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Global Warming - How Valid and Serious?

What do you think of global warming?

  • There is no reliable evidence that indicates global warming (GW)

    Votes: 8 5.2%
  • There is GW, but the manmade contribution is UNPROVEN (brd),- and we should ignore it

    Votes: 12 7.8%
  • Ditto - but we should act to reduce greenhouse gas effects anyway

    Votes: 46 30.1%
  • There is GW, the manmade contribution is PROVEN (brd), and the matter is not urgent

    Votes: 6 3.9%
  • Ditto but corrective global action is a matter of urgency

    Votes: 79 51.6%
  • Other (plus reasons)

    Votes: 7 4.6%

  • Total voters
    153
As another general principle, one of the worst things for any sort of marketing (and lets face it GW is being marketed) is overkill.

Pound that message too hard and folks just turn off. I think there is a real danger of that already occurring (in true American fashion). Most people I speak to who accept GW as fact, accept it as fait accompli.

They've been told we're doomed so effectively, that it's "OK, we're screwed, so lets just enjoy life as best we can. we'll be dead anyway."
 
World expansion is a big problem and many a green activist fights against a coal mine being given the go-ahead without facing the poor growth and problems of the alternative fuels.

World growth in 2008 should be around 4.75%, IMF forecasts (2006-5.4%, 2007-5.2%), less in the West, but more in Asia and the Far east making the balance.
So, alternative green fuels need to grow in quantity, in 2008, by nearly 100% just to keep up with 2007.

2020 mentions UCC or anthracite, but progress on these is painfully slow, even though 20 cents on every tonne of coal produced in Australia goes in advancing production and technology. Vietnam seems to be a leading light in wanting anthracite supplies in the future.

Also don't think that all forms of so called green products are as green as many may like you to believe.
 
2020 said:
We also need fewer individuals. Meanwhile we continue to have "one for him, one for her, and one for the country" - ---- while China tries to restrain people to just having one (end of story). Lets talk about talk vs action .
Let's take a new spin on this one as well...
suppose we as Aussies insist that we need more Aussies for national defense or whatever - like, noway !! are we gonna limit our family size....

then, considering China has voluntarily deduced its population by regulation ( unpopular of course !! - amongst the Chinese populace) by more than 220 million or about the population of USA

then wouldn't you think, if we insisted on that situation being "fair"

then it would be fair for us to do our bit for Kyoto etc (and any and all other measures including personal reduction in energy usage).


PS Here I'll throw in one of those PS's - trust you understand no malice here prof...
Maybe the bedrooms of the second and third kids in an Aussie house should not have lights fitted?

I mean it wouldn't affect the third world either way, they have several familes sharing one bulb


PS I met a Chinese engineer who was working in Fiji - a young bloke posted there for 3 years. Whilst there his wife had their child ( a little girl), and he didn't see the child till he got home three years later. He missed her first giggles, her first words, her first steps, so many magic moments -

and he/they aren't allowed to have another

These people are putting in seriously hard yards, while we argue about our footy etc .
 
You see Al Bore is a egomaniacal t0sser with a hidden agenda, I wouldn't listen to him about anything.

I would listen to the likes of David Suzuki however, who rides pushbikes and takes his own cup to the baseball game rather than using a styrofoam cup for his coffee. (and has done for at least 10 years I know about)
 
They've been told we're doomed so effectively, that it's "OK, we're screwed, so lets just enjoy life as best we can. we'll be dead anyway."

Yes precisely, and im surprised at the sheer number of " Oh well I wont be here " crowd as well ....

Marketing the cause probably needs to be two tiered in that it needs to also address peoples selfishness with regards to next generations.

We probaly need to be pushing that we CAN and WILL win , with "your" help .... two of humans strongest natural mechanisms are Fight and Flight - we need to energise the Fight ! Like you said if the peoples are convinced by bubblevision that we are doomed they will choose Flight on GW and just carry on their merry little old habits way ...
 
I would listen to the likes of David Suzuki however, who rides pushbikes and takes his own cup to the baseball game rather than using a styrofoam cup for his coffee. (and has done for at least 10 years I know about)
wayne, hey, lol - think you're the only fan of Suzuki?

so where Suzuki and Gore overlap, you would accept the verdict?

(PS only difference possibly - pure conjecture ok - Suzuki gets paid, Gore doesn't)

PS I'm off to the beach - what a day !!! how can they say there's no Mother Nature! lol
 

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If we go ahead with Kyoto then individual actions become irrelevant.

If I choose to buy 1000 tonnes of coal and set fire to it then it will make NO difference whatsoever in a scenario where total emissions are capped under an international agreement. All it will do is slightly raise the price of carbon and result in someone else using 1000 tonnes less coal than they otherwise would have. That's how Kyoto in a market economy works.

All this stuff about banning light bulbs etc is outright nonsense now that we have ratified Kyoto. It is, at best, a cheap means of compliance.

But since when was it the role of government to decide what represents value in a competitive market? Banning bulbs is really no different to a government decree that we all rush out and buy shares in XYZ, buy a certain brand of washing detergent and wear a specified brand of shoes because, in the government's opinion, they represent good value. Banning bulbs won't save CO2 in a Kyoto world - it's a financial issue not an environmental one.

Same with solar hot water etc. If I don't get the solar or heat pump hot water service and use electric instead then, with total emissions capped, someone else finds the slightly increased price of carbon a sufficient incentive and cuts emissions instead of me doing it. And vice versa.

All government needs to do is decide the amount of CO2 etc to be emitted and then stand aside. The market will do the rest far better than any politician who doesn't comprehend the practical aspects of different technologies.

We need to "do our part" with oil that's for sure. But the CO2 issue has been taken out of the public's hands by Kyoto. Trouble is, the message being sent out is the opposite - do your part with CO2 but don't worry about oil.

Only two weeks ago I was accused of lying over the simple point that a hot water cylinder stores hot water and doesn't go cold the moment the power is turned off. I was trying to explain why off-peak power made more sense than continuous rate but it was a lost cause - at least until they get a power bill or two. Just one example of how the general public really hasn't got a clue about even the simplest energy technology - and this was a reasonably well educated person.
 

Sorry 2020,

I somehow missed this one in the onslaught of posts this morning

I'm agreeing about us already being "up to our necks in the nuclear industry" to a point. It's already here, not much can be done about that, but until we can come up with a way to dispose of the waste it generates, IMO we shouldn't be carrying on like it's the holy grail of electricity generation, because it ain't

Dams do make methane, but how much exactly?(I don't have an exact figure). Either way, using a lot more hydro to me is more beneficial compared with nuclear- dams can be knocked down if required(or if something better comes along) in the future, and the area will recover a hell of a lot quicker than it will take for an area to recover from radioactive waste spilling out into the environment when we try and store it.


Don't worry- I'm not participating in this discussion as a mod. If Al Gore decided to list himself on the ASX, you would be banned pretty quickly for your shameless ramping

1. I don't really buy the idea of clean coal(though don't know too much about it at this stage)

2. A standard argument from the nuclear lobby. And a pretty weak one too. If it were that simple, then we would have made the switch to nuclear a long time ago.

3. I'm not saying Wayne's comments were hypothetical at all. I do think you should go back and read his posts in this thread again.

4. I hope I am too. We aren't going to solve anything without reducing consumption, regardless of where the electricity comes from. To be honest, I can't see that happening anytime soon though. I would love to be wrong though.

5. Good.

6&7. Interesting comments. If things are that critical, then you would hope that Al would be doing a bit more than just talk about it. I in no way agree that Al Gore will have achieved a miracle if the GBR doesn't become destroyed when you say it might. Not sure how old you are, but GW is hardly a new topic that we are all aware of because of an inconvenient truth. This is something that has been talked about for years- The IPCC has been around for what, nearly 2 decades now? It's something that has been mentioned throughout my short life, so how is Al Gore making a movie 2 decades after the IPCC being formed responsible for that much?

Whilst it goes without saying that he has put a lot of work into promoting awareness of the issue, I think most people would have been well aware of what was going on well before he made that movie. Does that mean he shouldn't have made it? No, I don't think he has hurt the cause by doing what he's done. I do however, think he could be setting a better example, by practicing more of what he preaches. But that is probably worthy of an entire topic on it's own.

If the state of the GBR is that bad that it could be gone within our lifetime, then it may be time to face facts and go and see whilst you still can, because we won't be able to do enough to save it now when we are talking about reducing emissions over the next 40 years, not 5
 
wayneL said:
You see Al Bore is a egomaniacal t0sser with a hidden agenda, I wouldn't listen to him about anything.

Care to enlighten us to this hidden agenda please?

wayneL said:
I would listen to the likes of David Suzuki however, who rides pushbikes and takes his own cup to the baseball game rather than using a styrofoam cup for his coffee. (and has done for at least 10 years I know about)

Full respect to him he is a noble and great man. However would you agree he's been unable to cut through to the mainstream anywhere near as effectively as Al Gore.

wayneL said:
A movie does nothing.

Bit of a throw away statement wayne. For one example after his movie was released in WA households on renewable energy surged. Do you consider that as nothing. I've been concerned about the prospect of GW since i first heard about it in the mid 90s and have been following its development ever since. I can honestly say that the release of an inconvenient truth single handedly put the issue into the mainstream. This problem will not be fixed until it becomes a concern of the masses, something i believe al gore has had more contribution in then anyone else.
 

ok ok, lol - first thing I want to say is that I think we are all having an Irish argument here - I'll post a poem (after I've converted it from a draft I just whipped up at the beach)

A. Dams make methane from rotting vegetation - I'm also not sure how much - obviously it depends how well they clean out the existing growth. Similarly I know of a local rubbish dump, and the methane that came out of that - sheesh - they had a couple of flares rising 10 foot in the air each - and that went on for about 10 years. I think even Smurf (if I can take his name in vane/vein/vain) has had to admit that his precious dams have just a hint of down side

B. well, lol - I'd say that's paranoia, lopsided bias - probably on both our parts - but we may have to agree to disagree.

C. "you would be banned pretty quickly for your shameless ramping". Hell I'm only sorry so much of the discussion has been about attacking the man (one man at that) and not concentrating on the message. Gore's house, car etc is absolutely IRRELEVANT as far as I am concerned. (apart from the fact that I suspect Wayne also ramps on this one - i.e. when he implies that Gore says " waste less", and then happily goes home and "wastes to his heart's content" )

I wish we'd been calling it the David Suzuki principle all along - except that , as billhill says, it would still be a lame duck on the bookshelves. It would never have taken off.

Here's a really wild theory, but I even suspect that part of Gore's popularity here (and we are talking USA, right?) is a feeling amongst the people that he was screwed in 2000, and maybe give him a chance...

1. clean coal - collect all that carbon in the stacks, and stuff it into underground seams. - yeah right.

here's another light-hearted comment - fair warning!! - the Hunter would be responsible for most of NSW's pollution, agreed . (we get our coal there after all - and of course we all share the power so generated). I recall a comedy show, for red wines - "this little number is a provative blend of delicate reds, with a hint of berry, and an aftertaste to die for"...

"meanwhile this glass from the Hunter "... sips, looks in the mirror .... "leaves a black smudge on your top lip ".

2. "A standard argument from the nuclear lobby. And a pretty weak one too."
well I used to back the nuclear argument back in the 70's. In fact we learnt about it at uni - in the early days of using the "nuclear ploughshare" rather than the "atomic sword".

Another "aside" - back then (in the 60's) we were told (at uni) of proposals on the books to make instant underground vitreous-lined flasks in central aus. - just drill a hole and let off a nuclear bomb - but make sure it didn't break the surface - the resultant flask would be waterproof, and would hold water for years rather than days (evaporation etc etc ) - radiation was usually ok after 5 or 10 years whatever - trivial in the timeframe we need to plan for.

Another proposal was to make harbours in the Pilbara (when Port Hedland was getting started etc) - one bomb - done!! - never happened of course - bit left-field that one lol.

"If it were that simple, then we would have made the switch to nuclear a long time ago."
- mmm no comment other than Johnny Howard was the first to even hint that nuclear would be seriously looked at. - and the greens and Labor attacked him mercilessly on that (when in my books they are being hypocritical) - too much emotion about disposing of waste - not enough about rising sea levels and other climate change, imo.

3. Wayne has clarified this.
4. good
5. good.

6&7. In that IPCC video ( have you watched it?) - Oppenheimer himself says that most in IPCC give Al gore massive credit for getting the message out. Apart from that I really don't want to spent more time discussing the man - let's get back to the message.

.........
"If the state of the GBR is that bad that it could be gone within our lifetime, then it may be time to face facts and go and see whilst you still can,"

ok - I'm gonna accuse you of being either
a) childless, or
b) selfish, or
c) unconcerned whether "life" goes on on this planet after say 2100 lol. (and please don;t argue that the cockroackes or the dung beetles might survive etc). "Life handed down" should mean "life as handed to us" should it not !

"because we won't be able to do enough to save it now when we are talking about reducing emissions over the next 40 years, not 5

spot on - as I posted elsewhere, (ex IPCC source) most probably, if we stopped making ALL co2 NOW - the best prediction is that world would still be warming in the year 2100. Question is does it to get to 5 degree or 10 or 15 etc degrees hotter etc.
 
I used to back the nuclear argument back in the 70's. ... "nuclear ploughshare" vs "atomic sword".
Just to amplify / clarify ... (this is a copy from "Global Cooling" thread)

Personally I've been through 3 phases on this nuclear question -
a) in favour in the old days when global warming was a new topic,
b) against after Chernobyl when it became obvious that humans are possibly too stupid to "go there", and now
c) in favour again, because the prospects for the world, and the coasts, and the forests are exponentially going downhill.

PS "nuclear ploughshare" vs "atomic sword". - are quotes from recent TIME magazine on this.

PS Just want to say thanks to Wayne for starting so many threads on this topic lol - great that it has brought in so much discussion etc. "Global Cooling" . "We are Toast" , "Great Global Warming Swindle" etc .
One should write a book based on the responses lol.
 
I reckon this green trend will blow over and everyone will return to their usual consumerist ways.Anyway while it`s in the spotlight Garp. found this site with some helpful ideas to reduce waste but the site still appeals to cosumerism (ism`s are back in style)


http://www.evo.com/
 
o well - seems that David Suzuki is another liar .
rats. (FWIW this bloke is a FWIT)
gee sounds like Gore at this stage.... and gets the same response ....

Then he (also ) gets personal..

more follows ( later)

etc etc this is dated october 2000.
Sorry bud, but you and your comments are past their "use-by" date.
 
GLOBAL WARMING AND DAVID SUZUKI'S LIES ..........by David MacRae
continues ... (sorry i forgot to post link)
http://www.quebecoislibre.org/001014-11.htm

Seriously - lol - (what about the post-1940's increase in temp !)

All I can think of is Kipling's IF,

"If you can bear to hear the truth you've spoken,
twisted by knaves to make a trap for fools..."
 

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btw, concerning those last mentioned graphs -
you might be able to see an 11 year cycle in the solar activity -
and guess who discovered them
this bloke (Galileo in the early 1600s):-
http://www.pbs.org/wgbh/nova/galileo/lrk_lesson.html

Next look at the graph below...
you'll see that we are currently near the bottom of a trough of solar activity.- oops low was this year - we are about to head upwards

http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Sunspot
A minimum in the eleven-year sunspot cycle took place in 2007 [1] and the start of Cycle 24 is expected in 2008.

next read about predictions for the next couple of years
http://www.physorg.com/news86010302.html

Now based on that , only a fool would bet against it getting cooler in the near future (consistent trend-sustained etc )
 

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We've all got our heroes
I guess Canada has Suzuki
Australia has Ian Kiernan , as in OAM (Order of Aust Medal), as in "Clean Up Australia" , as in "Clean up the world' etc..
http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Ian_Kiernan

Early next year (2March2008) the next clean up aus day - will be out there, picking up all the plastic and paper and stuff.

I'm sure you've all heard that joke - that we should have given him a ticker-tape parade through the streets when he arrived back in aus after getting his UNEP Environment prize etc

 

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Just a quick comment about polystyrene - it doesn't affect ozone layer, but sure as hell (i.e. I agree) it still is a bludy nuisance in the misc garbage department.

The other comment in there is that CFC's were "addressed" without hesitation a few years back (17? 20?) , and now they are on top of the ozone layer depletion problem (just goes to show you what we can do when we believe the scientists).

http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/The_Co...Advice_from_the_Union_of_Concerned_Scientists

 
Now based on that , only a fool would bet against it getting cooler in the near future
lol what I meant was "only a fool would bet against it getting hotter in the near future (as in 2011 ish).

sheesh
I keep doing these slips when I'm trading as well -
"buy" comes out "sell"
"1000" comes out "1000000" etc
 
lol what I meant was "only a fool would bet against it getting hotter in the near future (as in 2011 ish).

sheesh
I keep doing these slips when I'm trading as well -
"buy" comes out "sell"
"1000" comes out "1000000" etc

I`ve never seen you post anything on a particular stock??? Fundamental or technical???
Think you are a passive investor with a low risk approach.
 
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