Discussion: Global Warming, Emission Standards, and Other Environmental Issues

[Kelly]

We need a smart ass smiley...

 

[Alex The Great]

I thought "" or "" or "" were smartass/sarcasm smilies?

 

[Kelly]

I thought "" or "" or "" were smartass/sarcasm smilies?

Oh yeah, I forgot the had been changed to sarcasm since that is how so many used it....in the beginning it was to show embarrassment.

is a razz smilie

is awesome...

 

[Alex The Great]

Haha.

I suppose you could say can be a sarcasm smiley if used properly. Like..."Yeah man I totally agree, Global Warming is a myth! "

See how I brought this thing back on topic? I'm goddamn brilliant

 

[Paradoxium]

Congratulations on the ****wits in Europe.

File another one in unintended consequences of dumbass policy.

The EU's green energy solution could bring on a food crisis

Studies by ActionAid and our partners show that biofuels are often more damaging than the fossil fuels they are replacing. The EU's targets require mass land clearance and existing production to be moved. Once this change in land use is taken into account, the projected level of the EU's demand for biofuel in 2020 will result in the release of an extra 27-56 million tonnes of greenhouse gases per year into the atmosphere – equivalent to an extra 12m-26m cars on our roads by 2020.

Mind you this is not even the bad part. It's the "least" bad part if that is possible.

No no no the European ******s has this in mind.

But the production of biofuel also has huge social impacts that the Commission has chosen to ignore completely in its sustainability criteria. More than five million hectares of land – an area bigger than Denmark – is needed to grow the amount of biofuel that Europe projects it will need annually in 2020 and beyond. The national action plans clearly show that most member states do not have enough land available to meet this increase in demand. They are therefore looking to plug the gap through imports – the UK, for example, expects to import almost 90% of its biofuel by 2020.

To provide the biofuel needed to meet the EU's targets, EU companies are busy buying up land. But in doing so, they could cause another food crisis in Africa.

The land that is being bought by EU companies is not standing idle. Small-scale farmers – producers of half the world's food – are having their land taken away, often under duress, to make way for the crops needed to meet EU targets. At a time of already high food prices, they are losing their land and, with it, their ability to grow their own food.

The food security of poor communities – and nearly one billion people around the world currently go hungry – is being put at risk.

EU leaders are keen to emphasise the trickle-down effects of biofuel production for local communities. Even at the theoretical level, the trickle down will not happen quickly enough to provide new livelihoods for the farmers who sell their land to biofuel producers and for their communities. But biofuel production is generally on an industrial scale and creates few jobs. And profits, rather than trickling down, are shipped back to Europe along with the fuel.

For some African farmers, biofuel amounts to a one-time cash inflow from the sale of their land. For their communities, though, it produces few jobs, little biofuel and a greater risk of hunger. For European consumers, biofuel does not amount to the green alternative that it is sold as. Both the Commission and the member states have got the policy wrong – opting for industrial biofuel as an easy solution ahead of the more difficult option of increasing energy efficiency and reducing consumption.

Starving and killing Africans and other third world countries, so you can feel better to the tune of feeling less guilty about your pollution (when in fact it actually makes it worse), is alright.

If you think this is lame, don't worry the The heads up their asses Republicans got your back.

Despite strong opposition, ethanol subsidies set to be renewed in tax deal

Even Al Friggin Gore sees the light on this for ****'s sake. Someone shoot me.

 

[Marx]

According to the AP, Ukraine will be opening Chernobyl site up to tourists in 2011.

 

[chaseter]

Well we now know the cause of the end of the world in 2012: Chernobyl tourist zombies.

 

[Marx]

UPDATE: ITALY'S BAN ON SINGLE-USE PLASTIC BAGS GOES INTO AFFECT
http://www.huffingtonpost.com/2011/01/03/italy-bans-plastic-bags_n_803686.html

 

[StorminNorman]

Vintage Italian.

No Plastic Bags For You!

 

[Marx]

According to Reuters, the death toll from the devastating floods in Brazil has now topped 500 people.

 

[Marx]

According to the AP, the massive flooding in Australia has now reached Brisbane. (The third largest city in Australia.)

 

[teewee1432]

A group of more than 100 scientists and experts say in a new report that California faces the risk of a massive "superstorm" that could flood a quarter of the state's homes and cause $300 billion to $400 billion in damage. Researchers point out that the potential scale of destruction in this storm scenario is four or five times the amount of damage that could be wrought by a major earthquake.
It sounds like the plot of an apocalyptic action movie, but scientists with the U.S. Geological Survey warned federal and state emergency officials that California's geological history shows such "superstorms" have happened in the past, and should be added to the long list of natural disasters to worry about in the Golden State.
The threat of a cataclysmic California storm has been dormant for the past 150 years. Geological Survey director Marcia K. McNutt told the New York Times that a 300-mile stretch of the Central Valley was inundated from 1861-62. The floods were so bad that the state capital had to be moved to San Francisco, and Governor Leland Stanford had to take a rowboat to his own inauguration, the report notes. Even larger storms happened in past centuries, over the dates 212, 440, 603, 1029, 1418, and 1605, according to geological evidence.

The risk is gathering momentum now, scientists say, due to rising temperatures in the atmosphere, which has generally made [COLOR=#366388 !important][COLOR=#366388 !important]weather [COLOR=#366388 !important]patterns[/COLOR][/COLOR][/COLOR] more volatile.
The scientists built a model that showed a storm could last for more than 40 days and dump 10 feet of water on the state. The storm would be goaded on by an "atmospheric river" that would move water "at the same rate as 50 Mississippis discharging water into the [COLOR=#366388 !important][COLOR=#366388 !important]Gulf [COLOR=#366388 !important]of [/COLOR][COLOR=#366388 !important]Mexico[/COLOR][/COLOR][/COLOR]," according to the AP. Winds could reach 125 miles per hour, and landslides could compound the damage, the report notes.
Such a superstorm is hypothetical but not improbable, climate researchers warn. "We think this event happens once every 100 or 200 years or so, which puts it in the same category as our big San Andreas earthquakes," Geological Survey scientist Lucy Jones said in a press release.
Federal and state emergency management

 

[teewee1432]

Not saying I believe it but it was an interesting read

 

[Hobgoblin]

I'd worry more about earthquakes.

 

[Morg]

Oh sure and most weather people can't even get the 5 day forecast right

 

[SuperFerret]

Pfft... it'll sink into the ocean first.

 

[Hound55]

According to the AP, the massive flooding in Australia has now reached Brisbane. (The third largest city in Australia.)

Yep, I was in the Gold Coast at the time which isn't that far away but wasn't hit that hard by the floods.

In Brisbane though the flood levels were something like 5.5 metres though...

And apparantly it's just hit Victoria too.

It's the worst flood since '74.

 

[craigdbfan]

This will be good for Australia. They were suffering from a country wide drought, some areas more affected than other.

This should help patch up any drought problems.

 

[Hound55]

Well, aside from the millions of dollars (billions..?) we're going to have to spend to fix all of the infrastructure that has been damaged from the floods, it should fill up the reservoirs, lakes and river systems.

But yeah, water treatment/desalinisation has been a major political issue (particularly in my state since we're at the arse-end of the Murray after other states have had their fill from it...) in recent years.

 

[Marx]

This will be good for Australia. They were suffering from a country wide drought, some areas more affected than other.

This should help patch up any drought problems.

Going from one extreme to the other is never good...

 

[craigdbfan]

You're right, I guess I should have said "On the positive side". Thats kind of what I meant

 

[Hound55]

Going from one extreme to the other is never good...

In large part that's what happened...

Drought plagued land was unprepared for the rainfall it did get. Levees unable to hold it.

Even when the rain slowed the flood levels still rose because of the water still flowing from highground coming faster than the water could evaporate.

 

[Marx]

VIDEO OF NEW VOLCANIC ISLAND 'BEING BORN' IN SOLOMON ISLANDS
http://www.huffingtonpost.com/2011/01/24/birth-of-an-island_n_811134.html

 

[Marx]

UPDATE: CATEGORY 5 CYCLONE HITS AUSTRALIA
http://www.cnn.com/2011/WORLD/asiapcf/02/02/australia.cyclone/index.html?hpt=T2

Holy ****!

 

[Hobgoblin]

Man, Australia keeps getting the short end of the stick. Droughts, heat, flooding, typhoons...