MikeT wrote:
What infuriated me about this bullsh*t was when I saw a TV report that traced where this recycled plastic actually goes and one batch they followed got shipped to Holland for landfill!
It seems "recylcing" is actually a code word for dumped_anywhere_except_UK_landfill
You could argue that that is recycling, via a very long route. Eventually, landfill will be converted back into oil or perhaps coal but it takes a while for that to happen, several million years in fact.
stuartadair wrote:
Go and do some research - the temperature of the planet has varied constantly since day 1, and will continue to do so despite the fact that I put my used veg oil bottles in the bin.
Next week there will be a new panic over something. I think as a species we need to have something to worry about.
As it happens, I do understand that climate changes naturally over time and it has been hotter in the past. I should also mention that the thermal output of the sun has been increasing measurably too.
On the other had, atmospheric CO2 concentration has increased measurably. again atmospheric CO2 concentration was higher in the past but we're releasing the CO2 that nature has stored away in fossil fuels.
http://cdiac.ornl.gov/trends/co2/sio-mlo.htm
The Mauna Loa record shows a 19.4% increase in the mean annual concentration, from 315.98 parts per million by volume (ppmv) of dry air in 1959 to 377.38 ppmv in 2004. The 1997-1998 increase in the annual growth rate of 2.87 ppmv represets the largest single yearly jump since the Mauna Loa record began in 1958. This represents an average annual increase of 1.4 ppmv per year. This is smaller than the average annual increase at the other stations because of the longer record and inclusion of earlier (smaller) annual increases.
There is not a lot of argument over whether or not CO2 is a greenhouse gas, it does help reflect heat radiated from the ground back at the ground, clouds do the same thing, ever noticed how cloudless nights are colder than cloudy ones? The argument is not whether or not we are contributing to global warming but how much we are.
If you're not worried about global warming, perhaps you should be worried about what will happen to the world economy when cheap portable energy (i.e. oil) becomes expensive, that is something that we're going to see in our lifetime because of the way the Indian and Chinese economies are expanding...
