Discussion: Global Warming and Other Environmental Issues

[Marx]

VERTICAL FARMS IN THE FUTURE?
http://www.huffingtonpost.com/2010/03/16/vertical-farms-photos-the_n_499924.html

I love stuff like this.

 

[Scarlet spidey]

Get ready for even foggier summers
Monday, July 6, 2009


Fog over San Francisco thins by a third due to climate change
9:00PM GMT 15 Feb 2010




Someone...

Please.

Shoot.

Me.

Doublespeak is great.

 

[VampElvis]

VERTICAL FARMS IN THE FUTURE?
http://www.huffingtonpost.com/2010/03/16/vertical-farms-photos-the_n_499924.html

I love stuff like this.

Read a fiction novel a few years back where cows were genetically engineering into unthinking "meat trees" that were house in vertical barns, fed a nutrient solution through a tube (they had no heads, legs, tails etc.) and released very little methane. It was all plus, plus, plus - until the company went bankrupt because McDonalds wouldn't buy there meat as they'd been protested by GreenPeace, or the WWF, or the ELFs or someone.

Would you eat a burger made from a meat tree? Especially considering they consumed a vastly smaller amount of resources than regular cattle?

 

[Marx]

Read a fiction novel a few years back where cows were genetically engineering into unthinking "meat trees" that were house in vertical barns, fed a nutrient solution through a tube (they had no heads, legs, tails etc.) and released very little methane. It was all plus, plus, plus - until the company went bankrupt because McDonalds wouldn't buy there meat as they'd been protested by GreenPeace, or the WWF, or the ELFs or someone.

Would you eat a burger made from a meat tree? Especially considering they consumed a vastly smaller amount of resources than regular cattle?

That's...a bit disturbing.

 

[Kelly]

I'm pretty much down to no meat these days....

I have not eaten red meat for over a decade....little chicken and haven't had that in months, I had an egg sandwich the other day , and I haven't eaten fish in over a year.

 

[VampElvis]

I say again........ Hippie!

 

[bell110]

LOL, meat tree? That's what they called me in prison.

Seriously though, that sounds kinda gross.

 

[Paradoxium]

Government to drop carbon tax in another setback for Sarkozy

 

[Carcharodon]

I'm worried that we're going to put off true environmental policy reform until absolutely necessary....that is to say, when the oil runs out. That's too long to wait for the environment (and, perhaps paradoxically, something that may occur sooner than we're actually ready for).

 

[Kelly]

I agree, we are at E4 as far as the majority of our automobiles and Europe is at E6 TOTALLY, which is where we should be....by the time we get to E6, they will be at E8. Hell, right now I think CHINA is building more E6 automobiles than we are.

 

[DACrowe]

OBAMA TO ANNOUNCE PLAN FOR EXPANSIVE OFFSHORE DRILLING ON SOUTHEAST AND ALASKAN COASTS

http://www.nytimes.com/2010/03/31/science/earth/31energy.html?hp

Well we all knew that Finance Reform and another "Jobs" Bill were on the table for 2010. But the WH has been trying to make room for one other big push and a lot expected Immigration or Education...it looks like he may be pushing to get energy done by August, as this is a huge concession and carrot meant to gain Republican support (i.e. 2-3 GOP senators).


I personally am not happy about it, as it opens up the North Carolina and Virginia coasts to oil drilling and apparently it may anger officials in Alabama and Florida (VA and SC are likely to welcome it with open arms). I expect some angry court contests. At least it keeps some of the more sensitive areas in Alaska closed, unlike the 2008 Bush Administration proposals.

But while it angers environmentalists, it is not completely surprising as he has been saying he was open to this since the 2008 campaign. And apparently he is also open to nuclear power plant expansion in the bill. It should be very tempting to any Republican who actually considers compromise or bipartisanship an option---so who knows if they'll even think about it.

But truly, an interesting move. I'd like to see how Fox News is going to argue that he is still governing as a socialist radical after he just took their biggest "energy idea" and is putting it in his overall plan.

 

[Marx]

OBAMA TO ANNOUNCE PLAN FOR EXPANSIVE OFFSHORE DRILLING ON SOUTHEAST AND ALASKAN COASTS

http://www.nytimes.com/2010/03/31/science/earth/31energy.html?hp

Well we all knew that Finance Reform and another "Jobs" Bill were on the table for 2010. But the WH has been trying to make room for one other big push and a lot expected Immigration or Education...it looks like he may be pushing to get energy done by August, as this is a huge concession and carrot meant to gain Republican support (i.e. 2-3 GOP senators).


I personally am not happy about it, as it opens up the North Carolina and Virginia coasts to oil drilling and apparently it may anger officials in Alabama and Florida (VA and SC are likely to welcome it with open arms). I expect some angry court contests. At least it keeps some of the more sensitive areas in Alaska closed, unlike the 2008 Bush Administration proposals.

But while it angers environmentalists, it is not completely surprising as he has been saying he was open to this since the 2008 campaign. And apparently he is also open to nuclear power plant expansion in the bill. It should be very tempting to any Republican who actually considers compromise or bipartisanship an option---so who knows if they'll even think about it.

But truly, an interesting move. I'd like to see how Fox News is going to argue that he is still governing as a socialist radical after he just took their biggest "energy idea" and is putting it in his overall plan.

Candidate Obama campaigned against off-shore drilling.

[YT]v8fkbEuCQss[/YT]

 

[Carcharodon]

Off-shore drilling really isn't as bad as many make it out to be (environmentally). In fact, an argument can be made that it actually creates habitat. Marine organisms readily settle on the hard substrates provided by the oil rigs, and the destruction of benthic habitat from drilling (as well as from subsequent release of chemicals) is, for most intents and purposes, negligible. Hell, the amount of oil leaked each year from NATURAL oil seeps off the coast of California FAR outnumbers that leaked as a result of this activity.

So, in other words....meh.

 

[Paradoxium]

The offshore drilling goes a little beyond that. It is a compromise/concession to get some Republicans in the senate to support a "Cap and Trade" lite, since they have problems passing the original C&T. So in other words it's about political gaming.

 

[BlackLantern]

Off-shore drilling really isn't as bad as many make it out to be (environmentally). In fact, an argument can be made that it actually creates habitat. Marine organisms readily settle on the hard substrates provided by the oil rigs, and the destruction of benthic habitat from drilling (as well as from subsequent release of chemicals) is, for most intents and purposes, negligible. Hell, the amount of oil leaked each year from NATURAL oil seeps off the coast of California FAR outnumbers that leaked as a result of this activity.

So, in other words....meh.

agreed

 

[Marx]

OIL SLICK TO HIT LOUISIANA TODAY
http://www.cnn.com/2010/US/04/30/louisiana.oil.spill/index.html?hpt=T1

...and it's being said that this could be worse than the Exxon Valdez incident. Yikes...

 

[chaseter]

I was already a pseudo environmentalist...but after getting into the salt water fish hobby, it makes me really sad how badly this is going to affect that beautiful reef system off of Florida's coast

But, Carcharadon is absolutely right. These accidents are really, really rare so it is no reason to ban oil drilling.

 

[Marx]

WHITE HOUSE: NEW OFFSHORE DRILLING PROJECTS TO BE PUT ON HOLD
http://www.huffingtonpost.com/2010/04/30/new-offshore-drilling-pro_n_558313.html

 

[Marx]

I was already a pseudo environmentalist...but after getting into the salt water fish hobby, it makes me really sad how badly this is going to affect that beautiful reef system off of Florida's coast

But, Carcharadon is absolutely right. These accidents are really, really rare so it is no reason to ban oil drilling.

While they may be rare, they do an incredible amount of environmental damage when things go wrong.

 

[chaseter]

While they may be rare, they do an incredible amount of environmental damage when things go wrong.

They do and it sucks when it happens but they are so few and far between that accidents will happen from time to time...it is probability.

 

[Marx]

They do and it sucks when it happens but they are so few and far between that accidents will happen from time to time...it is probability.

That's true. Nothing is ever completely fool proof...but it's still sad. I thought they were planning to set the oil slick on fire to prevent it from reaching shore? Whatever happened to that idea?

 

[chaseter]

They did. Didn't do much

 

[Gilpesh]

I like the idiot, Scott Brown's, response to that wind farm in MA. He called it misguided.

 

[VampElvis]

Think I'll visit the shrimp man on the way home today and hope the price hasn't yet skyrocketed. (For you landlocked types - old men in trucks are easy to find selling fresh shrimp from the back of their trucks in the gulf states).

 

[Marx]

'DRILL, BABY DRILL!' ADVOCATES SILENT ON OIL DISASTER
http://www.huffingtonpost.com/2010/04/29/drill-baby-drill-champion_n_558014.html

UPDATE: Palin finally comments on disaster.