Posted by johnny marin, a resident of the San Rafael neighborhood, on Dec 7, 2009 at 11:44 am
My carbon foot print will be larger than most this year. I've bought more lights for the house and plan on lighting them every night till the new year. I have removed all florescent lights and gone back to incandescent bulbs. We're driving around the Bay Area to shop wherever the bargains may be. We're importing foods from out of state and even out of the country. We may even fly to So. Calif. to visit relatives instead of driving. It sure is nice to be an American consumer.
Posted by Tim, a resident of the San Rafael neighborhood, on Dec 7, 2009 at 4:33 pm
Johnny marin your behavior works well for you, apparently, and most of our fellow citizens, but if I lived in most of the rest of the world, it wouldn't cause me to feel good about the U.S. when 200 countries are trying to work together to do something about saving the planet.
The United States, with less than 5 % of the global population, uses about a quarter of the world’s fossil fuel resources—burning up nearly 25 % of the coal, 26 % of the oil, and 27 % of the world’s natural gas.
and
The 12 percent of the world’s population that lives in North America and Western Europe accounts for 60 percent of private consumption spending, while the one-third living in South Asia and sub-Saharan Africa accounts for only 3.2 percent.
Posted by anon, a resident of the Mill Valley neighborhood, on Dec 7, 2009 at 4:54 pm
johnnymarin, funny answer as usual, ha ha!!
I'm there also. But I do agree that membership gifts to the museums or other attractions that require donations or fees is a great gesture.
Listen, we started leaving our "carbon footprint" the day that we were born. There's not too much we can do until we die, so we may as well live a little while we're still around.
If you see extra plastic bags laying around out there, RECYCLE them.
I'll be wishing you all a Very Merry Christmas as I recline in front of my beautifully lit tree this year and nice, toasty fireplace that I light almost every weekend.
Posted by johnymarin, a resident of the San Rafael neighborhood, on Dec 7, 2009 at 5:04 pm
Tim, just maybe the reason the U.S. and the western nations use all the power is because that's where all the civilized people and their cities are located. If the rest of the world still enjoys living around a campfire, that's their call not mine, not ours. We are the ones that discovered oil, gas, wind, nuclear power and solar. We developed it for our use so that we could enjoy burning it up to our hearts desire. We are the ones flying to the moon and Mars and building space shuttles. If the boys and girls who live in the jungles, deserts and islands want some of these wonders, then let them invent, develop and enjoy the fruits of what is available in our modern world. I have zero guilt for our consumption. You can give your part away and live in a tent if it make you happy. I will live my life to the fullest and sing myself into the grave with the lights turned on (100 watt incandescent). Al Gore can kiss my butt.
Posted by Tim, a resident of the San Rafael neighborhood, on Dec 8, 2009 at 3:01 pm
Most of the rest of the world is trying to arrive where we are. It's not about guilt. What good does that do? Human nature seems to be pretty consistent everywhere. It's about taking some responsibility and using our resources and skills to attack the problem that we have had a large share in creating. (without blaming us or anyone else for what human beings have just been doing naturally) More evidence of the problem:
"Despite recent fluctuations in global temperature year to year, which fueled claims of global cooling, a sustained global warming trend shows no signs of ending, according to new analysis by the World Meteorological Organization made public on Tuesday. The decade of the 2000s is very likely the warmest decade in the modern record, dating back 150 years... The period from 2000 through 2009 has been “warmer than the 1990s, which were warmer than the 1980s and so on,” said Michel Jarraud, the secretary general of the international weather agency, speaking at a news conference at the climate talks in Copenhagen."
Posted by johnnymarin, a resident of the San Rafael neighborhood, on Dec 8, 2009 at 4:39 pm
For the sake of argument, let agree that this or the previous decade was warmer. I remember back in the 70's, the claim was that the earth was cooling. Now according to glacial history, the earth has cooled and heated dramatically in the past 7 billion years without our help. And when I say cooled or heated, I mean to the point where life was restricted to just a few longitudinal degrees of the planet. So if it is heating, it's doing it all by it lonesome self with out my Christmas lights and carbon dioxide exhalations. No way can you or the fools in Copenhagen convince me otherwise. My source comes for climatedepot.com not Al, the liar, Gore.
Posted by Tim, a resident of the San Rafael neighborhood, on Dec 9, 2009 at 8:46 am
The World Meteorological Organization has 189 member nations whose expert weather people participate. To ignore that and call them all fools is to ignore the combined best weather science of not only the U.S. but of the whole world. Maybe all the world's experts are wrong, but I'm not betting on it.
Posted by johnnymarin, a resident of the San Rafael neighborhood, on Dec 10, 2009 at 1:58 pm
I am betting on it. I'm also betting that Al Bore will have to give his Nobel prize back. And I betting he will have to give the Oscar back as well. He'll get to keep the millions he fleeced from companies that had to pay to stay in business. Of course the representatives in Copenhagan are for global warming. They are the ones who get paid to promote it. They are ones who will profit from it's implementation. I don't want our country to be held to any standards other than the ones that help this country. That's the same way China, Russia, India and Brazil feel as well. I don't want one job or business being shipped overseas as a result of this bogus theory. We have plenty of regulations in place to cover our carbon foot print. Any more is a nail in the coffin of our national strength. I want to drill off of our coasts for oil. I want ANWR to be developed in Alaska. I want natural gas to be developed. I want more coal fired energy plants. I want more Hetch Hetchy dams on the rivers. And last but not least, I want twenty new nuke plants built. Then we can tell the Arabs and Hugo Chavez to kiss our collective asses.
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