Global Warming, Oil, Gas Prices, Alternate Resources, etc.
Posted by: xparasite9
Date: 2008-04-16 21:51:39
One thing that really tans my hide is Daylight "Savings" Time. For one thing, the amount of daylight in a day cannot be changed by advancing a clock an hour, and yet, we continue to do it every year. Even worse, now we must do it even earlier in the year. I've no idea why this action was taken, but if I do remember correctly, some progressives' reasoning was that it conserved energy usage. Well, a study done in Indiana, comparing previous years' energy use levels to this year's energy use levels (Indiana just recently converted to DST), shows that the exact opposite was true, which was no news to me. Of course, in the network news' presentation, they claimed that the "social benefits outweigh the energy cost."
To this I offer the following rebuttal: [size=6]BULL s**t[/size]
If this country is so concerned with being "green" or whatever, then why keep such an inefficient policy?
I can only conclude that it's a conspiracy by the power companies. Now, I came up with an alternative to DST many years ago, in the 5th grade, I believe. It's the exact opposite of DST, designed to cancel the changes in the hours the sun is out that occur through the year, opposed to the current system which exacerbates the effect. In my system, it's "fall forward, spring back". Granted, I haven't worked it out on paper yet, so I can't be sure of it. I'd be fine with just staying in standard time al year.
At this time the gas prices have reaches $3.75 a gallon, I believe. The immediate response I hear is that in (insert country or state here) the price of gas is even higher. I learned something recently. In those places, the higher price is due to added taxes on the gas. So let me elaborate. The price is $3.75 a gallon without added taxes. It's time to stop this. If those pricks don't want to sell the U.S. reasonably-priced oil, fine. Screw them. Let's use our own oil.
Adding ethanol to gas is a joke. It fucks up old cars, for one. IT should also be noted that with all the work that goes into it, all cost and environmental benefits that would come from using ethanol are negated.
Surprisingly enough, oil is a self-renewing resource, albeit slowly. However, this isn't really much a problem, as we have a shitload already, and what else are we going to use it for? Producing ethanol, on the other hand, exhausts the soil. If left unchecked, we may have a problem of infertile soil, much like we had in the past because of cotton.
Lastly, the issue of global warming. So… we have the crisis of too much greenhouse gases. Well, pardon me, but isn't ozone a greenhouse gas? Didn't we not have enough of that in the last decade? If I'm wrong in this point, please let me know so I can get my facts straight. From my point of view, it's actually gotten much cooler in the last two years, rather than warming up like it's supposed to.
One of the greatest phenomena is the fact that Nature has a way of fixing itself. Anytime we try to fix a problem, we end up really fucking things up. If there's too much carbon dioxide, no problem. CO2 actually accelerates plant growth, and as we all know, plants convert it into oxygen. When I brought this up to someone, he responded that this is being hindered because of deforestation. Well, excuse me, but wtf about the vast amount of algae in freshwater and phytoplankton in saltwater? That surely makes up for those forests, which, btw, the U.S. does not cut down.
I have seen some evidence which suggests that global warming is not caused by increased CO2 levels, but by increasing solar temperatures, and is therefore out of our control.
Wow. I just roughly wrote an essay. Now why the hell can't I do this when it comes to schoolwork?