Dang it! I hate being inconvenienced......



Inconvenient Truths: Get Ready to Rethink What It Means to Be Green

Inconvenient Truths: Get Ready to Rethink What It Means to Be Green
05.19.08 | 6:00 PM


Photo: Yann Arthus-Bertrand/Altitude
The environmental movement has never been short on noble goals. Preserving wild spaces, cleaning up the oceans, protecting watersheds, neutralizing acid rain, saving endangered species — all laudable. But today, one ecological problem outweighs all others: global warming. Restoring the Everglades, protecting the Headwaters redwoods, or saving the Illinois mud turtle won't matter if climate change plunges the planet into chaos. It's high time for greens to unite around the urgent need to reduce emissions of greenhouse gases.

Just one problem. Winning the war on global warming requires slaughtering some of environmentalism's sacred cows. We can afford to ignore neither the carbon-free electricity supplied by nuclear energy nor the transformational potential of genetic engineering. We need to take advantage of the energy efficiencies offered by urban density. We must accept that the world's fastest-growing economies won't forgo a higher standard of living in the name of climate science — and that, on the way up, countries like India and China might actually help devise the solutions the planet so desperately needs.

Some will reject this approach as dangerously single-minded: The environment is threatened on many fronts, and all of them need attention. So argues Alex Steffen. That may be true, but global warming threatens to overwhelm any progress made on other issues. The planet is already heating up, and the point of no return may be only decades away. So combating greenhouse gases must be our top priority, even if that means embracing the unthinkable. Here, then, are 10 tenets of the new environmental apostasy.


ONLINE EXTRAS
How-To Wiki:
Use the Web to Reduce Your Carbon Footprint

How-To Wiki:
Build a Square Foot Garden

How-To Wiki:
How To Compost




Autopia:
Go Green — Buy A Used Car. It's Better Than A Hybrid


10 GREEN HERESIES

Live in Cities:
Urban Living Is Kinder to the Planet Than the Suburban Lifestyle




A/C Is OK:
Air-Conditioning Actually Emits Less C02 Than Heating




Organics Are Not the Answer:
Surprise! Conventional Agriculture Can Be Easier on the Planet




Farm the Forests:
Old-Growth Forests Can Actually Contribute to Global Warming




China Is the Solution:
The People's Republic Leads the Way in Alternative-Energy Hardware




Accept Genetic Engineering:
Superefficient Frankencrops Could Put a Real Dent in Greenhouse Gas Emissions




Carbon Trading Doesn't Work:
Carbon Credits Were a Great Idea, But the Benefits Are Illusory




Embrace Nuclear Power:
Face It. Nukes Are the Most Climate-Friendly Industrial-Scale Form of Energy

__________________
"If you're going to tell people the truth, be funny or they'll kill you." -- Billy Wilder

"Never believe anything in politics until it has been officially denied." -- Otto Von Bismark

Not even one bite?

Maybe if I had put "pig fucker" in the title?

__________________
"If you're going to tell people the truth, be funny or they'll kill you." -- Billy Wilder

"Never believe anything in politics until it has been officially denied." -- Otto Von Bismark

Yes if you put "pig fucker" in the title you would get more action on the thread. "Pig fucking" always gets my attention.

I think most people agree that the environment is an issue, but the real hard core tree huggers wont put down the hookah long enough to look at these problems rationally.

I heard earlier this week that the sustainable energy projects at various stages of proposal and development has a total power equal to 40 nuclear reactors. Only two nuclear reactors are in the proposal stage after decades of Republicans trying to push for nuclear power, and those are heavily subsidized by the Federal government.

The way I see it, until nuclear reactors are deployed in high volume in packages like those for nuclear submarines and air craft carriers, numbers like hundreds a year, nuclear just won't be a real solution. And this nuclear package will need be delivered to places where child soldiers are too common if nuclear is to provide the solution.

The genetically engineered crops touted by many are based on oil being cheap, because the high output relies on replacing the unsustainable growth with oil dependent fertilizer.

For Monsanto and ADM, their ultimate genetic engineering accomplishment would be to have a factory take in oil and ship out hamburger and baloney with vats converting one to the other.

Nice! That's an impressive figure...

.I'm not a big fan of nukes or frankenfoods....but I'm not sure they can't have some fit in the mix....

.Goo sandwich anyone?

I agree that portions of what are presented here are rather unsavory....

human population growth is a big factor that will need to be tackled eventually....IMO

__________________
"If you're going to tell people the truth, be funny or they'll kill you." -- Billy Wilder

"Never believe anything in politics until it has been officially denied." -- Otto Von Bismark