What are the battlefronts in the war against global climate change?

Question

Where would you position your forces?

Answer 1

The battlefield is going to be the ballot box.  People are getting real sick of being shouted down by a gaggle of goofballs who believe problems don't exist unless they affect white Americans.

Answer 2

Well, lets see, over the next two decades it will become painfully obvious that the world has entered into a dangerous cooling episode. The current warning signs of food shortages throughout the world will be significantly amplified by a global reduction of the growing season. It will be necessary to optimize agriculture in the US and other countries to compensate for the billions of people throughout the world living from one crop to the next. And many millions will probably starve to death. By that time any politicians proposing legislation to limit CO2 emissions for the purpose of changing climate will have long since been voted out of office. Why did world have the Little Ice Age? until that is answered, there can be no trust of any long term climate predictions.

Answer 3

The problem boils down to two things: population and consumption.  Some countries overpopulate (have more than 2 children), some consume heavily (although not deliberately, many developed countries simply have inefficient infrastructure built on the assumption of cheap, no-impact oil).

Factors working against solutions will include lack of education on the issue, misinformation/propaganda, consumer culture and corporate values, political priorities and industry payoffs (pardon me, I do know they're sometimes referred to as "campaign contributions"), even religious beliefs and values (particularly growth-through-babies strategies and converting everyone to Western values and lifestyles) may help condemn us to disaster.

Factors we will have to "battle" will include drought and crop damage (repeat of Dust Bowl desertification), dysfunctional ecosystems (loss of much of our ocean food supply due to acidification, possible loss of obscure but critical species such as pollinators), massive economic shock due to the loss of major cities (and their monetary value), mass migration away from innundated cities (most of the East Coast).  Water will become extremely expensive as cities compete with agriculture to secure supplies.

To minimize the various negative outcomes from warming, so far the main triggers seem to be CO2, black carbon (particulate pollution), deforestation, and methane.  Some of the primary human activities that need to be addressed are coal-fired power plants (CO2 and black carbon), transportation (CO2), the beef industry (deforestation and methane), and the agribusiness and biofuel/ethanol industries (deforestation).  The countries that most need to be involved in a solution include China (CO2 and black soot), the United States (CO2), and Brazil (deforestation and methane).  However, to minimize damage we may need every person on the planet to be involved.

On a societal level we're going to see dramatically increased friction between people who are displaced from their homes and/or desperate for food and the governments that they blame for inaction and for resulting rises in food prices.  Countries' militaries will increasingly be deployed within their own borders to "keep order" (supress rioting and revolt).  The military may eventually be needed to defend crops (which of course will feed the military and government leaders first).

On the international level the battlefronts will often be litteral, as countries eye each other's water and remaining productive cropland.  Ironically, wars may eventually destroy enough power plants to minimize additional catastrophic warming, and wars may also bring human population down to a sustainable level.

Answer 4

I really think one of the first steps is quantifying what we're currently pumping out there.  In Oregon, we're just getting started on the rulemaking required to set up a GHG reporting system.   We'll be requiring reporting to begin in 2009 and adding industries and businesses under operating permits in 2010.

This is crucial and could lead to a possible cap'n'trade system - where industries, busineses, etc. can actually reduce their GHG and sell credits to others struggling to get up to speed - the idea behind this type of system is to of course ratchet down the margin available (i.e. the maximum allowable overall spew of GHG) so that credits become sparser, more expensive and it actually would cost an industrial operation more to buy credits than retrofit or improve their process.

But the greatest challenge state, local and federal regulators face is how to address the transportation sector.  Tougher emission standards and fuel economy requirements are huge!  This is where the most action is needed and in a hurry since it's the combined driving activity that's producing one of the largest portions of GHG.  We think smokestacks... but it's also tailpipes.  It seems like that as gas prices increase there will be more support for tougher fuel economy standards.

I think that's the only way to address the individual - in addition we need to focus on commercial fleets, but I don't think Oregon is alone in the fact that the resources and people-power to take on adding this category to a reporting system are sparse... it's a huge workload and this sector doesn't report anything right now... there's a huge learning curve!

Answer 5

the WAR is over, the world climate is cooler

Answer 6

Sorry about the previous answers the GW section has more trolls than any section I have ever experienced.

To respectfully answer your question there are two main battle fronts, the government and the individual. Though both need to be encouraged to act responsible it is ultimately the individual that will help make the shift in part via their lifestyle but also through education others and most importantly voting with ones dollars. This is the most powerful weapon you have against global warming. Unfortunately in this world there are more unenlightened minds than enlightened. It is money that motivates these people in a more constructive direction.

Don't get me wrong it is not wrong to use money as a tool, it is just that money has indeed been the "root of all kinds of evil." But in life often one can take something that is used for ill and turn it around for the better.

The one thing environmentalist have is solidarity. We are less likely to go from one company to another endlessly searching for that magic price and all the bells and whistles. If the company has the right rhetoric, product, process, etc we will be life long friends. It is this type of customer loyalty that will ultimately change things around.  

I don't know if you are old enough to remember or not but I remember when organic, fair trade, no-sweat, green seal, etc when unheard of terms no they are house hold names. So yes we can and do make a powerful difference so please do not lose the faith as many hands make light work.

The reason I am not as big on the government side of things is that there is too much corruption and it is an uphill battle the whole way. That does not mean we should not apply our forces there we should. Enough for them to feel the constant heat. But as for the here and now put your money into organic, fair trade, alternative energy, CFL and LED's, public or high efficiency transportation, Environmental Charities, local goods, insulation, plants, composting bins, hemp products (i.e clothing and food), solar flash lights, educational materials, vegan products, etc, etc, etc.

Thanks for your question it was very much needed.

Peace and Blessings : )

Answer 7

AND JUST HOW ARE YOU GOING TO FIGHT MOTHER NATURE ? GLOBAL WARMING IS A NATURAL OCCURRENCE , NOT THE B.S. HYPE AL GORE SPEWS OUT . HE HAS RODE HIS B.S. ALL THE WAY TO THE BANK AT A LOT OF GULLIBLE PEOPLE'S EXPENSE .

Answer 8

Well today, it seems to be the American worker, he/she is the one to blame for everything

They drive cars to get to work,

their work place uses energy to make things and we know that bad

They use 'raw material' to make things that 'rape' nature.]

So I say take the American worker, and put him away for life for crimes against humanity.

Answer 9

http://www.socyberty.com/Activism/First-... FOLLOW THE FIRST STEP BY GETTING A SALVAGE LICENSE AND EQUIPTMENT TO DELETE THE SANDS OF TIME UNTOUCHED AND THE TREASURES HIDDEN IN THE SANDS OF TIME TO KEEP OR SELL AS YOU WISH. IN INDIA THEY FOUND A STONE TEMPLE NEAR THE BEACH. GET GROUPS AT SCHOOLS, CHURCHES OR NEIGHBORHOODS TO HELP DELETE GLOBAL WARMING.