If most of the world heated their homes with coal or wood prior to 1960 with all the carbon discharges.?

Question

Smog was a killer, vehicles did not have catalytic convertors and had extremely dirty exhaust fumes. Factories had very poor regulation of discharges compared with today. Yet we are told that all the damage to our earth is caused by modern vehicle and factory discharges.
Why is this the case?

Answer 1

Are you kidding? The world population more than doubled since the 60's (3 billion vs 6.4 billion today). In the 60's only a tiny proportion of the world was developed-- i.e. using fossil fuels. Now, we've got the 2 largest countries (China and India) contributing significantly to global warming that were not before.
Since the 60's we've lost rainforests, became dependent on cars, became power hungry, etc. etc.
The amount of fossil fuels being burned today is orders of magnitude greater than what was being burned in the 60s.
Yes, we have cleaner technologies and more fuel efficent cars and power plants, but this does not even begin to make up for the increase in usage.

By the way, the air is actually cleaner than it used to be (at least in developed countries). We are not spewing out nearly as much junk that cause acid rain (sulfer oxides and NOx), smog (NOx and VOCs), ozone depletion (CFCs), and haze (particulates). Because of this, there is less health hazards caused by air pollution (again, just in developed countries). *BUT* we really have not improved AT ALL interms of overall carbon emission, which is what is causing global warming.
The problem is, people don't consider carbon dioxide to be air pollution, so not much have been done about it.

Answer 2

I have gas for cooking, fire and central heating and would not wish to use coal anymore because of the work involved and the mess. My mother used to cook in an oven heated by the coal fire and, apart from another coal fire in the other downstairs room, that was the only heating in the house. Coal IS still used in homes in Britain but some areas are smoke free. These will be the more densely populated areas I imagine and will be enforced so that there is never a recurrence of the smog mentioned by Robin. Wood burners are now very popular but I cannot imagine them being a cheap option unless the owner has an endless supply of free or very cheap wood.

Answer 3

It isn't a lot the damage we are doing stems from those time, things are a lot cleaner now and we are reducing emisisons. but we are using huge amount of the earths resources with our unsustainable practise.

There is a lot of wool being pulled over everyones eyes and its hard to remain impartial. If you don't believe in global warming your an evil oil company latchkey and if you do your a tree huggin hippy.

I believe that until there is consencouse within the academic community then i will believe nothing that is said, whilst we do need to be aware of our own effects on the planet - the use of cars on journeys you could walk, littering and such like come with common sense. The big issues are only going to be proved in time or until they can fully prove the effects

Answer 4

You are quite right of course, because the motor-vehicles of to-day pollute very little, but they DO spew out a lot of CO2.

However, motor transport only accounts for 1% of total CO2 in the atmosphere, and even of the politicans succeeded in reducing CO2 emissions by 25% as the EU are now suggesting, it would only reduce total CO2 emissions by a staggering 0.25%.

In reality, due to international horse-trading and lobbying, the end result may be less than half.....about 0.125 of total CO2 pumped into the atmosphere.

It is exactly what I expected of politicians, who are happy to be seen to do SOMETHING, perhaps ANYTHING to convince people that they are worth re-electing.

They don't tell you that one of the biggest causes of CO2 emissions is that of centralised government departments and services; ranging from Brussels, to Whitehall, to Local Governmant Offices, Health Service HQ, Education, Hospitals, Schools, Post Offices, Sports facilities....the list if endless....and everyone now has to travel everywhere, all the time.

We encourage ever quicker and cheaper methods of producing consumer goods which last only a short time.....more energy use, more transport, more distribution, more waste, more pollution.....and what do the politicians do?

They encourage economic development, international trade in consumer goods, and subscribe to the neo-liberal economics of globalisation, growth and free-trade, when it simply isn't sustainable at the speed it is moving, due to the fact that we will deplete the resources of the planet to critical levels very quickly.

Politicians are no longer in control of circumstances, and therefore they will choose "soft targets" rather than meet the challenge.

Answer 5

There are alot more vehicle on the road now polluting the air.Industries have been polluting the air significantly for over 100 years.

Answer 6

Millions of tons of crap DAILY into the atmosphere is nothing to sneeze at. Pun intended.

We are shrewing ourselves over for a buck.
Shooting ourselves in the herd.
Stepping on our own ducks.
Cutting off our nose to spite our finch.
Kicking ourselves in the asparagus beetle.

For the almighty dollar we're ruining it for everybody and everything, and people who deny it are three fries short of a Happy Meal.
Have a nice day.

Answer 7

The effects are cumulative. We keep adding to it: larger population, more cars on the roads, forests being destroyed, water being polluted and wasted, larger factories, wars, agriculture....all of this adds to it.

Answer 8

Just look at China and India, for the answer, thats what i call pollution

Answer 9

theres nothing else to blame today,plus to days cars etc(especially in the states)are fuel guzzlers and cause100 times more carbon dioxide than wood,coal etc,

Answer 10

SHUT UP! You're not supposed to mention that the Emperor is NAKED! It's all just a Liberal scam. But don't tell anyone you heard it from me...