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That environmentalists have consistently promoted tourism and the service economy as the answer to all things economic is precisely the problem that I have with them.You keep cutting down trees and there is no photosynthesis going on so the oxygen carbon dioxide ratios are stuffed. We are slowly poisoning ourselves.
One of the biggest contributors to the build up of carbon dioxide in the atmosphere, which you hear very little about, is those big ol jet airliners carting everyone off on their holiday or that big important business trip.
And they dump their pollution at 30,000 feet above sea level. Go figure.
It may well have stopped an assortment of local pollution and other environmental harm, only to transfer it to China etc, but it's directly adding vast amounts of CO2 via travel, especially aviaition. Then they tell us to catch the bus to work, as though that is somehow going to offset the extra emissions from increased tourism and the service economy / globalisation.
I call BS on this one big time. If anyone is serious about cutting CO2 then start supporting things which actually fix the problem or at least reduce it. That means relocalisation of manufacturing and the development of large scale non-fossil energy sources that can actually be built and used as an alternative to fossil fuels. And with present technology that means, in practice, nuclear and hydro supplemented with wind and a bit of biomass, all of which are totally or substantially opposed by mainstream environmentalists. In the not too distant future, geothermal may be added to that list but it's viable only in a small number of locations at present where wet geothermal fields are suitable.
And stop supporting things that make it worse, tourism and the service economy being the most obvious to head the list. Shipping materials and goods around the world whilst turning the Third World into wealthy consumers might suit some socialist ideal, but it sure won't do anything to CO2 emissions other than ramp them up, up and up again.
There's not much hope when even so-called environmentalists oppose the solutions and support those things which can only make the situation worse. That's a big part of the reason I just can't see anything being done. Anyone who tries, gets whacked over the head by the greens who always seem to find some problem with any proposal big enough to actually make a difference. Truly amazing just how common some of these endangered species are and how just about every forest / river / hilltop or scenic landscape is apparently the last one left. Protect the lot and we're stuck with fossil fuels...