because they're the ones making the most noise and getting the headlines. In the meantime, the vast majority of people are no where near either extreme.
At 44, I'm old enough to remember the days when no cars, factories, or power plants had emissions controls, except possibly in California. I'm old enough to remember when raw sewage and industrial waste was routinely and legally dumped into rivers.
I'm also old enough to remember when things started to change for the better. The air is measurably less polluted now than when I was a child despite the fact that there are many more cars on the road and the economy has grown enormously. The water is also a lot cleaner now than it was then and some progress has been made at cleaning up toxic waste sites. At some point, we're going to have to consider what the marginal rate of return will be worth compared to the cost of implementing new restrictions.
A modern car only releases about 1/400th the pollution that a car built in the 1960s-70s releases. One of the most productive things we could do would be to get as many of those old junkers off the road as possible. I had to chuckle a few months ago when I saw an old VW Bettle with an "Earth First" sticker on it. You'd think that someone who proclaims to care about the environment would get that nasty vehicle off the road.
Space/Science » in reply to The non-wacko environmentalists
As with many issues, the extremists drive the agenda
The whole thread (36 posts)
- Pretty Exciting Stuff
- Train: Drops of Jupiter.
- Just as long as Greenpeace approves
- The Green irrational fear of nukes has led us to fears of Global Warming, dependence on fossil fuels, and much more pollution illness
- Re: Just as long as Greenpeace approves
- Let's go to space! Greenpeace can jump up my butt. (n/t) (n/t)
- Greenies outnumber spacies 10-to-1
- Greenpeace can jump
- Ouch! Ever the martyr for the cause, eh Tom? (n/t) (n/t)
- The success of DS1 points the way. [n/t] (n/t)