Quote:
Originally Posted by Blackbird45
Save the planet for future generations. Maybe I'm misunderstanding you but is this I got mine screw everyone else. Let me rephrase save the planet, to instead leaving a habitual place for the people who come after me when I'm gone. The way I see it the planet has been pretty good to me, and I want to leave it that way for others. Think of it this way it's like flushing the toilet in a public restroom before you leave. As I stated in earlier postings I don't know if man is responsible for climate change, but to try do nothing is selfish and irresponsible.
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For those who say that it's a choice of saving money or saving the planet for future generations, that's a false choice. Other than the money angle that's been mentioned, the current plans of eliminating fossil fuels, going to electric cars, renewable energy, etc., will not necessarily result in a cleaner planet, but it most definitely will result in millions or billions of deaths worldwide. Fossil fuels are a major component of many products, including fertilizer, medicines, plastics, etc. By taking relatively cheap fertilizer away, and also making transportation more expensive, things like food become much more expensive, and a good number of those in third world countries die of starvation. Many are even starving now, because we use about half of our corn to make inefficient ethanol, rather than using it as food, substantially raising the price (both for eating corn and for feeding animals).
In the US, we have a very fragile electric grid. Aside from the issues of EVs not working or even charging in the cold, adding that much more to the grid makes us even more susceptible to total collapse of society if the grid breaks, or is broken by terrorism. Also, China is the leading producer of EVs and rare earth minerals that are used in battery production. Other than the problems of just relying on them, they are also major polluters in mining the minerals, etc., so we aren't really cleaning things up anyway.
I would much rather gradually transition to new technologies, as the market determines they are ready, continue to reduce pollution as we have been doing for decades (CO2 is not pollution), and not waste trillions of dollars, rather than the alternative of spending those trillions and causing certain death and destruction. This is particularly true, when considering the ice core data which shows that our current warming trend started from the coldest climate period in the last 10,000 years.