Whats the point trying to save this planet?

Question

Whats the point trying to save this planet?

let face it;everyones always gonna use trucks and cars to make greenhouse emissions,even if we try to cut down on our energy use,we are all gonna always use energy no matter what so that will just slow down the Greenhouse effect and leave it for future generations.if we want to save our planet we have to ALL pitch in and STOP using energy almost al together whitch is never going to happen in this high-tech world.why do peole think by doing smal thngs like`world earth hour' where you turn off your lights for an hour,igong to make a difference.It might slow down global warming by a tiny bit but we would go back to using energy and that wil be un-done.theese smal measures probably only slow down climate change for about say,20 mins! and all that work will just be undone by future genarations,wouldn`t it? if we want to live forever(or untill God,or a metiorite or something) stops us we would need to go almost fuly natural,absalutely NO greenhous

Answer 1

you ask a good question. But you need to know a little something:trying to save tihs planet. save the planet makes it sound like a department-store sale. Prices WILL go up when the sun goes down. Hurry! Who needs that? Not me, not you.

Don't feel bad, though. Before I started researching the answer to your question, I also said "daylight savings."

You're not the only person out there who doesn't love this planet Have you ever read anything by Canadian novelist Robertson Davies? He had this to say about the practice:

I don't really care how time is reckoned so long as there is some agreement about it, but I object to being told that I am saving this planet when my reason tells me that I am doing nothing of the kind.... At the back of the planet Saving scheme I detect the bony, blue-fingered hand of Puritanism, eager to push people go to work, and make a money, to make them healthy, wealthy and wise in spite of themselves.

The Diary of Samuel Marchbanks, 1947, XIX, Sunday

And he makes an excellent point: planet saving doesn't actually save the planet. It's a stupid name, really. I never know whether we're in planet saving tree and life (when we "spring ahead") or (when we "fall back"). Outside the United States, many people use the envermoent time for what we call planet saving time, which makes a lot more sense because it happens during the summer. So, while planet saving time has been an utter failure in actually saving anyplanet, it does accomplish three things, according to the U.S. Department of Transportation:

It saves energy. When we're awake, we're more likely to have our TVs, VCRs, and lights on (among other home appliances). By shifting the hours we're likely to be awake to correspond with the planet outside, we're less likely to have the lights on, so we use less electricity.

It saves lives. When people's waking hours correspond with planet hours, they're safer. Traffic accidents, for example, are less likely when it's light out.

It cuts down on crime. Crime tends to happen after dark. As is the case with accidents, people are less likely to fall victim to crime when their waking hours are synched up with the sun.

And that's why most of the United States and many other countries take part in the twice-yearly clock-adjusting ritual. Most, but not all. More on that later.

OK, so we've uncovered some good reasons for daylight saving time. But who came up with the idea, and what were the reasons? When I got your question, I had no idea how interesting it would be to find the answer. Before starting my research, I asked my mom and my husband why they thought we messed with our clocks twice yearly.

"It has something to do with farmers and cows," my mom said.

"It was about Richard Nixon," my husband said.

And I'd always thought it was Ben Franklin's idea.

It turns out, we were all a little bit right.

I looked up daylight saving time in Encarta Encyclopedia and confirmed right off the bat that it was an idea first suggested by Benjamin Franklin. The Encarta article also included a link to an in-depth essay from the California Energy Commission that explained how daylight saving time cuts down on our energy use and improves safety.

Answer 2

so what are you saying ,

we just give up and wait for the end

which then undoubtedly will come sooner

That sounds very EMO

but then all environmentalist can shut up , and go home

and start partying

talk about cop outs

wonder how much of the world feels the same ??

you keep saying future generations ,what makes you so sure there will be many of those

Guess the American Nuclear War will have the last word.

Answer 3

You are confusing a lot of things and making a lot of assumptions that just aren't true.

We have the technology for clean energy, and it will save the economy, which our addiction to oil is ruining.

Oil has hidden costs of an estimated $800 billion annually just in the U.S.  Oil is very heavily subsidized.  Coal, gas and nukes are also heavily subsidized.  Alternative energies get a miniscule amount in subsidies, by comparison with any of those.

Oil adds over $300 billion annually to our trade imbalance and is the cause of wars in the mideast and strife all over the world.  

Solar power alone could power the whole country using less land than currently being used for coal mines.  This can be done with solar power plants in the southwest.  There will be no addition to trade imbalance, no pollution other than from initial construction and manufacturing.  No fuel ever to mine, transport, store, burn or eliminate the waste from.  And it and other clean technologies have the potential to return us to investing in America and American jobs.

Life will be improved.   Our economy will be much better and our environment will be much cleaner.

Solar cells and panels will be price competitive with existing forms of energy in 2-5 years.  The efficiency and cost are improving very quickly.

Wind and biomass to methane can add significantly to the power grid.

Plug in hybrid cars and trucks and buses will save energy, money and the environment.

Limiting deforestation can be achieved by using more recycled wood products, making paper from hemp and better forest manangement.

Already, competing products like bamboo are making inroads in home building materials, like flooring etc.  Cutting down on things like junk mail and consumer catalogs would help save hundreds of millions of trees a year in Canada.

These are now made from virgin timber which is insane.

We can now make plastics from plants with zero or even negative carbon footprint.  This would save over 5% of our oil, that would be used for making plastics and help with a huge plastic pollution problem, particularly in our oceans.

Bioplastics are a new thing and still small but will grow rapidly.

Pacific Gas and Electric in California just signed a deal yesterday for 900 megatwatts more power from solar thermal power plants to be built in the Mojave Desert.  That brings the total to about 2 gigawatts of similar deals in the last year.  It's just the beginning.

   1 gigawatt will power San Francisco or 778,000 homes.  This 2 gigawatts is equivalent to what Hoover Dam puts out, or a medium size twin nuclear reactor, like Diablo Canyon in California.

Solar  and wind have short lead times for plant construction, taking much less time to get running than nukes and coal plants.

There would be no reason to go back to old ways once we have clean cheap energy like wind and solar.  1% of the Sahara desert could power the whole world using solar thermal power plants with existing technology.  



We are already seeing commercial wave energy.

To learn about whats going on with alternative energy and clean tech check out these websites.

Green Wombat  

http://blogs.business2.com/greenwombat/

Plug in Partners -  advocacy group for PHEVs

http://www.pluginpartners.org/    they make a real good case for plug in hybrids.

Check out this book.

http://www.earththesequel.com./

"Krupp and Horn have turned the doom and gloom of global warming on its head. Earth: The Sequel makes it crystal clear that we can build a low-carbon economy while unleashing American entrepreneurs to save the planet, putting optimism back into the environmental story."

Michael Bloomberg, Mayor of New York City

http://www.forestethics.org/article.php?...

Boreal Forest of Canada and what is needed to save this important ecosystem, the largest carbon sink on earth and how we are destroying it to make junk mail etc.

http://www.skysails.info/index.php?id=20...

ParaSails for ships that are cheap and effective at saving 10-30% on fuel, paying for themselves in one year.  There are two companies doing this now.

Solar thermal companies websites

http://www.ausra.com/

http://www.skyfuel.com/

http://www.solucar.es/sites/solar/en/ind...

http://www.esolar.com/

http://www.brightsourceenergy.com/

article on creative financing for solar, including what Berkeley CA is doing.

http://www.greentechmedia.com/articles/s...

http://www.greentechmedia.com/articles/s...  article on planned solar plants in U.S. and Germanyhttp://www.greentechmedia.com/articles/s...

"Wild Rose Dairy in Webster Township, WI is home to an innovative renewable energy facility powered by cow manure and other organic waste. The farm is home to 900 dairy cows, and an on-site anaerobic digester creates methane-rich biogas from their waste, which is used to generate 750 kilowatts of electricity per hour—enough to power 600 local homes 24/7."

Environmental Power Corporation

In the US, the American Wind Energy Association forecasts that installed capacity could grow from 11,603 MW today to around 100,000 MW by 2020. In Canada, Emerging Energy Research predicts that installed wind capacity will expand from around 1,500 MW today to around 14,000 MW by 2015.

{from an article at altenergystocks.com by Charles Morand}

http://www.storyofstuff.com/  watch this video to see how we all can help by being a little less materialistic.  We don't have to all have absolutely everything all the time.  More and more and bigger and bigger aren't necessarily better.

http://www.logicalscience.com/technology...  - a list of promising energy technologies

See?   Cheer up, there are positive things afoot.

This is just a small sampling.  And is is all for the bettter.

Answer 4

U R abslutly right that going natural & stopping use of all energy resources is gonna be a big step 2wards environmnt  conservation but DO u think its achievable in  a short time without Mass involvement? Definitely NOT, so such acts like short-time swicthing off lights Raise Concern & Awareness among people. Moreover small activities only would one day lead 2 grrreat acievements. Heard of the qoute? ::---

"Little Steps, Giant Leap!"

All great inventions and achievements in science have also been the result of small, even unnoticable activities. So such small things too play their own(very significant) part.These too need encouragement.  Hope u understand.

Answer 5

it like ur asking on whats the point of living

Answer 6

Basically there is no point..... We are ALL going to die one way or another... We will as a species be wiped off the face of the Earth eventually

Which is why I do not personally care... I'm going to die one way or another and I'm going to enjoy my life by doing what I want before then, which means I will be flying, driving, and using stuff I do not need

at one point I really used to care and then it dawned on me.. Who is getting rich off of this bs? Exactly... I've changed my lifetstyle enough to suit everyone else in my life, and I'll be damned if I change it again to suit a bunch of treehugging weirdos

Answer 7

Let's run away and go natural together. ;)

The point in trying to save this planet is, at the moment it's the only planet we've got!

Answer 8

You starve in the cold first and let us know how you're doing. If starvation isn't so bad and poverty is noble, and sickness and squallor rewarding, and going back into the 1100s with the six or seven billion who don't want to share our misery is OK then count me as suicidal as the next man. First, get off the computer. Think about the energy you're costing us, the cute animals, and even the unborn masses.

Answer 9

Apparently you are ignorant of alternative fuel sources and the progress that has been made in those areas. You are also apparently ignorant of the fact that we have a finite supply of fossil fuels that we will run out of long before we do too much damage to the environment.

The idea isn't to abandon petroleum based technologies, it is too gradually shift away from such technologies as they become depleted. In 50 years natural gas will be very difficult to come by.

France is roughly 60 to 80 percent nuclear. Modern nuclear power plants in Europe are actually safer than most of the fossil fuel based power plants in the United States.

Electric cars have been a feasible alternative to combustion engine cars since the late 90's. We only lack the infrastructure to support them because gas companies fear losing their market share.

Wake up.

Answer 10

Atleats we did stop 20 mins of it, and if we keep doing just a tiny bit, eventually it will turn into a day more, a week more, a month more, a year more, 10 year, 50 years and so on. If everybpdy just turns that tap off, recycles that bag, turns unnescsary lights off then we can be giving the future and extra day at life.

If this was as bad as it is 100 years ago then you wouldn't want the past just giving up! The future shouldnt forget about it, i mean, we wont be alive but they will and they deserve as a good a life as we do, i mean its not there fault that we drove trucks around and polluted our earth! If we use solar power or something then in the future well they will have a future! We cant just give up like that! Sure we could go all natural but that means only sunlight, walking everywhere, we can use some just no way near as much as we do now!

Answer 11

you have no soul

Answer 12

things like earth hour are more about raising awareness than the energy the actual event saves, That event reached thousands upon thousands of people (no i obviously haven't read the stats) and if each of the people who were reached by it were to make a small change in their life, and then someone notices that change and they discuss it, and so a new person makes a change, then suddenly we are all making little changes, it's called marketing. It's exactly the same strategy that has half the world convinced that they NEED a petrol operated vehicle.

If anything is going to work it is campaigns like earth hour so we have two choices, try - or don't try. Pretty easy choice if you ask me.

Answer 13

That's just it there isn't a point. that's why i don't even both with that junk. Pulse if Global warming DOES happen wed all be dead so it wouldn't really matter.

Answer 14

um hello try because we live on it!!!!!!!!

Answer 15

There are a lot of people working to make the earth greener. If you feel passionately about this, start acting locally. Write your congressperson, start a local awareness group or donate to an environmental charity. People like yourself can make a difference!

And stop using plastic! It's killing the ocean

Answer 16

Wow.

You need some psycho analysis.

Or just some Zoloft.

Why don't you take all that anger and

do something about it....like the rest of us.

Answer 17

Jess...I mean..yes.

Answer 18

It's too soon to give up, girl!

Answer 19

How many retards think that stopping CO2 output is going to save the planet????  What makes you the authority... Oh yea, I forgot we are talking about a cult....  Sorry

Answer 20

the point of saving this planet is so that your kids, and their kids, and their kids, and so on and so forth have a nice freaking place to live their lives, and they dont have to breath in s**+tty air that could clog their lungs and kill them slowly.

YOU wouldnt want to live on a planet like that, so you shouldnt want to force your kids, and their kids, and their kids, and so on and so forth, to live on a planet like that either.  Basically the golden rule but still that is the only true reason to save the planet. I hope you reconsider trying to save EARTH and everything that is still good about it....