Pollution Map

[Andrew Green]

This map shows the amount of carbon dioxide each country generates per year. Move your mouse over the countries to find out just how much pollution they produce.
How much does your country pollute?

http://worldcoolers.org/co2map/

US is well in the lead, with China behind it in total, and I believe Canada in second for per capita... bad Canada...

 

[mrhnau]

http://worldcoolers.org/co2map/

US is well in the lead, with China behind it in total, and I believe Canada in second for per capita... bad Canada...

Thats insightful... looking at the per-capita is informative. You would think the US would be first. Check out Qatar! Actually, check out the entire Arabian pennensula. Lets get on the bandwagon against them! hehehe. BTW, Canada is probably closer to eigth or ninth. US is fairly close to them. There are alot of smaller countries ahead of them in the middle east. Lots of other countries not far behind.

 

[MA-Caver]

It took a bit and I wasn't able to look at every single country but apparently the least pollutant country is Congo with roughly 0.03 tons per person creating waste and pollutants.
Pacific Islanders are also less polluting but not as good as the African countries.

This is something I've been saving ... what happens after all the humans are gone? This chart chronicles a significant event after so many odd hundreds or thousands of months/years.

 

[oldnewbie]

Maybe if we all hold our breath, we can reduce the pollution.......(don;t exhale, don;t exhale...)

 

[CoryKS]

It took a bit and I wasn't able to look at every single country but apparently the least pollutant country is Congo with roughly 0.03 tons per person creating waste and pollutants.
Pacific Islanders are also less polluting but not as good as the African countries.

I'm fairly certain that it's not due to any amount of self-discipline or altruism on the part of the Africans or Pacific Islanders. What you are describing as a "good" level of pollution is really the effect of unspeakable poverty and lack of industrial development.

Next time somebody asks me to give money to help save a village in Africa, I'm going to say, "GOOD GOD, MAN! ARE YOU TRYING TO KILL US ALL?!?"

 

[Elayna]

I think its nice to help out the earth you know. But I am definatly not one of those people that is like OMG OMG OMG car exhaust. IM DYYYINNNG.
LOL.
I try to conserve things and not use more then I need to. And be as nice as I can you know.
But I like my luxuries, who doesnt??
And I think, that everything has a cycle, and if human beings have thier cycle then it will come you know.
I also think that if the earth was not made to handle us, then why would we have developed the way that we did?
And...We could very well come up with a technology that will help us give much more then we are back to mother earth and clean ourselves up. Like Fusion for water or something you know.
I mean the average IQ is higher then 10 years past, so thats a good inspiration.

Plusss....there issss always space travel. Whoohoooo, lets go where no man has gone before. YAHHHH

Elayna

 

[Andrew Green]

I also think that if the earth was not made to handle us, then why would we have developed the way that we did?

Like Dinosaurs? And the millions of other species that developed and went extinct?

The idea that "We developed this way so we must be safe" is not a good way to look at things IMO.

And...We could very well come up with a technology that will help us give much more then we are back to mother earth and clean ourselves up. Like Fusion for water or something you know.

But... shouldn't the damage be minimized "Just in case" we don't find a way to undo it as fast as we might like?

I mean the average IQ is higher then 10 years past, so thats a good inspiration.

Umm... stats? I don't think we are getting any smarter.

Plusss....there issss always space travel. Whoohoooo, lets go where no man has gone before. YAHHHH

Elayna

We have yet to put a person on mars, another livable planet is a long way off.

 

[MA-Caver]

Umm... stats? I don't think we are getting any smarter.

Yep any 15 minutes worth of random reading on www.darwinawards.com will certify that.

 

[mrhnau]

Nice optomistic post I always enjoy reading your posts

I think its nice to help out the earth you know. But I am definatly not one of those people that is like OMG OMG OMG car exhaust. IM DYYYINNNG.
LOL.

Indeed!

I try to conserve things and not use more then I need to. And be as nice as I can you know.
But I like my luxuries, who doesnt??
And I think, that everything has a cycle, and if human beings have thier cycle then it will come you know.
I also think that if the earth was not made to handle us, then why would we have developed the way that we did?

We have adapted to the ability to effectively manipulate the earth. Just because we have the ability to do something or have that power does not mean we should.

I think the Earth has wonderful adaptive properties. Given time, life is going to adapt, as long as the changes are not too dramatic and rapid, which is a legitimate concern.

And...We could very well come up with a technology that will help us give much more then we are back to mother earth and clean ourselves up. Like Fusion for water or something you know.
I mean the average IQ is higher then 10 years past, so thats a good inspiration.

Fusion is really promising There are alot of promising technologies being developed and theorized. They are going to take time and investment though...

Plusss....there issss always space travel. Whoohoooo, lets go where no man has gone before. YAHHHH

Elayna

I'm up for space I'd still like the option of living here for a few more years though Space travel is still many decades off. Not many viable locations in the solar system for mass colonization in this solar system and its seemed difficult to catalogue decent planets elsewhere.

i'd prefer space travel to remain a scientific endeavor and not an evacuation plan

 

[Elayna]

OMG Andrew lighten up man. LOL. I was just trying to put my 2 cents in without getting all...Solem.

I think we are smarter then years past, at least we can see what were doing wrong and make efforts to prove it. And I dont put alot of faith in Stats. I mean they can be biased you know. No one can ever take every part of information in and correctly account for every anomally. You just cant.

And Im sorry you may not agree, but I am a person of faith. Many strong and wonderful people in our history have been of faith. I do what I can, the little that is, that I think helps, but yet doesnt put me in a straw house. LOL. (totally think those are cool though).
I believe that the Dino's had their time and we have ours. I dont think living with them would have been all that fun...I mean anyone see Jurassic Park 1-3??? LOL...so not cool. LOL LOL *joke for you serious peeps out there* *wink*

The way I see it is do as much as you can to help out our Mother Earth, respect her and dont abuse her. She is her for us to survive on, use and benefit from. Enjoyment. But not abuse her. And some i guess kind find the middle ground in that...but all in its own time.

Being a person of faith I believe that no matter what we tried to do, if we were to go exctinct it would find a way to do it. So the way I see it, is do your best to be better and improve your life and the life of those around you, but dont flip out about it.

Life is so much better if your cool breeze you know what I mean??

Anyways....Be cool. Recycle, use bio-degradable stuff and ride your bike when you can. But still drink soda, eat nasty junk food that is so delicious and for heavens sake keep using plastic bags.
HAHAHAHAHA. *joke*


Elayna

 

[Sukerkin]

Well, I was going to respond in the negative about the rise in IQ levels as, based on my experience of the graduates coming into the workplace these days, I felt the reverse to be true.

However, I thought I'd do a little digging before commenting and the first thing I found with a quick google on "average IQ levels trends" was this:

http://www.wired.com/wired/archive/13.05/flynn.html.

So I can only assume that what I'm observing about the stupidity and lack of knowledge in new graduates is down to a failure in the education system rather than a fall in the students innate mental horse-power (altho' I'll stand by my assertion that it is true that degrees have been made too easy these days).

Anyhow, on-topic, the pollution issue is a very serious one because of the climatic trends that it can emphasise (as well as incidental health issues).

The problem is that by the time you've realised that there is a problem, it's too late to do anything about it. Natural processes have a lot of momentum and once they get going it's rather difficult to persuade them to stop, particularly if they're ones that have 'break points' where a sudden change occurs after a long period of apparent equilibrium.

Regardless, I wouldn't allow myself to worry too much about climate change and pollutions role in that.

The real 'threat' hanging over us in the near future is the magnetic polar inversion that is on it's way. It's already showing signs of having started and the 'radiation shielding' of the planet is on the wane.

It's only a slow process as we measure 'normal' happenings but in geological terms it's one of those 'break point' events and could complete in mere decades (tho' centuries has a less 'apocalyptic' ring to it, if it does turn out to be that slow then it's even worse because it takes longer for the Earth's magnetic field to sort itself out).

I reckon that this is the event that was the inspiration for that rather splendid film "The Core" (starring the rather splendid Hilary Swank ). Altho' the dire prognoses voiced there were somewhat inflated, it is the case that if the magnetic field strength falls away then we all start getting a somewhat unhealthy exposure to radiation. Plus, electrical devices start having a tough time of it if they're not shielded. What is particularly vulnerable is the electricity generation and distribution network - if that gets fried by a solar flare then it's adios Advanced Technological Society ...