Shannon

Sorry, gang. I'm falling off on the job..

Happy Earth Day!

__________________
- Shannon Moore
Your Host @ WildTexas.com
http://www.twitter.com/ageekgal

Electric Water Boy

Can't say I'm into Earth Day. It's a semantics thing. I don't believe "We belong to Mother Earth." However, I do believe we need to be good stewards because this is our home, and it's all we have.

Staying on the tree hugger topic, I look at some of the things that get presented by some "environmentalists" and have to scratch my head.

Wind Power - Great, as long it is NIMBY. Did you know windpower requires oil? And the towers can spill oil? And if you have to many in one area it screws up the power grid (because of the up and down of the power).

Solar - Heard a guy say that it should be written in the building codes that every building should have it. Don't you think if it were economical everyone would be jumoing on this bandwagon? Needs more research. And what does it take to make the cells?

Hybrid - This has some potential. It's not for everyone. My driving style has changed, so it may be worth looking into.

Ethanol - You have to be kidding! You know what this is going to do to the price of vodka? 3rd world countries are being effected by the increase in the price of corn. What does that mean? Long run, price of everything imported from 3rd world countries goes up. And for what? It takes more energy to make ethanol. It burns cleaner, but you burn more of it. More CO2. Argh. Ethanol is for margaritas and martinis.

Nuclear - Another NIMBY thing, but if you don't want emissions, this is the way to go. Just be prepared to take care of the waste.

Coal - The drum is beating for IGCC. We'll see. It might work IF you make the unit base loaded. Cycling a CC unit isn't good for it (not that's it good for any, but...). Stick with pulverized, and dump the Clean Air Mercury Rule, unless you want lots of holes in the ground full of unusable flyash, the cost of cement to go through the roof, and you electric bill to go through the roof.

Sorry for pirating the thread, but I do feel better getting that off my chest.

richy240

So what you're saying is, we shouldn't do anything different because EVERYTHING is going to screw the environment in one way or another?

Nice attitude.

I don't think it's possible to have a zero-footprint, but we could maybe start striving towards that... I think anything that cuts CO2 emissions is a good start. And recycling. Of course, I'm not mentioning anything most people don't already know...

Electric Water Boy

"So what you're saying is, we shouldn't do anything different because EVERYTHING is going to screw the environment in one way or another?"

No, absolutely not. We need to be good stewards of what we have. But we also need to know that as long as we live as we do - creating emissions from combustion processes; digging/drilling for minerals/ores/fuel; spilling stuff; etc - we will be trashing the planet. That's the nature of how we live. I may be wrong, but even the most primitive people use fire, and that creates CO2. We just need to decide at what rate trashing the place is acceptable.

We also need to find out if some of our "cures" are worse than the problem. I'm all for doing something, but let's make sure that the something is really better. That means more research and pilot projects before we just jump on any bandwagon that comes along.

Shannon

I'm glad my post elicited some discussion. I think it's safe to say everyone could do more to be good stewards of our natural resources, and that to me is why Earth Day exists... not as part of some "nature as a religion" type philosophy (which is seems like you might be referring to in your initial post, EWB?)

I'm not a big fan of the government dictating what people should do unless there's a clear public health and safety reason to do so. That said, I don't think the market always makes the best decisions because our economy is very short-sighted -- short term gains over long term stability and strength. All of this taken together means we, as individuals, bear a lot of responsibility for doing the right things (or at least not doing the WRONG things... littering, wasting water, not maintaining our vehicles so they pollute even more than normal, improperly disposing of used motor oil and other toxins, etc.)

Earth Day is about focusing on more than just ourselves and our own self interests, and realizing our actions have impacts beyond the little sphere we each operate in during the course of our daily lives. There are over 6.5 BILLION of us (population clock), and our actions have individual and cumulative affects on each other, our society and our environment.

__________________
- Shannon Moore
Your Host @ WildTexas.com
http://www.twitter.com/ageekgal

srds

Some people will never learn ,just the changes i've seen in my life have shown me something is wrong.If you don't do anything ,what will our kids have to look foward to.It's a touchy subject to some ,to me I will do what
I can.
srds

Happy Camping

PS
Shannon we understand you might be a little busy.:rolleyes:

Electric Water Boy

It being a touch subject in this case is a good thing. SOme of the things I presented above aren't the answer today even though people are pushing them. Hopefully that means they'll stay passionate about those things, do the research or help fund it, and possibly make some of those things reality. Or maybe come up with things we haven't thought of.

I think everyone who has responded to this thread is "singing the same song", just possibly "arranged by different composers." I really don't care who comes up with the solutions, just as long as we get solutions - if they're needed.

carel05

Happy Earth day! Let's all help to preserve our mother earth.

Kelly_B

My husband washed his car last Sunday (with our rain water that we collect) & he used 50 gallons to do so. That's alot of water! Our city is still under stage 3 water restrictions even though it has rained alot this past month & would have mailed my husband a citation if he got caught washing his car with city water!!