I don’t want to kill anybody. The planet would benefit in the long term from less people and so all the countries and governments of the world (and more aggressively in the first world, I concede that point) should act accordingly whilst at the same time working to remove the need to have lots of children, poverty being one of them. As for solar, in the UK? Really? Ever driven from LA to Vegas? Close to one of the hottest places in the world, never rains and half way along that road there’s 200,000 wind turbines. As for food packaging, absolutely. A lady serving me in a supermarket once remarked that I was buying a lot of plastic bags which killed dolphins. We had a chat and I pointed out all the things that they sold that had utterly wasteful packaging just to make their storage / profits easier. Have all the veg loose and put it in one bag not packs of fruit. REally, 5 bananas in a plastic bag that can be picked up and carried with a finger? Ludicrous.
We all want to save the planet. In the long term a bit of insulation, turning the lights off and buying a Prius (HA) won’t do diddly in the great scheme of things.
yes 100%. There is a massive square meterage available for it. It doesn’t meet all our energy needs but it replaces a big chunk.
My point is that there’s a massive raft of ideas and possible solutions that all help a little bit in one way or another but it needs government to legislate it rather than asking people to do or even fund it themselves. Similarly companies need to be forced to include or change things at their end. It all adds up.
Another would be writing contracts that force a certain level of investment in waste water systems. That would reduce the amount of shit in the rivers but it’s not happening because governments will not invest.
You know the guy who ran the biggest solar installer in the UK now runs the company that’s suing installers for mis-representing the actual production?
Sunak “Boris, let’s put loads of environmental investment into the budget, sort out water waste systems and pump billions into solar”
Boris “mumble, votes, mumble, biscuits, money to my mates” etc
Hanlon’s razor doesn’t apply as I think the Conservatives are malicious at times and in ways. But a government saying they’ll do X, Y or Z and investing £££££ over the next few years really does the square root of bugger all.
Ring the planet with solar built in new cities that have free electricity and huge numbers of workers who’s lives are improved overnight. It’s simplistic and needs a little work but it solves the energy problem.
Or turn the light off, good luck there. I know I’m being negative here and yes we can all do a bit but it needs massive, cultural change and quickly.
The dinosaurs had no space program so couldn’t deflect the meteor that killed them. That’s not a strawman, that’s a statement of fact. Feel free to correct me.
Being factual is irrelevant. Straw man because it’s a fallacy and an argument that misrepresents and takes the easier/irrelevant option than the discussion at hand
Perhaps this should be in the Climate Change thread but you may recall that I had a genius idea of converting lamp posts into charging points for electric vehicles only to find that I was 2 years late and someone else is already doing this and, no doubt, making millions.
Well, I had another the other day and I haven’t checked yet whether it’s already being patented and rolled out.
It occurred to me that so much of what we do produces energy as a natural biproduct that isn’t captured. I was thinking about the turbulence created by moving vehicles; trains, trams, tubes, buses, trucks, cars etc.
This is a constant source of wind energy at the sides of roads, train tracks etc. Why not install regular wind turbines at the sides of roads - these could replace the traditional distance markers. Those turbines would then capture this constant turbulence and dynamos would convert that into electrical energy. This could then be used to provide supplemental power to illuminated road signs, road lighting, traffic lights, speed cameras etc and re-charge battery packs for lighting when not needed during the day.
This is energy that is already being produced but not being harnessed.
told you months ago that your destiny lied with WhatsApp and freezer lorries. Dont give up yet.
But your principles are 100% right. Lots of small measures can all add up to something good. Governments relying on private entities to drive this forward through investment and legislation forcing change and development.
SpaceX have a number of challenges before they can put anything into orbit and then, a bunch more to get anything launched into LEO, to somewhere. Then there is the whole how to (deflect it) question.
Even if SpaceX manage to realise their plan (and lets say we increase their budget by 500x), i.e. everything works out first off and they have a blank check book, the challenge is still so massive as to being nearly pointless to attempt to do anything about it (i.e. something like deflecting a sizable meteor/comet/asteroid). First, we have to be able to spot the object (not a given), then we have to spot it with enough time to be able to do anything about it - e.g. if we have a couple of 100 years forewarning, I’m pretty certain that we would be evacuating to Mars. If we have a couple of 1000 years, it might be touch and go.
In all my many years of arguing the toss about population, I’ve never met anyone who believes that we should reduce population, and also would be willing for their people to go first.
That’s because you pointed out the correct point that those luxuriated members of the 1st world are FAR more damaging than those poor bastards who live in hovels in Africa. See I’ve taken your words onboard.
Only in terms of reducing the birth rate, you all know I’m not advocating a Thanos scale mass cull. As mentioned above, I have one living child so I’ve done my bit.
Look what you’ve created
Careful the things you say, people will listen to quote a little Stephen Sondheim.
