Global Warming?

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   / Global Warming? #711  
World population is going to grow until something comes along to disrupt it. Major wars, famines, etc.

Blaming Africa isn't resolving anything. What are you doing to reduce your consumption of this planet? Are you net zero? A good portion of the people in Africa live on a watt hour a day or less. How much energy did you use last month? People in this country use more energy going to the store for a quart of milk than a whole African village uses in a week.

So the problem is population, I agree but that's only half the story, the other half is the massive imbalance of energy. The US uses 1/4 of the world's energy, why aren't you complaining about that!

Rob
I'm not "blaming Africa", that was just a prime example, the same situation exists on all continents. I don't "blame" a group of organisms which when given sufficient resources reproduces, it is the nature of the beast.

What I am blaming is the policy to "feed and breed". When we feed entire large populations with out implementing measures so they don't reproduce beyond their means to support themselves we then have even larger populations to try and maintain.

If you've seen the movie Idiocracy this is where we may be headed. Most smart, hard working people do not have the time to reproduce far beyond their means. People who depend on welfare of others do. Remember the old "welfare queens"?
China's "one child" policy introduced in 1978 was extremely effective in reducing run-away population growth.

I see nothing wrong with sowing a thousand tree seeds on and acre and knowing I'm going to have to kill all but 500 or a 100 before maturity because I only have space for them. I don't like to even think of getting 10 dogs and killing 18 of them before maturity because I only have room for two.

And I have been complaining about people using energy far beyond what I think is necessary when it's using up resources. I let the household thermostat go down to 60 in the winter and up to 75 in the summer (used to be 58 and 80 until I couldn't put up with SWMBO's complaints). I scoff at people who need it 72 year around.
I am amazed at people buying SUV's for daily driving and then complaining about gas prices, people that choose to drive 30 miles daily and complain about commute time.
I and SWMBO were brought up with the adage "Use it Up, Wear it Out Make it Do or Do Without".
I believe that practice, along with good educations, is what has enabled us to obtain our acreage and houses.

And yes, I realize world population will grow, but it could have grown within it's means if we did not pursue the "feed and breed" policies. I believe wars and famine would go a long ways to reducing population, but wouldn't it be kinder, easier, cheaper not to have to kill off part of the population?
 
   / Global Warming? #712  
I do not disagree with everything you said however......

CFL's do indeed use much less energy than incandescents as you said. Unfortunately they do not last longer, as advertised, and my experience often burn out much quicker especially in the flood light form (you did not address that issue.)
You are wrong about the amount of mercury being less than in an old thermometer. Having unfortunately broken a CFL and had to clean up the aftermath I have first hand knowledge. I also broke an old thermometer (30 years ago) and had to clean that up and there is no comparison to the quantities involved. Trying to find a safe proper way of disposing of the spilled mercury is a nightmare. Loose/free mercury is not like a normal spilled liquid/water if you have never seen it free in the environment. Technically it is a metal, the only one that is liquid at room temperature. The folks that take CFL's for recycling will not consider the mercury from a bulb breakage and you do not want to just put it in the trash or any normal disposal method.

I'm not wrong about mercury (see chart below). And CFL's last longer, soon we will be running LEDs as the technology improves but for now CFL's are the best environmental solution and are marginally better than incandescents.

http://rehs.rutgers.edu/pdf_files/MercuryInCFLs.pdf

"Always Dispose of Your CFL Properly
While CFLs for your home are not legally considered hazardous waste
according to federal solid waste rules, it is still best for the environment to
dispose of your CFL properly upon burnout. Only large commercial users of
tubular fluorescent lamps are required to recycle. If recycling is not an
option in your area (see below on how to find out), place the CFL in a
sealed plastic bag and dispose the same way you would batteries, oil-based
paint and motor oil at your local Household Hazardous Waste (HHW)
Collection Site. If your local HHW Collection Site cannot accept CFLs
(check Earth911.org to find out), seal the CFL in a plastic bag and place
with your regular trash."
 

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   / Global Warming? #713  
So, we need answers to so many problems. Some here think we simply starve off what they see as unneeded people. Do not feed them. Do not educate them. Do not see they have their poverty eliminated. Do not give them the basics of life and the time to educate their children. That way, the greedy of this world can keep them stupid, buy for them the brutal leaders they don't elect, treat them as slaves in their sweat shops to feed their controlled markets, and ***** about how they breed and feel superior to them.

Poverty creates the human problems. You want birth rates to drop. You want crime to drop. Stop gaining at the expense of others. Those in first class are always ready to sacrifice those in steerage. They see this as the natural order of things. Well, our earth-ship is sinking. It is being engineered to go under. It is engineered by blind greed, maintained by divide and rule by any means from war to total immersion in propaganda. It is the difference between blind self interest and enlightened self interest. Good luck to us while the greedy rule the heap.
 
   / Global Warming? #714  
I'm not "blaming Africa", that was just a prime example, the same situation exists on all continents. I don't "blame" a group of organisms which when given sufficient resources reproduces, it is the nature of the beast.

What I am blaming is the policy to "feed and breed". When we feed entire large populations with out implementing measures so they don't reproduce beyond their means to support themselves we then have even larger populations to try and maintain.

If you've seen the movie Idiocracy this is where we may be headed. Most smart, hard working people do not have the time to reproduce far beyond their means. People who depend on welfare of others do. Remember the old "welfare queens"?
China's "one child" policy introduced in 1978 was extremely effective in reducing run-away population growth.

I see nothing wrong with sowing a thousand tree seeds on and acre and knowing I'm going to have to kill all but 500 or a 100 before maturity because I only have space for them. I don't like to even think of getting 10 dogs and killing 18 of them before maturity because I only have room for two.

And I have been complaining about people using energy far beyond what I think is necessary when it's using up resources. I let the household thermostat go down to 60 in the winter and up to 75 in the summer (used to be 58 and 80 until I couldn't put up with SWMBO's complaints). I scoff at people who need it 72 year around.
I am amazed at people buying SUV's for daily driving and then complaining about gas prices, people that choose to drive 30 miles daily and complain about commute time.
I and SWMBO were brought up with the adage "Use it Up, Wear it Out Make it Do or Do Without".
I believe that practice, along with good educations, is what has enabled us to obtain our acreage and houses.

And yes, I realize world population will grow, but it could have grown within it's means if we did not pursue the "feed and breed" policies. I believe wars and famine would go a long ways to reducing population, but wouldn't it be kinder, easier, cheaper not to have to kill off part of the population?

As I have said before here world hunger is a political issue not an agricultural issue. You're mixing apples and oranges. Feeding starving people is a humanitarian issue, population control is an educational issue.

So what are you advising with your tree analogy? That we kill off people or simply stop addressing world hunger? How about we address the reasons for world hunger. We produced enough food in 2008 to feed 11 billion people, there were only 5.8 billion people on the planet at the time. So it's not an agricultural issue. We have despots growing cash crops to feed their personal coffers while the masses starve or we have countries force to grow cash crops to pay their world debts. This is why people starve (look at Darfur), should we address over population? Sure but that again is an educational issue. When you only have as many children as you can comfortably support that is the result of education, that's the only difference between your child and the starving child in a developing nation.

We have a remarkable ability to look at someone else as though we could never be in their place. I look a suffering person and realize that, for whatever reason, I have been spared that suffering.

"There but for the grace of God go I"

Rob
 
   / Global Warming? #715  
So, we need answers to so many problems. Some here think we simply starve off what they see as unneeded people. Do not feed them. Do not educate them. Do not see they have their poverty eliminated. Do not give them the basics of life and the time to educate their children. That way, the greedy of this world can keep them stupid, buy for them the brutal leaders they don't elect, treat them as slaves in their sweat shops to feed their controlled markets, and ***** about how they breed and feel superior to them.

Poverty creates the human problems. You want birth rates to drop. You want crime to drop. Stop gaining at the expense of others. Those in first class are always ready to sacrifice those in steerage. They see this as the natural order of things. Well, our earth-ship is sinking. It is being engineered to go under. It is engineered by blind greed, maintained by divide and rule by any means from war to total immersion in propaganda. It is the difference between blind self interest and enlightened self interest. Good luck to us while the greedy rule the heap.

Well said!
 
   / Global Warming? #716  
Yup!!!

I have a small cow calf operation on 160 acres of land that used to be all cotton. Nearby town used to have 5 cotton gins and a railroad when cotton was king and then when the land was played out from mono-cropping cotton the town lost all grocery stores all 5 cotton gins and the railroad. There is no visible evidence of the prosperity or the activity or the RR or gins. Latest census shows the population under 400.

My land is pretty much reverted back to pre-cotton conditions as regards grass. It is mostly native prairie grasses which do not respond well to artificial fertilizers so fertilizing is just feeding the weeds. I have never purchased hay and resist selling mine. My black Angus are raised on grass and the hay they get is baled from their pastures. They get feed supplementation in addition to hay in winter. The supplement is grain based, byproducts for the most part of grain to alcohol process, distillers grains, corn gluten, and soy hulls. I use no growth hormone implants or artificial junk. My beef is beef not chemical beef.

As to many foreign nations being low in meat consumption; that is not by choice for the most part, they'd eat it if they could get it. The percentage of the planet's population that chooses to be vegetarian or nearly so is quite small. We did not evolve/descend from vegetarians, we are omnivores.

We are over polluting the planet and harming our environment and may be messing up our climate as well. The single greatest factor in pollution and any human contribution to detrimental climate change is first and foremost due to over population.

People have difficulty looking ahead and if there are problems coming that are new they typically go unrecognized and are not ameliorated up front. The majority of people have enough trouble recognizing a repeated problem so expecting them to see a new one coming is unrealistic. We have never before polluted or over populated the planet beyond the "elastic limits" so expecting people to correct a problem they are ignorant of is itself not only over optimistic but displays abysmal ignorance.

If the answers or cures are unpalatable we tend to avoid taking the actions needed. We know it will hurt puppy to cut its tail so we wait, puppy grows, and the problem grows with it. Going to dentist to get cavity filled.... oh no it will hurt. A tooth rotting out hurts worse and is a health hazard but that is "hypothetical" and in the distant(?) future, over the planning horizon.

The real deal is too much population growth. Even the Chinese "get it." It is hard to name many problems of a global scale that wouldn't be helped by a reduction in population. (This certainly includes any effects of human kind as regards negative effects on climate.)

Pat

I hope your cattle operation is going well.

I agree with everything you stated about peoples understanding of what is happening on this Earth.
 
   / Global Warming? #717  
As I have said before here world hunger is a political issue not an agricultural issue. You're mixing apples and oranges. Feeding starving people is a humanitarian issue, population control is an educational issue.
Rob
An educational issue [incredulous icon]. You attribute nonhuman rationality. Absent catastrophic pressure that will finally occur 'naturally', it will take regulatory control. If only there were rationality prevalent anywhere.
larry
 
   / Global Warming? #718  
Enjoy your meat but we eat too much beef. People eating a 16 oz. steak? Do you have any idea how detrimental to the human body that is?

OK so eat meat if you enjoy it but let's not kid anyone about its benefits, they're low. This idea that we need meat at every meal is simply wrong and unhealthy. We need vegetables, that should be the mainstay of the human diet, not meat. The planet will be better off too.

Rob

Rob, would I be wrong to assume you would like to be in a position to dictate what everyone eats and does?

You have absolutely no idea of what my diet consists or the vegetable to meat ratio in it. We stock very little highly processed food, chips, dips etc. are a 2-3 times a year concession to guests. We build stuff from scratch most of the time and read labels to avoid HFCS as much as practical. Large portions of meat are infrequent and do not out number the mostly meatless meals.

You are not our mother or the PTA. Well intentioned healthful recommendations are appreciated much more than condemning condescending remarks delivered as if to cretins.

Do you lead by example or expect everyone to do what you say not what you do. If you live what you preach then good for you, I applaud your enlightenment, otherwise it is the height of ludicrous sophistry.

The starvation, protein deficit diets, and other famine related issues would be much more easily cured by population reduction than by any other means. Feeding the starving sounds good but in practice it increases the problem instead of reducing it. Food for the starving is NOT alone a reasonable answer.

To complain we are eating too much while others starve points out a fundamental problem of a population allowed to outstrip its resources. There are lame and blind people all over the world. We able bodied sighted people, in accordance with recent guidance, should cripple and blind ourselves to reduce the inequality.

Any detrimental effect man has on our environment, including climate change, is exacerbated immensely by overpopulation. When you can't feed the people a government has no funds for projects that reduce the detrimental effects of overpopulation as they relate to environment and climate.

You want to reduce the detrimental effects of cattle on the planet? I suggest that large numbers of cattle eating and polluting but not being eaten is by far a greater detriment than raising cattle that are eaten. So try pedaling your anti-cattle sentiments in India.

Pat
 
   / Global Warming? #719  
I hope your cattle operation is going well.

I agree with everything you stated about peoples understanding of what is happening on this Earth.

The next time your child is hungry tell him or her that there is no food and no water and when they keep coming back keep telling them the same thing... see what happens.

It's a paradox to me, we keep asking God to bless America as though God's blessing is geographical. I think God's blessing either extends to every grain of sand in the universe or it doesn't extend to one single grain of sand.

Rob
 
   / Global Warming? #720  
World population is going to grow until something comes along to disrupt it. Major wars, famines, etc.

Blaming Africa isn't resolving anything. What are you doing to reduce your consumption of this planet? Are you net zero? A good portion of the people in Africa live on a watt hour a day or less. How much energy did you use last month? People in this country use more energy going to the store for a quart of milk than a whole African village uses in a week.

So the problem is population, I agree but that's only half the story, the other half is the massive imbalance of energy. The US uses 1/4 of the world's energy, why aren't you complaining about that!

Rob

African Countries are not the whole problem but the past and present colonization and exploitation of resources in those countries has been more obvious than other areas.

Sudan is an example of poor governance of the land and people. I have a Nurse friend that spends a month in Sudan on a medical mission every year for the last ten years. The village she visits is glad to see her every time the group comes. In between annual visits nothing gets done (no money, no resources). No assistance from the government.

They do have a school where the children up to about age fourteen actually learn the three R's. They do this without Electricity, Computers or Sanitation Facilities. The School is a metal roof building with two sides, rocks to sit on and slates to write on and a blackboard. Three hundred feet from the school sits a Russian made Tank that ran out of fuel and was abandoned then stripped of anything valuable.
 
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