Walter Cronkite - Make global warming an issue

[reprehensor]

http://www.philly.com/mld/philly/8187862.htm

The contempt of the Bush administration for environmentalists and their concerns is well known by now. While evidence of man- made environmental damage mounts, the Bush team resists its implications like a defeated army whose rear guard fights off its pursuers as it retreats. That has been especially true of its handling of the most serious of all environmental issues - global warming.

First, the administration claimed that global warming was the work of liberal hysterics and had been discounted by "more sober scientists." Then, it admitted that it was happening but said there was no proof humans caused it, or could fix it.

Retreat No. 3 was the White House discovery that, yes, indeed, some of the warming was due to human activity, and we should take steps, say, to reduce emissions, but those steps should be voluntary on the part of industry.

There are two scientific theories that have been gaining credence in recent years that challenge the sanity of that kind of resistance to fact - and make no mistake about it, global warming is a fact.

more at link.

[Magical]

1. CO2 Emissions Graph

Take a look at this chart.
Without a US effort to reduce C02, well....
the world is screwed.

<http://www.nationmaster.com/graph-T/env_co2_emi>

Energy and Environment, THE issues of the 21st century.
Can technology save us ?
We need a completely new infrastructure...soon.

[muriel_volestrangler]

3. While I have trusted NationMaster in the past

I think, looking at those CO2 stats, that they've screwed up. For instance, they say Brazil produces 30 million tonnes of CO2 a year; but they also say it uses 23 million tons of coal - and the carbon dioxide from coal weighs over 3 times as much as the coal itself. And they say they use 2.2 million barrels of oil per day - very roughly 100 million tonnes a year.

Here's another ranking, still showing the USA at the top, but with a few changes elsewhere (eg India higher up)

Your point about the USA dominating is still valid; but I don't want us to think "if we could behave like Mexico or Brazil, all our problems would be solved".

http://cdiac.esd.ornl.gov/trends/emis/top2000.tot

Ranking of the world's countries by 2000 total CO2 emissions
from fossil-fuel burning, cement production, and gas flaring.
Emissions (CO2_TOT) are expressed in thousand metric tons of
carbon (not CO2).  National per capita estimates (CO2_CAP)
are expressed in metric tons of carbon.

Source: Gregg Marland*, Tom Boden*, and Bob Andres+
* Oak Ridge National Laboratory
+ University of North Dakota

RANK   NATION                                   CO2_TOT    CO2_CAP

  1    UNITED STATES OF AMERICA                 1528796      5.40 
  2    CHINA (MAINLAND)                          761586      0.60 
  3    RUSSIAN FEDERATION                        391664      2.69 
  4    JAPAN                                     323281      2.55 
  5    INDIA                                     292265      0.29 
  6    GERMANY                                   214386      2.61 
  7    UNITED KINGDOM                            154979      2.59 
  8    CANADA                                    118957      3.87 
  9    ITALY (INCLUDING SAN MARINO)              116859      2.02 
 10    REPUBLIC OF KOREA                         116543      2.47 
 11    MEXICO                                    115713      1.19 
 12    SAUDI ARABIA                              102168      4.77 
 13    FRANCE (INCLUDING MONACO)                  98917      1.68 
 14    AUSTRALIA                                  94094      4.91 
 15    UKRAINE                                    93551      1.89 
 16    SOUTH AFRICA                               89323      2.04 
 17    ISLAMIC REPUBLIC OF IRAN                   84689      1.33 
 18    BRAZIL                                     83930      0.50 
 19    POLAND                                     82245      2.13 
 20    SPAIN                                      77220      1.95 
 21    INDONESIA                                  73572      0.35 
 22    TURKEY                                     60468      0.93 
 23    TAIWAN                                     57991      2.68 
 24    THAILAND                                   54216      0.87 
 25    DEMOCRATIC PEOPLE'S REPUBLIC OF KOREA      51544      2.31 
 26    VENEZUELA                                  43054      1.78 
 27    MALAYSIA                                   39414      1.69 
 28    EGYPT                                      38817      0.61 
 29    NETHERLANDS                                37900      2.39 
 30    ARGENTINA                                  37715      1.02 
 ...etc.

[Manix]

2. Right on Walter....Tell it like it is, as usual