Quote:
Originally Posted by OrangeBlossomBaby
You /cannot/ "solve" the "problem" of climate change by eliminating the use of fossil fuels. You just can't.
Fossil fuels are the #1 ingredient of most plastics on this planet. There are other plastics that don't use fossil fuels, but oil is the #1 source of most plastic. Your computer monitor, your keyboard, your cell phone case, the buttons on your shirt, the hard tips of your shoelaces, the lining of your running shoe soles, most likely your windowshade, your lanai windows and screens. Your plumbing pipes are likely PVC, which is made with natural gas and salt as the main ingredient. Natural gas is also a fossil fuel.
Using the assumption that climate change a) exists and b) is a problem, you have to accept that it cannot be solved. It will never revert back to the time before it was a problem. That just flat out won't ever happen, unless there's another ice age. So you need to stop trying to tackle the problem with the notion that it can be solved. It can't.
The ONLY thing we can do, as a species, about the assumed problem of climate change, is to reduce our contribution to it. Energy-efficient structures, ADDING alternative renewable fuels to our existing use of fossil fuels to reduce our 100% reliance on them, for example.
Reducing pollution, more eco-friendly use of our waterways - maybe get rid of speed boats entirely. Reducing sport-fishing and encouraging fishing for food instead. We have entire species of animals on the verge of extinction, and they are important parts of OUR food chain. Without them, WE suffer. So we need to do whatever we can, within our means, to prevent that extinction.
What am I doing to that end? My flower and herb beds use no pesticides or chemical fertilizers at all. They attract honeybees and other pollinators, which can thrive and not spread poison from my soil to their nests and hives. I don't kill bugs outside my house, only inside it. I try to walk or ride my bike to the postal station instead of driving. It's a tiny little nothingburger of something I can do to help. But if everyone on the planet added their own tiny little nothingburger, the problem might take a few hundred years longer to become a catastrophe.
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I agree with the INTENT of what you are saying. I wish everyone realized that animal species are vanishing at a HORRIBLE rate. AND extinct .....NEVER reverses. I may differ in that I feel SOME optimism when I read about things like the Oliver Stone deal of his going to Davos. He IS a busy, important individual who is using his MEGAPHONE to do the right thing for HUMANITY. I do NOT have the same megaphone, so some might say that I should NOT get excited, rock the boat, or BOTHER to type stuff out that only a few people will EVER see.
........I think of it more like a little HOBBY that allows me to IMPROVE my writing and allows me to stay current on News events and what is important to this environment........Village never Never Land.
I agree that it would be better to save our fossil fuels for use in plastics than to just BURN them up. It would probably be better to make as many things out of wood that you could instead of plastics because of the waste accumulation going on at landfills.
......I agree that people each doing little things for the environment like supporting honey bees is very VIRTUOUS.
.......I never believed that the way things ARE has ANY UNCHANGEABLE relationship to the way things SHOULD BE. Life is about constant change.......and the change is happening MORE rapidly with each year.
.......I see a near FUTURE (next 5 years) where many, many MORE people (even old ones here in La la Land) will be trading in their IC engine vehicles for E-vehicles, for E-carts, E-3 wheelers, and for E-bikes. It is starting to trend that way right NOW. Imagine bicycling and you come to a steep hill, what could be nicer than to get a little E-boost up that hill.......better commuting.
........And I could see the oil and gas industry losing its grip on peoples' thinking and people leaning toward electric production from CLEANER sources like Nuclear, wind solar, or WHATEVER the future brings. And the FUTURE is closer than we think.......like about 5 years.
.........OH yes......about your herb garden.......always remember the garden advice........"a thyme in time saves nine"