Oh, Give Me An EFFFFING Break!
[rant mode=ON]
Oh, Lord; I just love listening to "the experts" expound to we unwashed masses regarding this subject. I will immodestly say that
nobody on this Forum is more effected by "warming" than me! jst6 and our Mods come close, but I'd bet that
my job puts me outside in the Sonoran July weather more often and for longer periods than
their jobs do for them. And along with being a Ham Radio geek, I'm also a volunteer weather watcher for the NWS - and there are some interesting classes to take as part of the Skywarn duty. So now you'll get my hot air on the subject.
First of all; go do a few Google searches on the subject. For every "study" on how global warming is a new phenomenon; you can find a
historical data study that shows
the warming/cooling trends occur in a 100-150-year cycle. There are also archaeological studies that indicate a 400-year cycle comes into play as well. So, yeah, I guess it's a "new trend" to us - since nobody around here (all cracks at chepsk8 aside) saw the last warming trend.
Trees and cow farts do indeed produce a lot more CO2 and methane than our cars. Also, (2bav8 and Oboe) do you know that a Phoenix "strong" summer thunderstorm produces almost as much ozone as 3 days' worth of Phoenix rush-hour traffic? Maybe we Arizonans should enact a
Monsoon tax??? Bythe way, ozone is
good in the upper atmosphere for deflecting much of the sun's UV radiation; but many "studies" suggest that it's
bad for the environment here closer to the ground. So is it good or bad for us?
I love it when "the experts" point to test data (measured on various Space Shuttle missions) on "the depletion of the ozone layer" caused by CFC's being released to the atmosphere. Back to statistics: If the A/C unit in every car, truck, bus, house and grocery store in Arizona were to pop a Freon line at the same time; the CFC's released would
almost equal that released by a complete burn of the Shuttle's Solid Rocket Boosters. Oh, and the last minute or so of the SRB burns spew out those CFC's a lot closer (less chance of degradation of the CFC molecules) to the Ozone layer than we are.
"Global warming" has come up a lot in my neck-of-the-woods recently; as a proposal to build (39 miles from where I'm sitting right now) the first new U.S. oil refinery in the last 30 years. Environmentalists descend upon us (usually in large groups driving Excursions and Suburbans) to warn we backwards folk about the dangers; trotting out factoids and the dangers of particualte emissions and wastewater pond contamination ruining our agricultural society. Left out is the part about their "facts" describing a specific 50-year-old refinery operating under 50-year-old (nearly non-existant) Environmental Quality Regulations. Exhaust scrubbers that were unheard of in the 50's and a treatment system that
precludes wastewater ponds are included in the design - they have to be, or the permit won't be let and the refinery won't exist. But still, the Environmentalists come from out of town; bringing "relevant data" to scare the local citizenry into stopping this refinery from being built. Reminds me of the time (two years ago) when one of my well-meaning-but-grossly-uninformed Scout mothers came blazing into our Parents' Meeting
demanding that all of the parents
must sign this petition blocking the build of a second cardboard packaging plant here in our county. She knew what it was like living four miles from an old plant back home in Pennsylvania... the smell was apparently horrible and made people sick; and that wasn't gonna happen in Yuma if
she had anything to say about it!
Go back a couple of sentences, to where I said
"....the second cardboard packaging plant...". Politely as I could muster; I told her I would sign her petition
only after she drove 0.9 mile East of her subdivision, to the industrial property with the "Weyerhauser" sign out front. After she discovered and reported back her findings on what
exactly Weyerhauser was doing not one mile from her house; I'd consider whether or not I should sign the petition. Never heard about her petition again?
Why on earth do we as a people allow ourselves to run willy-nilly screaming in fear every time somebody comes up with a reason for us to be scared?
I'm as Enivironmentally aware as many people; more aware than most. But I think "being aware" means researching facts and being aware of
all aspects of the issue.
[/rant mode]