Australia 'destroying life on Earth', page 3

reply to post by cognoscente

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Water vapor is, by far, the most important greenhouse gas.

Temperature rise lowers the solubility of free CO2 in seawater.

reply to post by pteridine

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I see... so it's like this big chain reaction. Anthropogenic greenhouse gasses only hasten the warming, but ultimately cause even more CO2 to stay in the atmosphere because the ocean can't absorb it. Then that extra CO2 builds up and traps even more solar radiation. Cool.

[edit on 7-1-2009 by cognoscente]

Actually according this study Australia has lower CO2 emissions per capita than the US. en.wikipedia.org...
Regardless, I think we all need to do whatever we can to clean up our act and try to make it a cleaner world for all species living here....right after we attend that Aussie 'destroyers of the earth' beach bonfire.

reply to post by ilandrah

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CO2 is just one greenhouse gas.

en.wikipedia.org...

This is the table you should be looking at. Australia's emissions are obviously disproportional to the needs of its population.

The fact that it's actually higher than the U.S. is just abhorred, especially since Australia has about one-tenth of the population.

[edit on 7-1-2009 by cognoscente]

Australian Land Use Distribution:
adl.brs.gov.au...

American Land Use Distribution:
www.ers.usda.gov...

The above links to a document, which describes Australia and America's land use distribution. Australia's use of land for agricultural purposes, primarily grazing, takes up 60% of its land area. In the U.S., 40% of the country's total land area is relegated to agricultural purposes. The problem with this is Australia's exceedingly low-tech and inefficient agricultural industry. The average farm there adheres to the relatively same agricultural standards and practices they did a hundred years ago. It's so backward, if you ever get the chance to compare America's highly subsidized agriculture complexes with Australia's system first hand, you will truly be shocked. Now, the actual square area of U.S. agricultural land use is 3.5 million and Australia's is 0.5 million.

The U.S. contributes more emissions from agriculture in total (larger population, more land use) but contributes less per capita (efficiency). You can plainly see, just by casually examining this situation, that it should be politically much easier for the Australian government to make some kind of change. As a single organization, they are dealing with with less land and less people. Why haven't they done anything about it yet? Well, I don't even want to start with the inefficiency and divisiveness of the Australian Parliament... Otherwise, people in Australia just don't give a #; and that is totally evident in the posts made by fellow ATS members from Australia in this very thread, who are satirizing the entire issue by making beer jokes. While I find them funny, the environment doesn't.

Main points: Agricultural inefficiency, political divisiveness, lack of public concern... contributes to disproportionately high greenhouse gas emissions per capita in Australia. Anthropogenic greenhouse gasses include not only Carbon dioxide, but Nitrous oxide, methane and CFCs.

Review of Anthropogenic Greenhouse Gasses:
en.wikipedia.org...

[edit on 7-1-2009 by cognoscente]

reply to post by cognoscente

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Did your agriculture figures also consider the amount of water available?

I do agree with one point about Aussie farming... we should not be using cows and sheep for meat. Aussies should be eating the national emblem. Kangaroos can run around in plague proportions in some areas. They should be farmed for meat, as well as emus.

Farming native animals would help reduce the burden on the environment.

reply to post by tezzajw

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I should have included that. However, I was entirely uncertain as to the economic and life quality disparity produced between both countries as a result of irrigational inefficiency. If the same quality of life can't be achieved in Australia as it is in America with the same amount of energy, well then Australia I guess has a right to pursue such living conditions, even if that means increased energy use. Then again, a part of human adaptation is actually bothering to look for solutions to these problems. Modern energy generation practices, I think, has placed a moral hazard on Australians in that they don't even need to bother looking for new solutions at sustainability, since burning coal, etc. will produce the same result (a high standard of living) with minimal creativity. However, I'm really not qualified to accurately measure such discrepancies with the data I have available to me.

While it's apparent Australia has issues with irrigation, I'm not certain in any respect as to the specific amount of energy required to alleviate any discrepancies between US and Australian agricultural industries in terms of maintaining economic viability. So my conclusion will be purely conjecture but one can assume that to produce an additional 1.3 tonnes of greenhouse gas emissions per person over America would require a lot more energy than that which is being used to supplant the agricultural industry alone. I have a feeling all that partying you guys do has a say in it. Maybe we should take a look at urban electricity use and green house gas emissions to see what else is happening here.

www.environment.gov.au...

Here are a few facts I found interesting.

[edit on 7-1-2009 by cognoscente]

reply to post by Kryties

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I second your comments InfraRedMan. As a fellow Aussie I can absolutely assure you Americans that Australians couldn't give a rodent's rectum about what a NASA scientist thinks about us.

And I want to assure you that Americans don't give a hoot about what a NASA scientist thinks about you either.
This is just more Al Gore political posturing, and most Americans are sick of it. As an American, I am embarrassed that this NASA clown said such a thing. Consider the source, another politically connected hack. NASA is the agency that supposedly got men to the moon in 6 years, but says it will take 20 years to get back to the moon. Does that make any more sense than his idiotic statement about Australian.
Cheers. Not all Americans are as dumb as he is.

Originally posted by ProfEmeritus
reply to post by Kryties

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Cheers. Not all Americans are as dumb as he is.

My apologies if some people thought I was inferring that all American's are as stupid as this advocate of Never A Straight Answer. This was not my intention

Having said that, I'll be off now to turn on all my lights, bash open the piping on a few old fridges and burn a large pile of plastic

reply to post by Kryties

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My apologies if some people thought I was inferring that all American's are as stupid as this advocate of Never A Straight Answer. This was not my intention Having said that, I'll be off now to turn on all my lights, bash open the piping on a few old fridges and burn a large pile of plastic

No apologies necessary. I didn't take offense, and I understood your intent.
As another poster said, most Americans love Australians, and their way of life. Unfortunately, many people that don't frequent sites like ATS only get their news and information from the MSM, and that is pure propoganda. Personally, I can't stand the MSM and their lies.

reply to post by ProfEmeritus

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Are we talking about appeasing your comfort here or are we talking about reality?

reply to post by cognoscente

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Are we talking about appeasing your comfort here or are we talking about reality?

I haven't a clue as to what you mean by that. Furthermore, my post was a response to someone else, not you.

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