Beijing choking on thick smog - third straight day

[art-in-the-making]

China's carbon dioxide emissions are nearing double the U.S., whose own are more than double the next highest country's.

My guess is that levels of other, more toxic, substances are relatively even higher in China than in other nations.

Really sad and worrisome situation.

http://ph.news.yahoo.com/beijing-choked-pollution-dangerous-levels-152536654.html

[pigdog47]

"it's possible the planet could be warming anyway, without manmade warming...it could be possible the Earth could be naturally warming at present."

LOL  :^O  

Let's pretend Mr. Gore's profligate energy consuming lifestyle is acceptable, as long as he funds a re-forestation project in Senegal. 

I love the socialist rhetoric about reasonable combinations!  More windmills and hippies running around in their sandals smokin' weed.  Chanting a mantra of how they wanna make the world a better place for Knut the Seal. :-x

[valve37]

Fact: The Arctic gained 2.33 million square kilometers of ice (900,000 square miles) through the month of Dec 2012.

Conclusion: Earth is cooling

[art-in-the-making]

Let's pretend Mr. Gore's profligate energy consuming lifestyle is acceptable, as long as he funds a re-forestation project in Senegal.

The reality is that most of these types like $$$ a lot more than they like funding rainforests and will try to invest in green infrastructure in their own plants.

---

yes puck, it's true the Tea Party is pretty much gone out of fashion I hear.

...well at least I don't think the streets are still swarming with "hippies" :^O .

[pigdog47]

Hippies migrate South in the winter, Art.  

Road salt is murder on Birkenstocks.  

[prior-of-verity*shake-hands-with-your-devil]

I read in the media someone saying with regards to global warming and the other effects on the environment ….”Those poor polar bears - the horror!”. The writer went on to call those people concerned about our planet and future generations, “nutjobs”.

Despite all the evidence out there by independent knowledgeable people this person and others hide their heads in the sand and pretend that they know more than the scientists around the world. Now I’m not talking about scientists who work for or have ties to corporations, or banks, or governments…..I’m talking about unbiased scientists who simply ………care……..about the planet and the future generations.

So who are these people in the media who laugh at other living creatures and insult people because they cannot debate the truth. Psychology considers them ‘sociopaths’.

Sociopath is an anti-social personality disorder permeated by glibness and lack of caring or remorse for other living creatures (both human and others) in the present and the future. They are callous and without empathy.

The list of traits go on and on, but the fact is their basic form of existence revolves around their own narcissism.  

[pigdog47]

Yawn.

[pigdog47]

I'm always thankful that these environmental smog-is-killing-me discussions can be friendly and opposing views can be exchanged in jest, and not get too personal...

I love polar bears, and the little fishes that swim in the sea!  Really!  It is a shame that eagles get poached for their feathers.  A real shame.

[prior-of-verity*shake-hands-with-your-devil]

Spent a few minutes searching the web but that word doesn't seem to be a friendly word no matter who it is aimed at. http://www.macmillandictionary.com/dictionary/british/nutjob

[pigdog47]

Awwwwwww.   That's terrible!  :_|

Mebbe somebody needs to ask a group of PSWs what they think.

[puckstopshere]

Still, I agree it could be possible the Earth could be naturally warming at present.

I have read, and I honestly don't remember where, that the earth is in a warming phase.  The article also said that is difficult to determine how much warming is taking place from man-made reasoms and from natural reasons - because, for the ,ost part, they overlap each other.

[puckstopshere]

I’m talking about unbiased scientists who simply ………care……..about the planet and the future generations.

Yup, there are people out there like that.  Unfortunately, they are not necessarily unbiased.  Some care so much about the planet that they will bury the research of others when it does not fit their hypothesis and exaggerate their own results to sway people into supporting their cause. 

We all think we are unbiased.  None of us can make that claim.  We are influenced by our past, by our parents, by things we read, by the people we meet, by every experiece in our lives.   Everything we encounter in our journey through life adds subtly to our biases.  Most are so suble, we are not even aware of them.  I have biases.  When I look at something and a random thought enters my head about that something - part of that thought is an accumulation of all that I have experienced.  Another person may look at the same thing and have a different thought - based on their lifes experiences. 

By the way, there is lots of research to support this - and I am sure the scientists who studied it think they are unbiased in their research.

I had a Chinese friend in Vancouver.  He was always complaining about what poor drives Asians were.  Now, I don't think Asians are any better or worse than any other drivers.  But, whenever I see an Asian behind the wheel, that thought enters my head - only for a second, but it is there.  It is not racist - it is a bias that I have -  unintentional and unsupported in my own experience but still a bias.

[puckstopshere]

Fact: The Arctic gained 2.33 million square kilometers of ice (900,000 square miles) through the month of Dec 2012.

Conclusion: Earth is cooling

No.  It is December.  Getting colder.  Water freezes - ice is formed.  Now, if that ice remained next summer - and additional ice was added to that base each year for the next 20, one might assume the earth is cooling.

[pigdog47]

If it is getting colder, Puck, then the earth is cooling. 

Up here, the earth is pretty much frozen.

[art-in-the-making]

David Suzuki wants the right to a healthy environment enshrined in the constitution.

http://ca.news.yahoo.com/blogs/canada-politics/david-suzuki-wants-healthy-environment-enshrined-cana...

[pigdog47]

That is good news.  I think a healthy environment is right, and should be enshrined.

 "Time to Investigate: David Suzuki Foundation"

something to do with David Suzuki engaging in political and partisan activity.

I was suprised to hear that the Foundation has 12 registered lobbyists. 

www.ethicaloil.org/news/time-to-investigate-david-suzuki-foundation/

[art-in-the-making]

yech, a week or so after the last crisis cleared China again choked with smog.

http://www.guardian.co.uk/world/2013/jan/29/china-air-pollution-danger?intcmp=122

"Everybody stay indoors as much as possible" - pollution levels "beyond the index" in Beijing today.

Meanwhile, China is only at the tip of the iceberg point in its development.

Something like 30 out of the world's top 75 GDP growth cities over the next 12 years are going to be Chinese cities. Most of which we have never even heard of.

http://www.skyscrapercity.com/showthread.php?t=1539603

There's no way they can handle exponential growth. Soon you'll need a high-tech gas mask just to get around. Something's gotta give...

[prior-of-verity*shake-hands-with-your-devil]

The price of a capitalist world, greed, and the worship of money.

[pigdog47]

I think an Occupy or Idler protest in Tiananmen Square would be the ticket.

The population needs to rise up against the greedy capitalists who are causing all the smog.

[art-in-the-making]

from the Guardian comments...

"Give me convenience or give me death."

No doubt that western consumers' insatiable craving for more cheap stuff is more to blame than any other single reason. But there is more than enough blame to go around, although some may say that pd is a bit of a hog (no pun intended, of course) in this respect

[pigdog47]

Research grants investigating whether hogs cause smog have been cut by the CONservative government.  Hence, your postulation is entirely speculative., and doesn't fry bacon.