GLOBAL RESOURCES ANALYSIS


LIMITS | ENVIRONMENTAL


There are certainly environmental limits, both locally and globally. That there are locally environmental limits we can see clearly these days in China. In almost none Chinese city the sky can be seen by air pollution. For the 2008 Olympic Games in Beijing, the Chinese government will shut down industries temporarily in the game area's just to fix this (and also the water shortage) problem for the Games period, because power is in China mainly generated by old inefficient not clean coal to power plants (and also because China has severe power capacity generating problems). Also is coal still a domestic heating resources and domestic heating by coal is low efficiency and very smoky. New to our perception is the possibility that there are globally environmental limits. The IPCC of the UN has given us some data. Although it's a theory, we can not put a theory with this severe -global- impact to the side of our perceptions, actions and policies. If there are global environmental limits, it's clear that burning carbons formed in million years in just several decades is not the right thing to do. The bottom line is that environmental disaster movies have lead to huge levels of awareness. Movies like The Day After Tomorrow by Roland Emmerich about the possibility of stopping the ocean currents (which will stop the warmth transporting 'global airco' from equatorial zones warmth to the northern and southern colder area's of the world), a stopping that could be caused by the oversupply of sweat water by melting poles, and feature the huge possible climate changes caused by that. Or like An Inconvenient True by Al Gore about the possible massive impact of Climate Change by rising CO2 levels. Also the IPCC report by the UN International Panel on Climate Change (describing scientifically the Climate Change theory and feeding it with some measuring data, but excluded opposite/dissident theories and data) has had huge impact (addressing changing governmental policies). But after some media and governmental turbulence practical almost everything stays the same. This also implies on other local and global environment concerns. It's a proven fact that only economic factors really will cause changes. The use of fossil energy only will slow down as fossil energy (just by market mechanisms and by nothing else) will become more expensive than solar energy and wind energy. Till than it's globally a lot of talk and very little action. Economics are the ruling factor. Our greed is more severe than our children's future. Has been and always will be that way. We're cheap hydrocarbon addicted (said by George W. Bush, President of the USA, in his State of the Union of January 2006) and just what talk about that addiction can't solve it, addiction is a severe serious issue. Addictions needs medicines to transform their needs or otherwise only cold turkey (instant severe absence, that leads to temperately sickness) will fix it.


Author: Gijs Graafland


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