Global problems - do we care?

[jbrown329]

Do you know how much you are spending to power it? In a year your savings on electricity would probably pay for a new one.

He's no longer using it. We split in '01, so, 52yrs later it was still running. In reality, the power bill didn't run very high.

 

[gsdx]

Mother Nature is actually quite resilient. Whatever we do to the Earth, Mother Nature will fix after we're gone. Heck, she can reclaim entire cities.

 

[jbrown329]

<snip>
I was surprised that some people still use Tube Tv's. When mines bit the dust i brought a flat screen. Goodwill looks like a tube tv heaven.

Yeah, when my tube TV went tits up, I bought a flat screen.

I was using a CRT monitor until a friend gave me his old flat panel monitor. He'd bought it when they were first hitting the market. Cost him $300 for a 19" flat panel (it's 4x3). I decided to donate the CRT monitor to Goodwill. What did they do? Dumped it in a recycle pile. Damn thing worked perfectly.

I still have the 19" flat panel. I then bought a 23" 16x9 flat panel for the monitor.

When my old cordless phone quit working, I took it to Staples. They send them to recycle.

You wouldn't believe the amount of litter that I see on my walks to the store. People just throw shit out of the window as they're going down the road.

 

[jbrown329]

Mother Nature is actually quite resilient. Whatever we do to the Earth, Mother Nature will fix after we're gone. Heck, she can reclaim entire cities.

I watched this awhile back on the History Channel.

Life After People

The very notion is deliciously ghoulish: What happens to earth if - or when - people suddenly vanished? The History Channel presents a dramatic, fascinating what-if scenario, part science fiction and part true natural science. Welcome to Earth, Population: 0 is the catchy tagline, Life After People's 94 minutes are so gripping you nearly forget while you watch that you, yourself, will be gone too.

It turns out that earth can go along very nicely without us. The hardest part of the special is probably in the first 15 minutes, when pet owners confront what likely will happen to their dogs (thankfully, the show follows those dogs who break out of their houses, and the prognosis for them to survive as scavengers is good). As the fictional days and weeks tick by, the process of nature's reclaiming the planet becomes less grim and more fascinating.

http://topdocumentaryfilms.com/life-after-people/ (full program)

 

[gsdx]

I was using a CRT monitor until a friend gave me his old flat panel monitor. He'd bought it when they were first hitting the market. Cost him $300 for a 19" flat panel (it's 4x3). I decided to donate the CRT monitor to Goodwill. What did they do? Dumped it in a recycle pile. Damn thing worked perfectly.

Goodwill won't even accept them here, nor any other charities. Nor will they accept tube TVs. Best bet is to set them out on the curb and hope someone is desperate enough to take them home. We've got an electronics recycler here though. They take everything there and harvest anything they can for recycling. Very little goes into the landfill.

 

[zoltanspawn]

Mother Nature is actually quite resilient. Whatever we do to the Earth, Mother Nature will fix after we're gone. Heck, she can reclaim entire cities.

Oh sure. Millions of years after the mass extinction (we've caused) a complex ecosystem might re-emerge.

But, isn't that merely a descriptive statement?

Talking about Mother Nature's resilience is simply saying the way Mother Nature is.

It doesn't express the way things should be, which I think is actually the topic of this thread.

The way humans conduct themselves should be different, so that the sorts of problem Natello identified aren't a trouble.

 

[zoltanspawn]

As a huge optimist deep inside, I do believe that there is an opportunity to postpone some more destructive events with catastrophic consequences. However, we already are losing the fight in some terms and it will take a lot of effort and time for our actions to have any more significant effect. Still, every positive innitiative and idea counts, because good things do inspire.

I think there's a necessary place in human culture for fanciful ideas that sustain us through hard times.

I also think there's a necessary place for a rigorous accounting of the facts.

I see very little room in this particular discussion for fanciful ideas.

 

[gsdx]

The way humans conduct themselves should be different, so that the sorts of problem Natello identified aren't a trouble.

Of course we're the problem, but we've created that problem ourselves and we're not about to change. A lot of people care, but a lot more don't.

We have so much, and every day we create something else that we must have. We take and take and take, and very few people give back.

Following 9/11 when there were no planes flying of the United States, the temperature dropped 2 full degrees (I can't remember if that is Celsius or Fahrenheit). As soon as the planes started flying again, the temperature went back up. But we must have our planes and we must have our cars, and then we complain about the consequences.

Where is Klaatu when we need him?

 

[SLOPPYSECONDS]

I think there's a necessary place in human culture for fanciful ideas that sustain us through hard times.

I also think there's a necessary place for a rigorous accounting of the facts.

I see very little room in this particular discussion for fanciful ideas.

commons sense confuse wit fancy human apeess pathetic tinys histiry
_wike female hape a vote?_
"screaaaaaaaaam"
not tink male screaaaaam ans girleeeeeeeee too
"ooh hohohoho mor a tea?"
!neva harpan!
"hohohoho"

not a vote do any Hape planet doodoo big a piccy or wittull piccy

anyway

back a supa modern age
-tittars_

tinku

 

[HoodedRat]

'Global problems'?


Meh!

As long as it doesn't affect prices of consumer goods in Wallmart, etc, etc ... I doubt that most people give a shit about bio-cide and planetary destruction.

 

[Telstra]

Anyone who comments or give opinions about events around the world,
yes they do care, if they don't care they don't give opinions.

 

[HoodedRat]

Anyone who comments or give opinions about events around the world,
yes they do care, if they don't care they don't give opinions.

Or maybe they really don't give a shit ... but just feel like posting irrelevant, inconsequential, throw-away, comments on a forum just because they feel like unleashing their trivial verbal diarrhea.

 

[Natello4]

Just for the record. Scientist have finally agreed that we live in a new geological epoch called Anthropocene. The major characteristic of this new geological period (the start of which is marked by dispersion of radioactive elements across the globe due to tests of nuclear bombs in 50's) is a siginificant impact of anthropogenic activities on the Earth.

More information: The Anthropocene epoch: scientists declare dawn of human-influenced age (and tons of other new articles)

Do you agree with this recommendation to declare the new geological period?

 

[unloadonme]

I'm not entirely sure I do agree. Geological periods are measured in millions of years. On such a timescale, human activity isn't even a blip.

 

[gsdx]

^ They have to start somewhere.

 

[rareboy]

Just for the record. Scientist have finally agreed that we live in a new geological epoch called Anthropocene. The major characteristic of this new geological period (the start of which is marked by dispersion of radioactive elements across the globe due to tests of nuclear bombs in 50's) is a siginificant impact of anthropogenic activities on the Earth.

More information: The Anthropocene epoch: scientists declare dawn of human-influenced age (and tons of other new articles)

Do you agree with this recommendation to declare the new geological period?

I can buy this. The number of nuclear detonations have certainly played a part in all of this.

 

[SaskGuy]

Some people have the nerve to whine about environmentalism and going green, while at the same time tossing out perfectly functional appliances, electronics, vehicles, and buying new, cheap plastic junk that they have to replace every couple years. Filling the landfill with broken, cheaply made appliances, or perfectly functional, well built appliances because they're "not the latest style" is probably the biggest environmental travesty that average people do all the time.
Meanwhile, people will bitch when someone uses paper towels or a Styrofoam cup.

 

[gsdx]

^ Indeed. We are a disposable society. Buy it. Use it. Toss it. Buy the next generation.

 

[jbrown329]

Some people have the nerve to whine about environmentalism and going green, while at the same time tossing out perfectly functional appliances, electronics, vehicles, and buying new, cheap plastic junk that they have to replace every couple years. Filling the landfill with broken, cheaply made appliances, or perfectly functional, well built appliances because they're "not the latest style" is probably the biggest environmental travesty that average people do all the time.
Meanwhile, people will bitch when someone uses paper towels or a Styrofoam cup.

Use paper towels. I'd rather see them made from hemp rather than wood pulp though. You can buy paper towels made from recycled paper.

The only appliance I own is a microwave. I've had it almost 15yrs. It's still working fine. When it finally gives up the ghost, I'll be buying a slightly bigger one with more wattage.

Seriously can't remember the last time I drank something out of a styrofoam cup.