[Ayoob]

My old lady picked up a portable room air conditioner tonight. To check it out and prepare for Earth Hour next year I plugged it in on the back porch and have it running right now. It's outside. It sucks in cold air, cools it off, and spits out even colder air into the night. As a bonus, the motor generates heat, warming Earth's atmosphere.

We'll see how it does over the next couple days.

I figure it goes well with my lava lamp collection.

[AgentR]

People like gestures that they can make, and be SEEN making. Thus the popularity of something like the Prius amongst those who know full well that they could take the bus or ride a bike if they were honestly motivated. The Prius gets seen, and they get seen in it, so it is perceived as a status improver. Riding the bus or a bicycle is far more environmentally neutral, but is perceived as a status reducer.

So yeah, this is just yet another way for people to soothe their consciences even though they have no true understanding of why their conscience is even involved in what they are considering.

[Cid_Yama]

It's too late.

We are facing massive sea level rise, massive temperature rise(and its not the higher highs that will kill you but the higher lows that ensure that things do not cool off overnight), massive evaporation and depletion of water resources, and failure of the infrastructure that ensures those resources necessary to the continuation of life arrive.

It is time to act towards the survival of yourself and your loved ones.

We are facing the death of 4 out of 5 alive today, maybe more.

Can you really, honestly, believe that, even if everyone immediately changed their behavior, there is even a chance?

It's over for the world you have known. Don't let the desire to have the world you have known continue, prevent you and those around you from being among those that survive.

[Lore]

My old lady picked up a portable room air conditioner tonight. To check it out and prepare for Earth Hour next year I plugged it in on the back porch and have it running right now. It's outside. It sucks in cold air, cools it off, and spits out even colder air into the night. As a bonus, the motor generates heat, warming Earth's atmosphere.

We'll see how it does over the next couple days.

I figure it goes well with my lava lamp collection.

I believe that kind of thinking coincides perfectly with the lava lamp era.

[Vogelzang]

Welcome to green hell!

http://www.republicanoperative.com/foru ... laves.html

http://townhall.com/columnists/DougGile ... _of_slaves

[Vogelzang]

The correct solution is now clear. We need to contribute as much as possible to man made global warming. We need to pump as much CO2 and methane into the atmosphere as possible, as well as, get all of the positive feedback mechanisms working. That way we can get it over with quicker. Also, I want the sea levels to rise so my house is closer to the beach.

[rangerone314]

If you want to actually deal with increased global temperatures, the best bet will be geoengineering. The effects of that will be dramatic, and the costs reasonable. In fact, that's the other dirty secret: geoengineering is rapidly becoming acceptable/mainstream among climatologists.

However it seems that one of the most trumpeted hopes of geoengineering (seeding oceans with iron) doesn't work. Excess of algal growth is quickly consumed by secondary bloom of other plankton organisms, which are feeding on it.
Firing sulfur aerosols to upper atmosphere is a nonsense as well (at best you would have to deliver few times more than Mt Pinatubo did and carry on exercise every 2 years or so).
Giant mirrors in space are not more than a joke due to technological difficulties. So I don't expect geoengineers to pose much risk to environment at the moment.

How about deep drilling equipment into Yellowstone caldera, and dropping a 20-megaton H-bomb into the shaft and detonating it?
The resulting eruption and ash into the atmosphere would probably take care of global warming.

[lowem]

It sounded to me a lot like "leave your SUV home for a day", but yeah, sure, I took part because the teachers have been talking about it to the kids at school. Well. I still think it'd have saved more energy to leave the car or SUV (whichever is the case) home for a day.

[Crazy_Dad]

Earth Hour is a complete hoax.
It is a way of making the human brain think everything is ok - when it is not.
It is a device of corporate greed.

http://peakoil.com/post887488.html#p887488

It is easy to think that something is going to be done about the greed/destruction deal, but as long as we as a global body of humans who don't benefit from the greed allow it, it will continue.

We need a global movement of ordinary people to take back our planet from those who would take it from us for gold or whatever.

There is nowhere else to go, so what these greedy corp types hope to achieve is beyond me. Unless FTL(faster than light) travel is real and they have a nice planet to move to.

I'm confused. And yes if I have to I would change back to a pre-oil lifestyle. As long as I am allowed to make a surfboad from surplus wood and grow a permaculture food forest.

[Rod_Cloutier]

World-wide, cities turned down the lights for an hour today:

http://english.aljazeera.net/news/asia/ ... 36664.html

As I remarked on this issue last year, a one hour reduction in electricity demand will have NO IMPACT WHATSOEVER on global climate change. Yet this symbolic event drew big name corporate supporters like the WWF, McDonalds, and Coca-Cola. The article also writes that;

"Twitter and Facebook (users) can show their support with special applications that turn their displays dark"

Bizarre, bizarre, bizarre. None of this will have any impact on the fact that global concentrations of C02 in the atmosphere increased by 3 PPM this year alone! The 'Green movement' could use some enlightment by some real science, because they are completely in the dark in terms of what it would actually take in order to slow down climate change. Get 350 written on every button, wall and bulletin board in the world to you're heart’s content, but know also that it would take 500 years of ZERO global carbon emissions get back to 350 PPM!

It’s sad. That even those who are not in denial about global warming e so out to lunch as to the severity of the situation, and the hard realities they try wish away with 'Earth hours'.

[mos6507]

It may be ineffective, but nothing else has proven to be effective (i.e. Live Earth and Copenhagen), so why bash people who at least are aware of the problem?

What do you want people to do, blow up a hydro dam like Derrick Jensen suggests?

Certainly railing against TPTB on a worldsend ain't helping matters.

[Ayame]

Haha. Yes it's laughable. A token gesture to make everyone feel good about themselves like they are doing something. Someone said that these silly events actually detract from the seriousness of climate change.

[frankthetank]

I took a hot shower earlier and then a bath tonite. Both heated by electricity, created by coal. The faster we burn this crap, the faster change will come.

[Rod_Cloutier]

Sorry MOS6507, I didn't mean to bash people. I have very strong feelings that 'Greens' are currently doing more harm than good.

If you look at the corporate sponcership as just one example, they are playing into the 'fantasy land' idea of doing less harm to the enviroment. You see this every time you watch commercials on TV, buy Tide coldwater soap because you won't have to use hot water, buy ethanol gasoline because it pollutes less than gasoline (never you mind the food crisis situation this is setting up), buy this or that because it is packaged in recycled boxes, ect, ect.

It is frustrating to watch all this unfold knowing full well that these stopgap measures are way, way insufficient to solve global problems emerging on such a massive scale. I saw an article recently that said if the entire country of Canada could become carbon neutral, the additional C02 pollution from the growth in the economy of China in just the next 60 days would negate any gains from such an accomplishment.

Yes some people are trying to get the message out, but I feel it is the wrong message being sent. These people believe that business as usual can continue, so long as minor changes in behaviors and consuming activities are implemented. This is the wrong message. Its very frustrating to watch.

[mos6507]

It is frustrating to watch all this unfold knowing full well that these stopgap measures are way, way insufficient to solve global problems emerging on such a massive scale.

I agree it's frustrating. The cliche' about driving a hybrid and screwing in a CFL and calling it a day. Green consumerism. Maybe I'd be setting the bar higher if we hadn't been moving in the OPPOSITE direction since Climategate, but I'd like to see us at least walk before we run. We can't do a full 180' turn overnight. If that means it's too little too late (which it probably is) so be it. Cultural inertia is a bitch.

[ohanian]

It's funny how people talk about Earth Hour being useless at reducing carbon emission.

There are countries that are doing things (or rather not doing things) that given time will reduce the carbon emission from their country.

I'm talking about reducing the number of children per woman to 1.2

Think about the reduction in Carbon Emission of having adult woman in your country producing only 1.2 offspring. Japan did. Surely this is the right and proper way of reducing Carbon Emission for a whole country.

And it works!!!! Unlike Earth Hour

[americandream]

Token gestures, half-assed kumbaya liberalism and new-age mumbo jumbo ARE PRECISELY why maggots rule the roost on this planet. You want action. YOU KICK ASS! Thats called revolutionary and uncompromising change.

It may be ineffective, but nothing else has proven to be effective (i.e. Live Earth and Copenhagen), so why bash people who at least are aware of the problem?

What do you want people to do, blow up a hydro dam like Derrick Jensen suggests?

Certainly railing against TPTB on a worldsend ain't helping matters.

[americandream]

Mate, these maggots in capitalism ain't gonna change. Not now, not ever. We need another Stalin and a purging Revolution to remove these pus balls.

Sorry MOS6507, I didn't mean to bash people. I have very strong feelings that 'Greens' are currently doing more harm than good.

If you look at the corporate sponcership as just one example, they are playing into the 'fantasy land' idea of doing less harm to the enviroment. You see this every time you watch commercials on TV, buy Tide coldwater soap because you won't have to use hot water, buy ethanol gasoline because it pollutes less than gasoline (never you mind the food crisis situation this is setting up), buy this or that because it is packaged in recycled boxes, ect, ect.

It is frustrating to watch all this unfold knowing full well that these stopgap measures are way, way insufficient to solve global problems emerging on such a massive scale. I saw an article recently that said if the entire country of Canada could become carbon neutral, the additional C02 pollution from the growth in the economy of China in just the next 60 days would negate any gains from such an accomplishment.

Yes some people are trying to get the message out, but I feel it is the wrong message being sent. These people believe that business as usual can continue, so long as minor changes in behaviors and consuming activities are implemented. This is the wrong message. Its very frustrating to watch.

[eastbay]

Mate, these maggots in capitalism ain't gonna change. Not now, not ever. We need another Stalin and a purging Revolution to remove these pus balls.

I just love it when you talk like that! It offers me hope.

[americandream]

There is hope until the last one of us is left standing. This discourse need not and MUST NOT be hijacked by the jackals, their apologists and fellow travellers. The future is ours and remains ours unless we co-opt our will to be free.

There is no inevitability to any of this but it will certainly take more than a cup of latte by candlelight to rid ourselves of unsustainable lifestyles. It is up to each one of us to prepare ourselves for a costly struggle, a struggle which involves shedding many illusions and lies.

Mate, these maggots in capitalism ain't gonna change. Not now, not ever. We need another Stalin and a purging Revolution to remove these pus balls.

I just love it when you talk like that! It offers me hope.