Save the world

[Error of Logic]

A serious question: If you had to think of a way that we could cut back on pollution, waste and other morbidities, all with the goal of saving the world for future generations, what would you do?

Personally, I think I'd start by heavily penalizing the automobile industry and automobile use. Put a tollboth on every road. Raise car taxes. Force people to think whether they really need to take the car to wherever they're going.

[ManaUser]

That sounds like a good start. Of course cleaner/more efficient cars would be taxed less. I would also tax or otherwise regulate harvesting non-renewable resources in general (Reduce, Recycle, Reuse!) and make sure renewable resources (trees and water, for example) were only harvested at a sustainable rate. And, this is somewhat indirect, but I would I would strictly enforce the original intent of corporations: that they must benefit the public. All others would be dissolved.

[MistressMaggie]

Force municipalities to offer public transportation that doesn't suck ass, and may actually be able to transport the public.

[LeftTentacleGreen]

If we're going full socialist...

Penalties for auto companies for every car made that gets less than 30 mpg.

Higher state regsitration fees for vehicles that get less than 30 mpg

Small tax breaks for every tree planted - say $1 each.

[Lynch]

http://www.davidsuzuki.org/default.asp

[Lynch]

http://www.davidsuzuki.org/default.asp

[WangyJohn]

Well, first, I'd issue a high tax on meat products, flight and the auto industry. Those are the worst polluters (yes, meat production is very unsustainable).

Then I'd have lots of trees planted, would make recycling more or less mandatory, ban plastic bags (Ireland taxes them, Bangladesh has banned them alltogether), improve public transport to make it a more lucrative option to personal traffic (cars, mostly).

Nuclear power, I guess comes in somewhere there, but I still view it with sceptism. Half life is not a laughing matter. Radioactivly contaminated land is useless for long, and landmass is critical with the current population growth...

[Aeridus]

I would put these babies in *everything*. Yay for zero point energy!

There are lots of alternative energies out there besides the classic solar, wind, geothermal, and nuclear. Some are more provable than others, but they all have potential.

And as far as reducing obesity... just pay people to exercise in special gyms that have treadmills that double as generators.

[JohnnyTwoEyes]

would make recycling more or less mandatory

Aside from recycling metals, most (if not all) recycling processes create more pollution than just making a new product. The process for shredding, bleaching and remaking paper is far more harmful to the environment than just making new paper.

The problem I see with just initiating large taxes on things like automobiles is that people who can barely afford living expenses will suddenly find that they can't afford to drive their car. Sure, they won't be polluting, but they also won't be able to get to work and they won't be able to afford a nice, ecospensive vehicle. It's like going "Yay nature, Fuck people".

As for what I would do, I'd tighten emissions regulations and institute a buy back program where you get a better price selling your old car if you're using it to buy a more environmentally friendly automobile. I'd also work to improve alternative fuel sources, namely hydrogen power and high efficiency solar cells. Solar power is awesome.

Lastly, I'd increase the usage of nuclear power but come up with a more innovative solution for removing the waste product, like flinging it into the sun. Of course the risk of the rocket exploding in orbit and showering the earth with radioactive waste would be pretty severe, but I figure by then we'd be able to create relatively safe and cheap space travel.

[BriHahn]

Can I just save a cheerleader instead?

[JohnnyTwoEyes]

Can I just save a cheerleader instead?

why? they're a dollar twenty a dozen. (damn you, inflation)

[Churba]

Nuclear power, I guess comes in somewhere there, but I still view it with sceptism. Half life is not a laughing matter. Radioactivly contaminated land is useless for long, and landmass is critical with the current population growth...

What? Where do you get that idea? We've got absolute scads and scads of space on this planet before we even have to worry about thinking about considering landmass being critical for population growth.

My proof? Go Fire up google maps, and compare developed areas - Ie, Cities and so on - with Areas where there are none - not including the ocean, for the purpose of this experiment.

I would bet on the outcome of which was greater, but Money that easy is stealing.

[Lowky]

Well, first, I'd issue a high tax on meat products, flight and the auto industry. Those are the worst polluters (yes, meat production is very unsustainable).

Then I'd have lots of trees planted, would make recycling more or less mandatory, ban plastic bags (Ireland taxes them, Bangladesh has banned them alltogether), improve public transport to make it a more lucrative option to personal traffic (cars, mostly).

a cool alternative to plastic bags http://www.coolest-gadgets.com/20061111 ... -and-more/

[RantinAn]

I would put these babies in *everything*. Yay for zero point energy!

And as far as reducing obesity... just pay people to exercise in special gyms that have treadmills that double as generators.

Urrm Please TRY to not mix free energy hacks and environmentalism. Fre energy fails to work an this includes all of these funky zero point things. Yes i've actually witnessed the tests in some cases, I know exactly what I am talking about.
Protip.. when a website;s own archives don't work the dude has sumthin to hide.


Ok how to relay resolve polution: Make public transport free and reliable. Fund this through increased petrol taxes. Offer rebates on those taxes to people who carpool. have random carpool checks. Enforce restrictions on car purchaces. NOBODY sholdbe allowed to purchace an SUV or truck unless their means of support or adverse enviromental conditions mandates it.
An INSANE amount of fuel is burned by people who use a whole car to move one person.
Last, but not least, have properly enforced emissions controls. cars, factories, anythign that polutes. No "exceptions" No "fines". If EC is found lacking the proper equipment hsould be forcably fitted.

[Kingofthemorlocks]

Reduce the population of every continent by, say....50%. Bam. Much less stress on the environment.

[AkaneJones]

Build desalinization plants in Nigeria & some where along the African coast, and refill Lake Chad and some other location around Timbuktu with a huge reservoirs to irrigate the large area of the Sahara. Oh Kei, so I watched a show on the Atlantropa project... the rest of his ideas were loony and could have had huge environmental impacts for the worse.

*edit*
I should point out stop recycling everthing other than metals would actualy be better for the environment. The paper we use comes from tree farms, much like those chrismas trees you buy each year, recycling paper poplutes more than producing new paper. And plastic they can't use it for normal things like the past drink cups, so it wastes far more energy and money turing it to shirts and other odd products we don't need.
Most of the rainforest distruction comes from idiot farmers slash and burning it for nothing, but 2 to 4 years of crop growth when they should be useing that special amazon soil the natives developed that grows itself.

For further info you should look up Amazonian Dark Earth, the Atlantropa Project, and Pen and Teller's Bull Shit: Episiode about Recycling.

[Fnyunj]

I'd do exactly what George W Bush is doing.

Start a nuclear war in the Middle East, drive the price of oil up to $200/bbl so nobody can afford to use it anymore, so industry will start developing alternatives.

- - -

That said, the toll booths idea is a BAD one. When cars are waiting in line to pay the toll, the engine is running, and wasting energy. Fuck. That. Shit. This is why electrics and hybrids are what will really help.

People need to be mobile, to go to work, to make the economy work, to generate wealth, create innovation, which solves our problems (when appropriately directed - and unfortunately, is not appropriately directed most of the time). I feel strongly that transportation is absolutely necessary to maintaining any semblance of modern civilization. We cant ALL be urban dwellers and take mass transit. Even if that transportation is in the form of scooters. We've got to be mobile.
This means that soon, we're going to have to come up with far cleaner methods of transportation. Whether that comes in the form of better battery technology, electric cars, (people learning to deal with those shortcomings) - etc.

Here's some ideas that help:
$200/bbl oil. Whether it's the "war" idea above, or a high tax. It must be made economically infeasible.
Subsidized electric recharging infrastructure.
Regulation on the car-insurance industry, to make it economically feasible for a person to own an electric commuter car to drive to work daily, a two seater maybe? very small, limited range, very efficient - and also own a second car for things like family vacations, soccer-momming, and other things that require more than a 2-seater.
Elimination of all corporate political donations. Corporations are not people. They should not have ANY rights, as far as what's granted by the US Constitution. People have rights. Corporations are instruments. Legal tools. Not people. They should not get to lobby congressmen for laws.
Subsidize to a very high degree, a massive R&D program to develop alternative energy technologies; fast breeder reactors, fusion, cheaper solar - wind, (no, I don't think zero-point energy is feasible on an industrial scale).
Same goes for making our food-production more sustainable. Whether that means scaling back the factory-farming meat industry, or developing more attractive organic farming methods, whatever.

And at the end of all this, there's the 8000 lb gorilla in the room that nobody seems to want to confront seriously. Overpopulation. Nobody should have more than 3 kids. 2, really. Problem is - I don't think that the concept of Human Rights would be compatible with any way of enforcing such population control. I think the "solution" we're all facing now is; mass starvation, or war. Or plague. Look at human history - even the worst genocides and wars have not really put much of a dent in our population growth, overall. Nature will eventually make us her bitch. And it's not going to be pretty. We're SMART enough to figure out how to do this peacefully and painfully, as a species. But I don't think we're smart enough to WANT to do it. And that's the tragedy that is mankind.

[ManaUser]

Urrm Please TRY to not mix free energy hacks and environmentalism. Fre energy fails to work an this includes all of these funky zero point things.

It's amazing how many people believe that stuff. If any of these things worked, there would be one (more like several) in every home already. And no, the oil industry, NSA, and Illuminati combined couldn't hold it back. I've been following Steorn off and on, since they first made their claim (Becuase it's fun to pretend it could work, even thought I know better, and because I am curious what they're really up to).

So they're supposedly doing a year long study (in secret) with 12 top scientists to prove it works. Uhh, right. If you really had a working free energy machine why would it take a year to prove? Just show us one.

[AkaneJones]

It's amazing how many people believe that stuff. If any of these things worked, there would be one (more like several) in every home already. And no, the oil industry,...

Actually I was watching Red Green and he built a water wheel car, which obviously wouldn't work for more and a few yards. However I was wondering what would happen if you used a tall cylinder drum for water storage and it flowed out of the top into a turbine, in the middle, then flowed down into a tube that flowed back into the holding tank at the bottom, with some sort of valve that pumped the water back into the tank by the rotation of the wheels. Would that even work, some sort of strange gravity engine? Obviously there are speed problems...

[Churba]

So they're supposedly doing a year long study (in secret) with 12 top scientists to prove it works. Uhh, right. If you really had a working free energy machine why would it take a year to prove? Just show us one.

The test would only need to be the following -

1)Set up machine

2)Turn machine on

3)Measure output - If you're getting over 100% output, You've won. If not, You should die in a fire.