Thread: is the drought caused by..........

Originally Posted by JDNSW

although Australia will be affected by it, we can have no significant effect on it, except perhaps indirectly, and even that would be minimal - Australia has well under 1% of the world's population, and even though Australian emissions per capita are up among the highest (High living standards plus low energy costs and long distances) - if reduced by 50% or even 100%, the effect would be still be insignificant, being swamped by those countries with large populations, particularly those with high per capita emissions (US for example) or those with rapidly rising emissions (China, India for example).

John

Yep,agree with that.
It is a problem for me though if the argument that follows is "we'll be right, we can't make much difference, it's the Chinese and Indians need to change their ways, so lets not try to change ourselves at all"

Or maybe we could divert the funds going our own greenhouse emmisions into educating and assisting the Chinese and Indians ... I dunno.

According to my ex I am responsible for it

and the demise of the dinosuars

and world war two

the loss of Neandertals

her sanity

taxes.

Humans should do what we do much better as we waste way to much, but have we caused global warming I feel that is a load of cods wallop.

(hey moderators is cods wallop ok? as it's a colloquialism not a swear word)

Blythe

the drought may well be caused by a lack of fresh water

GQ

Yep, thats right.
The draught is caused by a lack of rain.
Pure and simple.

Originally Posted by olbod

Yep, thats right.
The draught is caused by a lack of rain.
Pure and simple.

so light annoying breezes inside the house are caused by lack of rain too ? hmmmm........

Originally Posted by waynep

so light annoying breezes inside the house are caused by lack of rain too ? hmmmm........

Nuh, lack of a good wind.
People that work outdoors could help the environment
by having a baked bean sandwich lunch, regularly.

Originally Posted by waynep

Yep,agree with that.
It is a problem for me though if the argument that follows is "we'll be right, we can't make much difference, it's the Chinese and Indians need to change their ways, so lets not try to change ourselves at all"

Or maybe we could divert the funds going our own greenhouse emmisions into educating and assisting the Chinese and Indians ... I dunno.

We won't be right, any more than anyone else will be - but if you think changing your emission habits is going to make a difference you are kidding yourself. Perhaps the most productive thing we can do is to keep our population low, and certainly we should on a personal basis try and reduce emissions, although as I said, don't expect it to make a difference*.

Developing low or zero emission technology to pass on to the major producers would also be productive, but for this to happen here the price of energy would have to rise dramatically. It probably will anyway, as China and India's appetite for energy increases, and this will make for an automatic reduction in emission growth.

*One of the things that concerns me about the majority of the younger generation is the complete absence of concern about waste of resources, but this is probably not the place to go into that, although if this concern existed it would go a long way toward reducing emissions.

John

Johns (JDNSW) point is the core of the problem.

Population:

Australia = 21,000,000 (CO output mature)
China = 1,300,000,000 (CO output growing)
India = 1,100,000,000 (CO output growing)
Asia other = 900,000,000 (CO output expotential)

3.5 billion population are yet to get to the level of consumerism we 'enjoy'.

I believe our stats show that there is a motor vehicle (private/business/commercial use) for every Aussie.
Asia is a fraction of this.

3.5 billion motor vehicles; when this market matures, (as in gets to the levels of consumerism we 'enjoy'), means many things.

1). Asia will be a massive parking lot, cars idling away for hours, going nowhere fast, or even slow.
2). Massive amounts of gas to atmosphere.
3). Massive consumption of fuel, which is currently fossil based.
4). Degradation of landscape to supply to the populus, more roads.....

As we already know, as in those who commute in big cities, cars are becoming a slower way to commute, than other forms, like riding a pushbike, or walking....

Our 21,000,000, by cutting our consumption of fossil fuel burning/consumption will do bugger-all in the big picture.

GQ