Ocean Plastic

They really still use coal around you or do you just still think your in your 20s? Around here they are just huge steam boilers that run off gas and garbage. Literally. They burn garbage. All the coal has been abandoned. The smoke that comes out of the stacks is treated so it comes out white instead of black so it doesn't look bad. Its not local knowledge, only reason i know is because i work at all the power plants around here.

We also got a jet turbine plant. Big jet engines that run off jet fuel obviously. Pretty cool in the sense that it's instant whereas the traditional steam boilers take a few days to get up to temperature to create power. Meaning everything has to be planned ahead of time. But in a bind they can just fire up a jet turbine and make power instantly.

 

Look... all the naysayers criticizing towns banning plastic bags can say what they want. But the fact is... Last summer I saw fewer plastic bags and plastic straws on the beach and in the streets. A noticeable change. Why?

Number one... because I know what the market bags look like. I've used them (and re-used them) for years. I see one of those bags blowing down the street and I know exactly where it came from.

Number two... because that bag or straw doesn't travel far in our town the summer... It goes from the market/takeout joint/pavilion grill, directly to the beach... or from the market to your neighbor's house, to their garbage can... and if the lid's not on tight, it ends up in the street, to the storm drain, to the beach. You can't keep outside garbage from making it's way into your town ("non-point source"), but you can eliminate a percentage of it that your town itself is responsible for generating (literally "point source"... like... I can stand in my front yard and POINT to the source... lol!).

My town... my local governing body... my rules. If you don't like it, don't come her/live here. It's a beautiful thing.

 

Coal is still running some in the country, but, either way, they are still using hydrocarbons, whether using gas, coal, or burning garbage. The point is that switching to electric cars makes no sense from an environmental point of view, if hydrocarbons are generating the electricity. Even the garbage is produced using hydrocarbons (plastics, cardboard, paper, etc). Zero sum game; switch and bait??

 

I'm not sure that anyone is criticizing, as much as they are making general observations.

I think that everyone here can appreciate the efforts to clean up their environment. There is a running joke that the State Flower of West Texas is the Plastic Bag. The wind blows so strong there in the Spring and Winter that bags get snagged on every single cactus, bush and fence...worse than you can imagine.

Growing up in SoCal, I remember going to LA or Disneyland with the parents during the 70's and the skies were so thick and brown, I spent the entire time rubbing my burning eyeballs and coughing up lung biscuits. It's somewhat better now, through the efforts of people that care about those things.

I believe that people are sometimes a bit skeptical because the so-called solutions don't appear to be much better than the existing problem.

 

We are nowhere near cleaning up our environment as we should be. The air is cleaner a bit in cities due to some changes, but as evidence, asthma rates are still rising due to hydrocarbons and other allergens.
The increasing masses of plastics in the ocean is more evidence. That alone should be "the" starting place, as it is certainly the ocean that drives our health welfare everywhere, every single corner, on this planet.
I still see surfers dumping trash on beaches. Often.

 

Our exponentially growing human population and it's exponentially growing demand for more and more energy is the root of... well... pretty much all of our problems. I think we're past the point of no return in a lot of ways.... and I think Barry's right.

But that's not to say there aren't things we can do. We have to start prioritizing and making choices. Personally, I would choose alternative fuels over hydrocarbon fuels... lots of good arguments against wind, hydro, nuclear and even solar... but if we saved petroleum and other hydrocarbons for making durable goods instead of burning it for fuel and using it to produce single use goods, we'd at least stop polluting the air as much and reduce our waste stream.

 

I am for both nuclear and solar.
And that is because they are both the exact same thing.......

 

" We need to save the planet? Really? Save the earth, save the whales, save those snails. Save the bees, save those trees. The earth doesn't need saving, it can swat us off like a bad case of fleas. The earth isn't going anywhere, the PEOPLE are! Adios, pack your bags folks. For hopefully soon, we will be gone, just another one of earth's failed experiments, a short historical footnote. The earth will replace us with something it can incorporate with itself into a new paradigm, something left behind. I know! Plastic."
George Carlin

 

Yup, double edged sword, catch 22, whatever you want to call it. What's even scarier is this. It's fairly simple to take out the power. Think about it, with no power for a prolonged time it would be a god damn apocalypse. Well with the right equipment and knowledge it wouldn't be hard to do just that. Damage that would take months to fix. We'd be screwed.

That's off topic though. As far as trash and plastic and pollution goes and all that, we've gone to far too ever fully fix it. Was just listening to somthing the other day about plastic. Some crazy stuff. Reusing plastic bottles seems like a good idea, but the more you use them the more toxins they release. Think about all the brake dust you breathe in when you walk through your town. If you've ever done a break job you know what I'm talking about. Every pump of the brakes that crap is going into the air and we're breathing it.

Crazy stuff. I try not to think about it because there is no turning back and it's scary stuff to think about

 

Not exactly. Digging up coal that has been stored in the earth for millions and billions of years and releasing that long stored carbon into the environment is different and more impactful than burning wood chips or garbage and re-releasing carbon that's already in play in the system.

 

I am referring to QUALITATIVE issues, not quantitative.
All contribute to the same problem. Carbon is carbon- it combines with either O2 or H4 to make Carbon Dioxide or Methane for greenhouse effect.

I will now change topic myself: A characteristic of all you liberals is that you ALWAYS try to migrate the discussion away from the original point. That does NOT work with me.

 

Point is, when you dig up billion year old coal, and burn it, you are adding more CO2 into the system (CO2 that hasn't been in play for the last billion years), this net increase in carbon is one of the big drivers of our current predicament.

 

No shit, Dick Tracy......lol

 

https://www.msn.com/en-us/weather/t...-again/ar-BBVdgOX?li=BBnbfcL&ocid=mailsignout

Aww, looky here!! A glacier in Greenland is growing not shrinking??
Maybe there is a warming theory a little whacky??

 

Isn't there already a thread for this "fact or fiction"? We in reruns already fellas

 

Not really. Maybe it is the plastic that is making glacier grow.
It looks like snow from satellites!!
New theory--you heard it here first!!!

 

well yes, except for proximity and scale

 

msn reported it, so it must be true

 

The article did go on to say that it is not actually good news and that we are all still fooked

 

My surfboard and my girlfriend's tits are made of plastic.
I'm good.