Carbon Footprint - Do you care?

MrEko

After reading about buying food with a CO2 footprint in the buy Irish thread I have to ask, who here really cares about it? Personally I recycle what I can and try and conserve electricity but also fly transatlantic four times a year and drive regularly so I probably create more than I save. Frankly I dont really give a rats ass about it anyway, CO2 is always going to be produced and reduced in nature and I think that the eco crowd make too big a deal about.

What do the rest of you think?

TLDR; Do you care about cows farts, exhaust fumes, all that good stuff?

mikemac

First there was the ozone layer and that that issue seemed to disappear
Then there was global warming and that seems to be over, not in the media much anymore
Now it's climate change
Give it five years and we'll have a new buzzword

No, I don't care, it's hype

Ghost Buster

MrEko wrote: »

After reading about buying food with a CO2 footprint in the buy Irish thread I have to ask, who here really cares about it? Personally I recycle what I can and try and conserve electricity but also fly transatlantic four times a year and drive regularly so I probably create more than I save. Frankly I dont really give a rats ass about it anyway, CO2 is always going to be produced and reduced in nature and I think that the eco crowd make too big a deal about.

What do the rest of you think?

TLDR; Do you care about cows farts, exhaust fumes, all that good stuff?

GLOBAL WARMING IS DUE TO THE DECREASE IN PIRATES.
FACT

wmpdd3

no

Notorious97

Nah i recycle to an extent, put whatever into the green bin etc, but its nothing i will lose sleep over.

Country is fuc*ed, more important things to be worrying about!

starbelgrade

I'd like to stick my carbon footprint up John Gormley's hole.

Ally Dick

In a recession, it's hard to care

noxqs

Yes I care - but what's the point. People who scream the loudest about this like Greenpeace are against nuclear power. They will stop at nothing short of a power plant powered by unicorn farts and good thoughts.

We have the technology right now to solve most issues but theres too much 'Not in my backyard'.

Ireland is fairly windy. Where is all the windmills? Denmark gets about 30% of their energy from it and I dare say Ireland might one-up them in the wind department.

Food production etc is nothing compared to energy generation and if energy was generated from wind/nuclear the overall CO2 footprint of that would also drop dramatically. We could also power cars with electricity from that source (current electric cars is a joke, electricity is not generated from non-fossil atm).

Sky King

1) My amount of CO2 is insignificant in the grand scheme of things
2) I think anthropogenic climate change is a load of kack

I do like saving money and energy though, so i endeavour to make things low cost and efficient in that regard

Icyseanfitz

a load of bs created to make money of people, but all these world threatening disasters are all the same

Sky King

noxqs wrote: »

Ireland is fairly windy. Where is all the windmills? Denmark gets about 30% of their energy from it and I dare say Ireland might one-up them in the wind department.

You need backup power for when it's not windy - the only solution is to have this online or to be interconnected into a europe-wide grid, where we can (theoretically at least anyway) sell wind power to the UK and others when it's windy and buy nuclear power from them when its not.

This would be inordinately expensive.

Plus wind turbines are expensive and **** and are only commercially viable because they are subsidised

My name is URL

mikemac wrote: »

First there was the ozone layer and that that issue seemed to disappear
Then there was global warming and that seems to be over, not in the media much anymore
Now it's climate change
Give it five years and we'll have a new buzzword

No, I don't care, it's hype

.

mikemac wrote: »

We have a place on boards for the loons OP

Conspiracy Theories forum

galwayrush

The sun will kill us all when it decides to go supernova.
Anyways, we've had many periods of global warming and cooling since the earth was formed, so since there is nothing i can do about the earth's natural cycles, i'm not going to waste time worrying about it.

Icyseanfitz

Sky King wrote: »

You need backup power for when it's not windy - the only solution is to have this online or to be interconnected into a europe-wide grid, where we can (theoretically at least anyway) sell wind power to the UK and others when it's windy and buy nuclear power from them when its not.

This would be inordinately expensive.

Plus wind turbines are expensive and **** and are only commercially viable because they are subsidised

our island isnt big enough for wind turbines, yet we have a ton of potential for renewable energy, tidal is an always on source of energy that we are perfectly situated to take advantage of yet we never hear of it, off shore windmills would also be great off the west coast of ireland.

Renewable's are very important to our future but not because of co2 emmisions or ozone problems just simply that the oil and gas are nearly gone

noxqs

Danish windpower, according to the wikipedia article:

http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Wind_power_in_Denmark

Was subsidized in the early yeards - but is currently 0. Yet installed capacity has grown yearly since 1979. Maybe because of dramatic improvements in windmill design allowing better generation ?

Anyways - like I said. We have the technology but too many naysayers. What about nuclear then ? Breeder reactors, thorium reactors and graphite sphere reactors are pretty damn safe.

Edit: The island is not big enough for windpower? whiskey tango foxtrot - its larger than denmark with less people and is surrounded by water where offshore windparks is perfect. Also we don't need 100% renewables coverage - yet. Theres tons of options to switch in the next 50 years gradually. Solar, tidal, wind, nuclear, and pray for fusion to happen someday.

MrEko

galwayrush wrote: »

The sun will kill us all when it decides to go supernova.
Anyways, we've had many periods of global warming and cooling since the earth was formed, so since there is nothing i can do about the earth's natural cycles, i'm not going to waste time worrying about it.

Thats my line of thinking. Sure, we are overdue an ice age by about 20000 years, according to a geography lecturer back in college. Live fast and die at a reasonable age in bed with a young one, as they say.

Icyseanfitz

there is plenty of stuff out there that could destroy the planet alot quicker than global warming its just no one can make money off them, asteroids for one

bnt

Kinda - but it's not so much about "climate change", really. Call it a dress rehearsal for the years after the oil gets too expensive.

Sky King

Physics professor Philip Walton from NUI Galway is always going on about how nuclear power is really the only way forward, he's often interviewed on the radio. Interesting guy.

Eric Cartman

the only reason i use my recyclin bin is because its free , aside from that , fcuk it , ill be dead before anything major happens so ill continue driving inefficient cars, buying food with lots of miles on it and using haloween as an excuse to burn my rubbish

noxqs

I am 110% for Nuclear power. There has been only two level 7 nuclear disasters in history; Chernobyl and fukushima. Both very old plants - fukushima core 1 from 1976 and Chernobyl from 1977. Both old generation plants which is no where near the modern reactor designs.

Thorium/Breeder and Pebble bed reactors are generation 4 reactor cores which - albeit never 100% safe - has built in designs which will stop run-away reactions as a feature of the fuel cycle itself. Which is pretty novel.

It can be done safely. Chernobyl was a human error overriding the security of the reactor willingly. And fukushima was Murphy's law - if a 9.5 earthquake and tsunami can happen, it will. And it wasn't designed for it fully (but almost).

But can you imagine anyone in Ireland accepting a nuclear power plant anywhere near 'their children oh my god my radiactive children'.

teol

No, I don't care about my carbon footprint. Frankly, I don't believe in global cooling, global warming, climate change.

Lemsiper

I have no feet so I'm grand.

Poor Uncle Tom

noxqs wrote: »

I am 110% for Nuclear power.

There's something very unsettling in that statement alone.

Anyway, nucluar, it's pronounced nucluar.

Solnskaya

i want to use my carbon footprint to drive starbelgrades footprint further up gormleys hole. Just in case the dopey green fecker didn't notice the first one. I would also like to buy some carbon credits to create another footprint to drive up under duncan stewarts ball bag.

teol

noxqs wrote: »

But can you imagine anyone in Ireland accepting a nuclear power plant anywhere near 'their children oh my god my radiactive children'.

We don't have to build nuclear plants here in Ireland. The interconnectors will allow us to use Britain's. And besides, gas will be here for a long time to come. The amount of gas being discovered is enormous.

Darkginger

Winter is coming.

Yeah, tbh, I do care about our impact on the planet - but, having no children, I have no personal investment in our collective future. The majority of the human race are either too preoccupied with survival on a day to day basis, or preoccupied with the lives of 'celebrities' ditto, or the state of their investments ditto, that I prefer to opt out of the entire thing and spend my entire life in online MMORPGs.

Caring is an exercise in frustration.

uncle_sam_ie

No, because "carbon footprint" is a scam to suck more money out of us. I'm so glad the greens are gone.

4leto

No its pointless, I am to minuscule and I am aware the Earth has to many people to watered and fed, that population needs more energy not less.

Remember we eat and drink fossil fuel, fossil fuel is modern intensive farming.

Green Mile

I'm not an eco-freak or anything but I hate waste. My global footprint is about a .03 on a scale from zero to ten.

It really bugs me that people don't care.

Temperatures dogo up and down over time only by a small amount. At the moment it is fluctuating wildly across the world which is why people care. Take a look at why there is a famine in Somalia.

Again, it bugs me if people don't care. It's not fair that I have to watch what I throw away or have to walk or cycle rather than drive while others speed around in there Beemers.

... go on,,, lets hear it??

Taco Corp

I don't think at all about my carbon footprint really. But at the same time I still try and recycle as much as I can. So much of the stuff that we throw out day to day could be reused. It makes sense to recycle so that's why I do it.

My name is URL

I can't imagine Ireland building a nuclear plant any time soon.. even if everybody supported it. The ECB would never allow so much money to be spent on a project like that, and with Germany closing down its nuclear plants at the moment, too!

Best that can happen is we build more connectors with Britain and import nuclear power from there, and that would have its own problems.

Littlehorny

Fill the recycle bin every 2 weeks at least you feel your doing a little bit. What gets on my wick is big celebrities- singers, actors etc who get on ther high horse about the enviroment and try to lecture to the general public. When they clock up millions of air miles, own fifteen ferraris and use up enough electricity in there productions to light up a small country. they dont seem to cop the hypocrisy of there statements on carbon footprints.

Poor Uncle Tom

Green Mile wrote: »

I'm not an eco-freak or anything but I hate waste. My global footprint is about a .03 on a scale from zero to ten.

It really bugs me that people don't care.

Temperatures dogo up and down over time only by a small amount. At the moment it is fluctuating wildly across the world which is why people care. Take a look at why there is a famine in Somalia.

Again, it bugs me if people don't care. It's not fair that I have to watch what I throw away or have to walk or cycle rather than drive while others speed around in there Beemers.

... go on,,, lets hear it??

I love the way you start off denying your true status.....:D

Icyseanfitz

Green Mile wrote: »

I'm not an eco-freak or anything but I hate waste. My global footprint is about a .03 on a scale from zero to ten.

It really bugs me that people don't care.

Temperatures dogo up and down over time only by a small amount. At the moment it is fluctuating wildly across the world which is why people care. Take a look at why there is a famine in Somalia.

Again, it bugs me if people don't care. It's not fair that I have to watch what I throw away or have to walk or cycle rather than drive while others speed around in there Beemers.

... go on,,, lets hear it??

you do know there have been worse famines long before the industrial revolution right? the Sahara used to be a big jungle,

temperatures have always fluctuated wildly that would be why the world has gone through countless ice ages which surprisingly enough we are very over due, if global warming is keeping us away from being in an ice age ive got to say im all for it

Sky King

There's a theory that it will fluck around with the gulf stream cooling down ireland actually

Solnskaya

Green Mile wrote: »

I'm not an eco-freak or anything but I hate waste. My global footprint is about a .03 on a scale from zero to ten.

It really bugs me that people don't care.

Temperatures dogo up and down over time only by a small amount. At the moment it is fluctuating wildly across the world which is why people care. Take a look at why there is a famine in Somalia.

Again, it bugs me if people don't care. It's not fair that I have to watch what I throw away or have to walk or cycle rather than drive while others speed around in there Beemers.

... go on,,, lets hear it??

1. you hate waste!!! Open your eyes, industry wastes more in a day than the entire population will waste in a year.
2.you global footprint is 0.0, cos you are a microbe on the arse of a flea on a dog in world terms.
3.co2 levels are at a looow level historically, and are irrelevant in any case.
4.the earths temperature is regulated by that big orange thing in the sky, thats why it gets cold at night(and when the sun is less active-google solar flares)
5.even if it was man affected,nobody important gives a toss, they are too busy making money, so live your life and dont waste it fretting about somthing you have no influence over anyway- one lorry produces more co2 than you could ever hope to, and anyway, plants love co2, and they're green?aint they?? Support the real greens-give em lots of co2 to play with.

Icyseanfitz

Sky King wrote: »

There's a theory that it will fluck around with the gulf stream cooling down ireland actually

exactly that a "theory"

Sky King

Yeah, exactly.

Icyseanfitz

Sky King wrote: »

Yeah, exactly.

wait is this some sort of reverse psychology yoke

wild_cat

I do!

I don't understand why people don't recycle... We only have so much space to "bury" rubbish before we have to start burning... ahem incinerating it.

All well and good till they want to put the incinerator beside your house .

I do care a lot about the environment. I hate seeing animals go extinct because of urban sprawl and deforestation. Male fish being turned female due to hormones being released from human urine belong to women on the pill and run off from plastic factories etc.

I don't waste water as I know "CLEAN" water can and eventually will become scarce. I don't like oil either due the pollution it creates when something goes wrong and the wars that have been fought to gain control of it etc etc. I have chosen not to have children and I seriously frown on those that have to many... Humans have ruined this planet.

Unfortunately until I build my lovely eco home I won't be completely carbon neutral but I do take great care in keeping it as low as I possibly can at the moment.

Sky King

Exactly.

Solnskaya

Icyseanfitz wrote: »

wait is this some sort of reverse psychology yoke

it's not a yoke, he's dead serious.

Heroditas

Green Mile wrote: »

Take a look at why there is a famine in Somalia.

If they stopped killing each other for five minutes and spending money on weapons, they might actually be able to feed themselves.

Solnskaya

wild_cat wrote: »

I do!

I don't understand why people don't recycle... We only have so much space to "bury" rubbish before we have to start burning... ahem incinerating it.

All well and good till they want to put the incinerator beside your house .

I do care a lot about the environment. I hate seeing animals go extinct because of urban sprawl and deforestation. Male fish being turned female due to hormones being released from human urine belong to women on the pill and run off from plastic factories etc.

I don't waste water as I know "CLEAN" water can and eventually will become scarce. I don't like oil either due the pollution it creates when something goes wrong and the wars that have been fought to gain control of it etc etc. I have chosen not to have children and I seriously frown on those that have to many... Humans have ruined this planet.

Unfortunately until I build my lovely eco home I won't be completely carbon neutral but I do take great care in keeping it as low as I possibly can at the moment.

the genetic pool bids you farewell. darwin would have been proud.

Heroditas

wild_cat wrote: »

I have chosen not to have children and I seriously frown on those that have to many... Humans have ruined this planet.

Self-hatred is a terrible thing

wild_cat

Icyseanfitz wrote: »

you do know there have been worse famines long before the industrial revolution right? the Sahara used to be a big jungle,

temperatures have always fluctuated wildly that would be why the world has gone through countless ice ages which surprisingly enough we are very over due, if global warming is keeping us away from being in an ice age ive got to say im all for it

Famine is also another form of population control tbh.

wild_cat

Heroditas wrote: »

Self-hatred is a terrible thing

I hate other people not myself.

wild_cat

Solnskaya wrote: »

the genetic pool bids you farewell. darwin would have been proud.

You do realise the more educated a woman is the less children she will have?

Stupidity breeds stupidity.

Heroditas

wild_cat wrote: »

You do realise the more educated a woman is the less children she will have?

Stupidity breeds stupidity.

Education does not equal intelligence.

Solnskaya

wild_cat wrote: »

You do realise the more educated a woman is the less children she will have?

Stupidity breeds stupidity.

and real ignorance doesn't breed at all.:D