Climate Change/ Global Warming - The Debate Is Over, page 2

Originally posted by Heike
This thread has brought up a question in my mind, and let me say that I am not being facetious or sarcastic, it's a serious question.

I am constantly reminded that here in America we are something like the top 10% of the world as regards our standard of living. Many countries are not yet industrialized except for some of their larger cities. I see TV shows about people living in huts with no electricity, farmers still doing things with oxen or other animals, people whose primary forms of transportation are bicycles and/or animals, or their own two feet, even pictures on the internet of 'uncontacted tribles' living very primitively.

So my question is, how much global impact are the 'modern' nations having? What percentage of the world's land mass (or total mass, not sure if the oceans should figure in but maybe they should) contains modern industrialized populations giving off pollution and CO2? On a global scale, how much of the Earth is really affected (afflicted?)? And shouldn't mostly unpopulated land masses like the Arctic and Antarctic figure in too?

You bring up a good point. In terms of CO2 production, there are no serious effects we are having. In fact any increase in CO2 will encourage plant growth (photosynthesis), so that can only be good for places like Africa.

Pollution is more a local thing. Pollution is big companies that have no accountability doing whatever they want. eg. dumping of toxic waste, that island of rubbish in the pacific, careless oil companies like exxon who spill oil and don't clean it up, Monsanto and their GM crops, etc. That's what they need to fix. These multinationals are lawless and the people at the top need to be fully prosecuted for their crimes. The Rockefeller family immediately comes to mind when I think of these.

I am all for the development of green technologies, however this should not prevent the industrialization of third world countries to prevent some so-called catastrophe that will never materialize. It is a crime to keep these countries down and let their people suffer and die for no good reason. Big banks promote Global Warming (where do you think all the money for this promotion is coming from?) because they will benefit from the Carbon Trading proposed scheme and it will allow big companies that cause real pollution and environmental degradation, most of whom are interlocked with the people at the top of the big banks, to again not have any responsibility for the real problems that would drastically affect their bottom line. Once again they are diverting our attention from the real problems so they do not have to deal with them. It's a scam.