[amehoubFomo]

"An inconvenient truth?" right?

i was also in a bad mood after i saw that movie, but it was because i was unimpressed by it. as passionate as it was, i don't think it made a very strong case for people who do not believe that global warming is a problem.

[Draftcasino.com]

There was a new show on telly last night Dumped. It was 12 people who have to live on a dump for three weeks. They don't have to scavenge to food but everything else they have to get from the 1,000 tons of waste around them. It was a bit Big Brother-ish but what gets me is that your average bloke can think only wearing underpants once before throwing them away is an acceptable attitude.

I don't care if people think global warming is a sham or 'one man can't make a difference'. We're all responsible for our own waste and what we consume. It's not that difficult to say hey I'll recycle that bottle even if just to provide a bottle sized hole in the landfill to put some other rubbish in

[johnuioyer]

i don't think it made a very strong case for people who do not believe that global warming is a problem.

U have a point there,but the majority of those people won't change opinion,
unless something drastic happens...

In same manner folks reacted about smoking.
It wasn't real,until people started suing the tobacco companies for lung cancer and other illness.

People don't bother with things like that, until it happens in their neighborhood
or to a close person.

I guess this isn't interesting as this video

For me, in the mentioned movie the pictures of Now and Then made the best
impression of climate change.
---------------------------------------------------------------------------------------

However, it's very sad that "An Inconvenient Truth" and lots of other similar
movies/documentaries are more about politics.Who did what and how late.
This topic should be above that.
Every person should do research on they own,not just listen or agree with only one part or the other.
It shouldn't be presented in black&white manner.

[Serttyfd]

Excellent list!
Vacuum energy is my favorite!

We can add to this mix, a few other mass extinction events, which could happen at any time, we know almost nothing about, and have happened frequently in the recent past. Such things are;

1. Super Volcanoes
2. Magnetic Pole shift
3. Massive hyper-onset super ice age
4. Comet or Asteroid impact
5. Mass Planktonic extinction
6. Random blasts of cosmic radiation
7. Super massive Solar flares
8. Super spontaneous global warming
9. World wide incurable pathogen outbreak
10.Tectonic plate reversal
11. Global Typhoons

Which I suppose makes the times we are living in to be one of the calmest in thousands, perhaps millions of years...

..almost..too quiet....

Bill Bryson seems to take great delight in listing things that will cause you immense existential...uh...inconvieniece in his writings and his book, A Short History Of Nearly Everything, is no exception. It goes into great detail about some of the events in the above list. I freely confess that I felt incredibly small and vulnerable after reading that book.

[weightpillsnow]

I look forward to the day that I can make money on my way to work by Carbon Trading on my bike. All passing motorists would purchase carbon credits via an e-Tag on their dashboards, which would beep as I rode past, depositing money into my bank account via EFT. And the very fact of riding would keep me in the black, so I would always have credits to trade. In fact, "riding to work" would become my work. So instead it would be "riding to the beach", or "riding to a nice cafe".

And before you complain that my bike would have to be offset because of the carbon expended in its manufacture, I bought it second hand and it is over 30 years old, which would make it exempt. At least according to the framework that I just devised.

b

[RLRWai4B]

I try to do my part:

1) I used to drive fast V6 cars. Now I have a Honda Civic. Not the fastest, but the mileage is so much better.

2) When we go to other clubs to train, we car pool. Yes, even when we're four of us, we squeeze into my Civic.

3) I pack my lunches in tupperware so I don't use plastic bags.

4) If I use plastic bags (like Ziploc) I wash them if I did not store meat in them and re-use.

5) I love baths, but I take quick showers.

6) I wash my clothes in cold water unless they are very dirty.

7) I never leave lights on at home or at the Dojo.

Just some stuff I can think of off the top of my head. I do a lot of waste reduction work at my office too.

[unapelosina]

Bill Bryson seems to take great delight in listing things that will cause you immense existential...uh...inconvieniece in his writings and his book, A Short History Of Nearly Everything, is no exception. It goes into great detail about some of the events in the above list. I freely confess that I felt incredibly small and vulnerable after reading that book.

By co-incidence, I just finished his book "A Short History Of Nearly Everything" on Friday, hence my head was fresh with the list.
So while I think the odds of us humans making it in the long run are pretty slim, I also think it'll be mostly to do with other factors rather than our own.

I forgot who wrote:
"This is the way the world ends, This is the way the world ends, This is the way the world ends, not with a bang but a whimper."

~anyone?

[nushentelve]

Thomas Stearns Eliot, "The Hollow Men"


The Hollow Men

Mistah Kurtz—he dead.

A penny for the Old Guy

I

We are the hollow men
We are the stuffed men
Leaning together
Headpiece filled with straw. Alas!
Our dried voices, when
We whisper together
Are quiet and meaningless
As wind in dry grass
Or rats’ feet over broken glass
In our dry cellar

Shape without form, shade without colour,
Paralysed force, gesture without motion;

Those who have crossed
With direct eyes, to death’s other Kingdom
Remember us—if at all—not as lost
Violent souls, but only
As the hollow men
The stuffed men.

II

Eyes I dare not meet in dreams
In death’s dream kingdom
These do not appear:
There, the eyes are
Sunlight on a broken column
There, is a tree swinging
And voices are
In the wind’s singing
More distant and more solemn
Than a fading star.

Let me be no nearer
In death’s dream kingdom
Let me also wear
Such deliberate disguises
Rat’s coat, crowskin, crossed staves
In a field
Behaving as the wind behaves
No nearer—

Not that final meeting
In the twilight kingdom

III

This is the dead land
This is cactus land
Here the stone images
Are raised, here they receive
The supplication of a dead man’s hand
Under the twinkle of a fading star.

Is it like this
In death’s other kingdom
Waking alone
At the hour when we are
Trembling with tenderness
Lips that would kiss
Form prayers to broken stone.

IV

The eyes are not here
There are no eyes here
In this valley of dying stars
In this hollow valley
This broken jaw of our lost kingdoms

In this last of meeting places
We grope together
And avoid speech
Gathered on this beach of the tumid river

Sightless, unless
The eyes reappear
As the perpetual star
Multifoliate rose
Of death’s twilight kingdom
The hope only
Of empty men.

V

Here we go round the prickly pear
Prickly pear prickly pear
Here we go round the prickly pear
At five o’clock in the morning.

Between the idea
And the reality
Between the motion
And the act
Falls the Shadow
For Thine is the Kingdom

Between the conception
And the creation
Between the emotion
And the response
Falls the Shadow
Life is very long

Between the desire
And the spasm
Between the potency
And the existence
Between the essence
And the descent
Falls the Shadow
For Thine is the Kingdom

For Thine is
Life is
For Thine is the

This is the way the world ends
This is the way the world ends
This is the way the world ends
Not with a bang but a whimper.

[rionetrozasa]

U have a point there,but the majority of those people won't change opinion,
unless something drastic happens...


People don't bother with things like that, until it happens in their neighborhood
or to a close person.

.

I quite agree. It is a shame but that is how the world works. I read somewhere (cannot recall where now) that all the toxic fumes from all the cars in the wolrd contribute less to global warming than the industrial output of one African country (sorry I have since forgotten which country it was). The gist being that whilst we should endeavour to cut back as much as we can on all our waste/pollutants the effect will be as nothing compared to what Industry pumps out each day. The article noted that the whole of Africa creates less damage to the environment than the Industries of either China, India or the USA.

If we really wish to make an impact we need to make inroads into the damage caused by industry. Unfortunatley we like having electricity, and flying in planes and having a big Army/navy/airforce etc etc so I think we need to find better alternatives. Don't think may people would wish to revert to the Dark Ages.

Of course, we as individuals should all cut back on waste and do our bit.

On a similar front I saw something brilliant last week in our local supermarket. a rather elderly woman was at the check next to me and had decided to follow the governments initiative on trying to reduce excess packaging on produce. Before putting anything into her bags she removed ALL excess packaging at the checkout .So the multipacks of biscuits had all the outer cellophane discarded, as did the fruit/veg which had been put in bags - I am sure you get the picture. It was a wonderfully chaotic scene. The poor woman on the till just sat there in a kind of agreeable bemusement but the supervisor who came across was very peed off at the mess and said as much to the old woman. The reply she got was great - "well if you wish, I can leave and shop elsewhere. Of course you will have to bag all this back up again". The supervisor ( a very officious type of person) promptly left. Delightful.

By co-incidence, I just finished his book "A Short History Of Nearly Everything" on Friday, hence my head was fresh with the list.
So while I think the odds of us humans making it in the long run are pretty slim, I also think it'll be mostly to do with other factors rather than our own.

I forgot who wrote:
"This is the way the world ends, This is the way the world ends, This is the way the world ends, not with a bang but a whimper."

~anyone?

Read that book twice now. I still haven't got my head round the bit s about there being more than 5 dimensions to this world - if anyone has a link to something that explains all this would appreciate it.


Oh and my wife wrote that quote but you have got it slightly wrong it should be .." this is the way Lee ends, not with a bang but with a whimper"

[Diandaplaipsy]

On a similar front I saw something brilliant last week in our local supermarket. a rather elderly woman was at the check next to me and had decided to follow the governments initiative on trying to reduce excess packaging on produce. Before putting anything into her bags she removed ALL excess packaging at the checkout .So the multipacks of biscuits had all the outer cellophane discarded, as did the fruit/veg which had been put in bags - I am sure you get the picture. It was a wonderfully chaotic scene. The poor woman on the till just sat there in a kind of agreeable bemusement but the supervisor who came across was very peed off at the mess and said as much to the old woman. The reply she got was great - "well if you wish, I can leave and shop elsewhere. Of course you will have to bag all this back up again". The supervisor ( a very officious type of person) promptly left. Delightful.

That's so right that she did that, if only we all took that stance. Unfortunately packaging is necesary for so many reasons, not least to ensure all the things like ingredients and health markings which have to be at a specific size. Wouldn't it be great though to be able to get products that you could bypass this because you had alreay had it before and didn't need to know.

Me and the wife had a brief 'discussion' about the six bags of bags I handed back to the Tesco delivery guy the other day. She was horrifed there were so many and embarrassed. They made the bags! They state they take them back [although the driver registered his unhappiness by saying some drivers are refusing them now] but if they will put one item in one bag it's tuff, they can be responsible for their own waste!

[Freefspruptpx]

Somewhere I read that China is the biggest CO2 emitter.
They build coal power plants fast as they can.
The poluttion from China affects the globe .
Of course there are more countries contributing the global warming and CO2 emitting.
However none has such a progressive pollution level.

Please don't forget, Global Warming wouldn't be so severe if there wouldn't be such deforestation.
We need more little something called Photosynthesis. that helps reduce CO2.
Rain forests are the lungs of Earth.
Save the forests.

[gueremaisse]

Totally agree with you Chaby.

I wrote to my local council some time ago pointing out that here in Darlington we have a very effective and green system of traffic calming so we did not need to create any artificial ones such as those god-awful humps in the road.

the 'system' I had seen is used in a place called Carmel Road and it has trees that line the road. Now this would not be considered as Traffic calming except that these trees sit astride the path AND the road; they also have preservation orders slapped on them because without them the local houses would sink into the mud that would become should all the trees be destroyed. I have driven along this road many timesand you simply have to slow down for the trees - partly because they jut out quite far but mostly it is a visual thing. They seem to jump out at you and this causes you to slow down.

Now in my view. trees are pretty, good for the environment, good for cleaner air etc etc so what reasons did the council give me for not deploying more trees to aid road safety?

1. The beloved EC give them a grant for traffic calming but not for planting trees so they did not feel it was "responsible" to plant trees using this money.

2. Health and Safety. Apparently trees are a health hazard because every once in a blue moon someone will fall out of one or a conker will drop on someones head and give them some kind of nasty illness like Imustsuesomefuckerforalltheirworthbecauseigotabito fabumpontheheaditis.

It make me want to weep.

I now know why people die. It's not because old age or disease kicks in - its because they have quite simply have had enough of beaurocracy.


sigh..................................

[GECEDEANY]

Oh and my wife wrote that quote but you have got it slightly wrong it should be .." this is the way Lee ends, not with a bang but with a whimper"

Funny, I always rather imagined you as the Pirate sort.

You know, YAAaaaARRGG!!! and all that...

[vipdumpp]

Few interesting pictures and facts.

From the satellite China is a black spot.

[KraskiNetu]

Funny, I always rather imagined you as the Pirate sort.

You know, YAAaaaARRGG!!! and all that...

Yeah well I do insist that wifey 'walks my plank' or something like that

[perpelverw]

Yeah well I do insist that wifey 'walks my plank' or something like that

wow, that sounds painful.
does she use high heels?

[Gideleb]

wow, that sounds painful.
does she use high heels?

I was thinking that too....

we are a sick bunch indeed.

[HunterM]

wow, that sounds painful.
does she use high heels?

I was thinking that too....

we are a sick bunch indeed.

Only when I have been naughty!

"Oooh, I have been naughtier than that Auntie"

[HBPujWBe]

Somewhere I read that China is the biggest CO2 emitter... Blah blah

Not per captia or by total...
Yet I still like they all stop building factories that produce poisonous toys, power plants that gives out sulphur, or digging in coal mines that require no H&S regulations.
Got this bad air allergy 2 years ago and have been sneezing almost every day (apart from when there's a typhoon).

[Hofonom]

Finally some effort has been made by leaders of the world's biggest polluters: U.S.A.,China and Russian Federation.
Still, not quite the expected results.

A sad fact is that there is no firm alternative for 2012,to replace the Kyoto Protocol.