as far as the energy AG uses he pays extra for green energy. At least in his house.
We need a solution for everyone ... we need a system-wide revolution .... what we do need is for biased people attacking the ones who want to improve things because they do not make some kind of token effort. It is nice that Gore buys green energy but he did not do it until this was brought up ... he was attacked into doing it. He has to ... but it does not make any difference to solving the problem.
Are we going to attack the poor people who cannot afford to pay for extra green credits? The whole argument is specious.
Also, to those of you who keep mentioning tha tyou don't like Al Gore: Fine, you don't ahve to like him, but show him some respect and at least do as little as to listen to what he has to say, because he brings up several very important points.
And finally, to Sylvia. You have really dug yourself into a pit here. To claim that there is the same amount of truth to Gore's film as there is to Moore's Farenheit 911 is completely rediculous. Moore admits that his film is oppinionated; while Gore's film is scientifically backed and most of the things are not oppinions, but proven to be true.
But whatever ... however much anyone's lifestyle or personal habits go against what they are preaching is not the issue. For instance, though many people worship Jesus, few are willing to get on a cross to save the souls of the world. That does not mean that we as humans cannot try to discuss complicated issues to see if there is some way that we can all move forward .. imperfect creatures that we are.
For instance, recycling. I always thought that it is stupid to have people recycle or conserve water because it lets those who do not just keep on in their wasteful selfish ways. We need to invent ways that automatically incent us to do the right thing ... it is called social engineering ... and if we do it right, even Al Gore, and George Bush would have to drive electric cars and stop polluting ... there's an idea.
I don't dispute the effects I DO dispute that with a "carbon pall" visible with the NAKED eye from the shuttle already hanging over Asia it is foolish to EXCLUDE China and other "developing" countries from the Kyoto Protocols.