Does this make any sense? (global climate, environmental policy question)?

Question

Let me preface by saying I'm a Republican... so...

1. I'm fairly sure global warming is happening.

2. Not convinced (yet) that it's all our fault, versus some natural warming cycle corresponding with us being on the tail end of the last ice age, or some other natural explanation.

3. Not convinced that it is the doomsday scenario everyone tells us. Seems like it might just be nothing more than a challenge that we have to adapt to. Rethink our policies about settling on coastlines, conserve water, rethink agricultural practices, etc.

4. HOWEVER... Doesn't it make sense to go ahead and find a full replacement for fossil fuels, say - in the next 25 years or so - JUST IN CASE? Seems to me we'd have MUCH cleaner air, AND we wouldn't be dependent on foreign energy sources from unstable governments that hate our guts. What am I missing?

Answer 1

Mindful question, certainly.

Yes, our planet is getting warmer. The problem is the rate of change, which is accelerating. [Please do not bring up the midwest icestorms, it's supposed to be this cold in January]
Some of it is caused by all of humans, consuming like mad, demand for electricity in the developing world, transportation in the west, etc. Really looks like no end in sight, consumption-wise, increasing population and all.

The doomsday scenario is not likely to impact us - you or I - very much, at least in the near term. It will be doomsday for some of the other residents of the planet, though, whether it's coral reefs, or polar bears, or tree frogs. Some of the frogs are already goners, as their eggs determine gender based on ambient temperature. As the temperature has risen in Central America, some of the frog populations became unisex, and thus dead-ended their futures. People that live in subsistence cultures will be stressed as well, as more variable weather will not help in crop production, be it hotter, wetter, drier, or colder.

We do need to choose and use fuel wisely. Transportation will need to morph away from fossil fuels, although that seems unlikely due to their low costs today. Hybrids, electrics, and exotics will work for ground and some sea tansportation; nuclear will work on large ocean going vessels; I don't know if there is any plausible solution for air travel, though. Fossil fuels pack more punch(BTUs) per gallon than things like ethanol or methanol, or so I have been told, so that should be verified on the web somewhere.

We need to start building solutions now. Stay home. Take the bus. Turn that light off. Shut the door, you're letting the heat out / in. Gosh, turns out my parents knew this was coming all along.

Answer 2

Dude, if you seriously study global warming then you should be convinced we are causing it and that is will be a major problem later on (agriculture).

How the hell could we fully replace fossil fuels in the next 25 years? The huge changeover in infrastructure would take many decades, and even then there are no alternative sources that can replace fossil fuels fully. If you do serious research on alternative energy, you'll see that it just can't happen.

In industrial civilization, it's or nothing. But we'll run out of cheap oil very soon and then we'll stop using it. Of course that means an end to our way of life. Good riddance.

Answer 3

I don't trust them either. Here is why there is no global warming. It is political in nature the environmentalist think we burn too much fuel ,Wrong ,then they went to saying that CO2 is causing the earth to get hotter Wrong again. CO2 is the first step in nature recycling our air system . The plants take in CO2 and keeps the C and gives us back the O2 . Great that is the big step. How long will it be before we run out of fossil fuel. Would u believe never . Now go back to the other part of the cycle on the C . this is how the plants produce their food. The CO2 accelerates the plants growth and then winter comes and the leaves fall off and wash down the rivers to the delta where they deteriorate to form gas ,oil, and coal. Where do u think our original fossil fuels came from?

Answer 4

Technically speaking, since the industrial revolution we have been abusing the planet, world wide. Currently in India, places that were not exposed to smoggy air such as rural farm areas now have a smoke stack of some sort for energy. The dependency of fossil fuels is detrimental from a personal car use standpoint and motor cities such as L.A. isn't exactly helping the planet either. It will come to a point where fossil fuels will be depleted and populations will need to find an alternative to transportation and/or an alternative to energy.

Conservation is key to everything, conserving everything from energy to water. Water conservation is also key to many areas that do not have have high levels of water retained for use in correlation to population. If individuals took into account each action of their life, something could drastically be reduced thus saving/reducing some sort of natural resource. Recycling plastic products, waste reduction, is apart of this who schematic.

If people simple made recycling and conservation a part of one's life, that is one step towards lessening our dependency to fossil fuels. The U.S. lifestyle of individuality harms this principle but there are many ways individuals could "save the earth" relatively speaking and gradually move to alternative sources of energy.

Answer 5

While it would be a good idea if possible, the complete replacement for fossil fuels in 25 years would be very difficult in practice, especially with regard to transportation fuels. Replacement of a significant percentage of the fossil fuels used in stationary applications, especially power generation, would however be achievable.

Answer 6

your just missing the fact that americans are so self deluged into believing its own worth is more than the rest of the human population and the earth that we inhabit.