Enviromental Issues

[Buzz]

[glow=red,2,300]How often do you read in the papers or see on the news about enviromental issues? It really struck home today with me, as I was travelling through parts of the lake district on a nice clear day, all I could see wherever I looked in the distance was pollution, now this is in a area of outstanding natural beauty, it just makes we wonder what our little piece of the world is going to be like in 5 years time or even 10.
It even makes me feel guilty for having 2 kids, whats it going to be like for them when they grow up?
Ask yourself this, all this crap going on in the world over wars/oil etc, in 50 years time whether you have children or you dont at the minute, WHAT are we leaving for them?[/glow]

[Icarion]

I know, it can be dreadful. I've had to stop cycling in the middle of the road once cos I had acid rain get in my eye... i mean so acid it burned. Thing is, because its a long term problem, the news cant make a big thing of it.. its not headline worthy. And thats a really dreadful thing because it doesnt get the public's attention enough.

[Rik-[FD]]

I agree with all you've said but to me, its the confusion the in scientific community about what does what that doesn't help the situation. For instance, is it the hole in the ozone layer that's causing global warming or is it just part of the planet's natural cycle? If we all knew one way or the other, the scientists that are arguing about it at the moment could put their heads together and come up with a solution for it rather than butting their heads together.

Having said that, Buzz's eyesores have only one solution....knock em down and start again which will happen over time and I think the people that build these kind of things are aware enough of the people's view that they now either try to make them look nicer or try to hide them particularly in areas of natural beauty. So sooner or later, I think those issues will go away. As for the other (some would say more important) issues, I personally have faith in ourselves. I believe that we will find a solution to all the worlds current problems (I say current because I'm sure new ones will come along).

[Icarion]

Oh nice, blame the scientists for not knowing all the answers!

"If we all knew one way or the other, the scientists that are arguing about it at the moment could put their heads together and come up with a solution for it rather than butting their heads together."

You do realise that all the arguing serves the purpose of figuring it out? No-one can wave a magic wand and go "oh, thats the cause of everything on a global scale, lets instantly solve it!" People do experiments, come up with an answer and publish it. Someone else comes up with a different answer, and they start arguing. This argument makes other people enter the arena and do their own experiments, and eventually you reach a consensus.

If you really have to blame someone, blame the US government for cancelling funding to scientists who blame global warming on pollution. Seriously, if any scientist there says that the problem could be helped by not burning as much fossil fuels, their funding gets cut.

[-(aaK)- Deltz]

What scares me is the lack of interest in something like the Kyoto Accord.
Its always the same old story, we'll deal with it when it happens, not before.

It doesn't matter whether the science community figures out exactly how, when and what will happen.

Its all about the same thing. Money.

The cost to radically change the way we live are lives is deemed to costly to the "economy".
We could start with cars.
But there's no way in hell, that car companies would start producing electric cars and faze out petrol and diesel engines.
They say its because they can't make them not cost a SHIT load of money. Which is bullshit.

Take this article:

It was a mystery car once demonstrated by Nikola Tesla, developer of alternating current, that might have made electrics triumphant.

Supported by the Pierce-Arrow Co. and General Electric in 1931, he took the gasoline engine from a new Pierce-Arrow and replaced it with an 80-horsepower alternating-current electric motor with no external power source.

At a local radio shop he bought 12 vacuum tubes, some wires and assorted resistors, and assembled them in a circuit box 24 inches long, 12 inches wide and 6 inches high, with a pair of 3-inch rods sticking out. Getting into the car with the circuit box in the front seat beside him, he pushed the rods in, announced, "We now have power," and proceeded to test drive the car for a week, often at speeds of up to 90 mph.

As it was an alternating-current motor and there were no batteries involved, where did the power come from?

Popular responses included charges of "black magic," and the sensitive genius didn't like the skeptical comments of the press. He removed his mysterious box, returned to his laboratory in New York - and the secret of his power source died with him.

[Rik-[FD]]

Ok, I didn't quite get my point across (it was really too early to be thinking about sensible things like that). I understand and agree with everything you said Kat but what I'm really talking about is the type of arguing that seems to be going on these days. It just doesn't seem to be constructive (I say "these days" although I guess its probably always been that way) and as Delta pointed out, its all about the money which takes the focus off of the arguments that should be taking place.

The problem is that in these days of mass communication, it seems to me that it is much harder to get a radical and new point of view across and it is also harder to stand your ground on an issue. Being ridiculed by a section of your peers for a new idea is something a lot of scientists can live with...being ridiculed by the world would seem to be to be a different matter. Then, when the public hear a piece of theory, they often go off half-cocked and without waiting to hear the results of the argument (MMR and mobile phones being topical examples).

This (I think) causes scientists to be far too cautious....stifled if you like. Especially with the added "money" pressures thrust upon them by governments and companies.

[Icarion]

Ah ok, now you've clarified that, I agree with you a lot more. The media loves a scare story, and they often twist things out of perspective, the MMR being a case in point. The whole MMR scandal makes me so angry... surely the concepts of coincidence, and cause and effect are comprehensible to most people? It's unbelievable. MMR jabs take place at the same time that autism makes itself apparent in any baby. IT's a bloody coincidence! Grrrr.

However i think that the media are only partly to blame. It's big corporations that are another problem- some lobby congress to get their way, some bribe politicians, and some sponsor scientific research and offer pay rises to secure favourable results. It's all despicable.