Saturday, April 18, 2009

Bad News: Scientists Make Cheap Gas From Coal

Bad News: Scientists Make Cheap Gas From Coal

Sometimes it's almost as interesting to read people's comments on an article as reading the article itself. Evidently many people out there simply doesn't give a shit about the environment and global warming. Now I want to precede by saying that I'm not a fanatic about environment issues; I don't go to the extreme but I do little things that's well within my means and doesn't cause to much hardship, i.e. recycling -- paper, boxes, plastic bags (no biggie), not leaving my computer turned on all the time, stuff like that.

One person's remark was: I am going to idle my SUV and leave all the lights on in my house when I am not home. Certainly he could not be serious about it, environment or not, you still have to pay for the gas and electricity. I suppose this individual could quite literally put his money where his mouth is by donating to gas and electricity companies. Yet I couldn't help but wonder the reasoning behind these individuals' responses -- do they think that the whole global warming is a hoax? That scientists and the government just made it up for whatever reasons? Or that God simply won't leave us high and drive (have you read the story of Moses?).

My husband, who is not crazy about the enviornment, pointed out that climate changes are natural in the history of earth. If we subscribe to that theory (facts), then we also should keep in mind that there were periods in geographical time that this planet was quite uninhabitable by human, or most other mammals and birds for that matter. If human's activities on earth is not the sole culprit that is bringing about global warming, it could very well be a contributing factor and certainly won't hurt to slow down the process. I've got to admit, I'm selfish, since I have no offsprings of my own and don't plan on having any, all I really care is the sustainability of earth to the day I die, anything beyond that is not my problem. But many of these people who redicule the entire issue have offsprings, and many of them! Do they not want to do what they can to ensure their survival on this planet? It might be a while before we make any other planets inhabitable. We really shouldn't even begin to fantom that until space travel became a reality, for most. To me, this whole having offsprings but not care about the environment thing is about as oxymoron as people smoking in Disneyland before it is banned -- we love our kids, that's why we bring them to Disneyland, but we don't love them enough to care about them getting lung cancers.

And then there are others who believe that "Oh, the scientists will figure out a solution." Really? After all the shit that's going on, we are still going to bury our heads in the sand and believe in that? I'm sure the scientists have very good intention and are very talented, but in the end of the day, progress is driven by greed, not so much the survival of the species (ironic, huh?). What I meant is: scientists need to live too, they cannot dedicate a lot of time in researches that they do not have funding on. And where does funding come from? Government or entreprenuers who want returns on their investments. So far it's not looking like there are a lot of immediate returns on green technology. In the end, the general public is not going to embrace solar panels or hybrid cars unless they see how it can fatten their pocket books. And the government, government is, unfortunately, not an entity that focuses solely on their citizens' well being. Instead, it is made up of many individuals, called politicians, whose behaviors are governed by how they can stay in their current position or move to the next one. So you see? In the end, there aren't a lot of driving force to do anything drastic to halt the destruction to the environment, let alone reversing it. Buddy, it's all down to you and I as individuals, not the mythical scientists or worse, the government.

I have my theory about how this world will come to an end when (not if) it comes to an end. I have narrowed it down to one of the following scenarios:-

(1) technology has improved to a point that ALL computer systems are linked to each other (kinda like the six degree of separation for computers), and a global terrorism that takes them all out in one go. Although this is more of a degradation of civilization scenario than the destruction of mankind scenario per se

(2) nuclear war (any day now)

(3) natural disaster such as an asteroid hitting us, or the climate on earth became uninhabitable to us in it's own course

(4) and the most likely, brought about by dumb people who will overpopulate this planet by maximizing their God given right to reproduce and depleting us of all necessary resources (land, air, water, food, etc.) and/or bringing about global warming.

My money is on #4.

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