05-31-2014, 09:57 AM
(05-31-2014, 05:35 AM)Duchess Wrote: I do wait until I have full loads to do laundry. I don't use my dishwashers unless I'm entertaining. I'm mindful to turn the lights off when I leave a room. I don't have a commute so I'm not using a shit ton of gas.
We looked into green energy to run the farm and while it would eventually pay for itself the start up costs were obscene, downright shocking.
I'm bad about the lights; my niece is worse.
Crash made good points in his OP. I understand his concerns.
It's gonna take governmental regulation, across the globe, for people and businesses to begin operating in a manner that helps to preserve the environment in a meaningful way, IMO. It's gonna require policy. I don't like regulation and policies generally, but I agree with crash that as individuals left to our own natures and devices, the commitment won't be there consistently enough unless there is a driving force behind it.
The latest climate change reports are interesting and concerning. Amazing to me that scientific research and reports from non-partisan experts can be written off as bullshit by some because it's embraced as imperative by "the other side". There shouldn't be any sides when it comes to this issue, as far as I'm concerned. Obama hasn't been able to get a clean air bill through Congress, so I understand that he is now using his executive authority under the 1970 Clean Air Act to issue an E.P.A. regulation --taking aim at coal-fired power plants, the nation’s largest source of carbon pollution--to put wheels in motion.
China and the US are the worst polluters of the environment according to all reports. China is slightly ahead of us now, but we led the pack for years and years. For years there's therefore been some back and forth going on between Chinese and American leaders in terms of which country has the responsibility to bite the bullet and lead (fund) some of the global environmental initiatives now being proposed through UN and other channels. One thing China's done is invest a lot of brain power and research into climate change. I get the sense that the Chinese view environment erosion as an immediate crisis, though, as you said, the worst impacts of not changing course wouldn't likely be recognized in the short term.
Obama's strategy / US-China positions - ref:
http://www.nytimes.com/2014/05/27/us/pol....html?_r=0