The World: Good, Bad, or Neutral

Bleach

I was wondering what everyone thought about the current state of the planet on which we live. Many people I see on the streets appear to be quite content with life, while others look like hell hath no fury greater than what they have already experienced in life. How do you personally feel about the world today? If you think it sucks, then what could be done to improve it? If you think it's great then how can we keep it this way? Thanks for any input you wish to put into this.

Here is my small list of pros and cons
Good: Nature
Music
Food
Love
Drugs (if you enjoy them)
Free artistic expression
Friendship
Family

Bad:War
Terrorism
Climate Change
Racism/Homophobia/Sexism/Stereotyping etc.
Drugs (if you hate them)
Crime
Poverty
Hypocrisy
 
I think you mean America, because a great deal of your list is not applicable to much of the world (free artistic expression in China, what's that about? Enforced nature/environmental protection in Brazil? Yeah, okay.).

Anyways, I think people are inherently piss poor, so, here's my list:

Good:
Pure technological and analytical advancements in all fields of study.

Bad:
Every other thing on this planet.
 
Bleach said:
I was wondering what everyone thought about the current state of the planet on which we live. Many people I see on the streets appear to be quite content with life, while others look like hell hath no fury greater than what they have already experienced in life. How do you personally feel about the world today? If you think it sucks, then what could be done to improve it? If you think it's great then how can we keep it this way? Thanks for any input you wish to put into this.

Here is my small list of pros and cons
Good: Nature
Music
Food
Love
Drugs (if you enjoy them)
Free artistic expression
Friendship
Family

Bad:War
Terrorism
Climate Change
Racism/Homophobia/Sexism/Stereotyping etc.
Drugs (if you hate them)
Crime
Poverty
Hypocrisy
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It has never been proven that the climate is changing. And even if you enjoy drugs it makes you uhm... do bad and maybe stupid things.

For everything else my list is the same as yours.
 
"It has never been proven that the climate is changing."

Yes it has. Read any meteorological article in Nature or something for information that is not politically painted. However, it is unclear as to whether current trends are resultant from global warming or not. Protip: the climate is always changing in wax/wane cycles.
 
CupofLifenoodles said:
"It has never been proven that the climate is changing."

Yes it has. Read any meteorological article in Nature or something for information that is not politically painted. However, it is unclear as to whether current trends are resultant from global warming or not. Protip: the climate is always changing in wax/wane cycles.
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I'm sure it's changing, but not the way he meant.
 
I have to take the opposite stance of CupofLifenoodles. I believe people are inherently good, yet many are faced with bad situations. Things could be a lot worse, although they could always be better. I think the biggest problem facing the world now is developing the 3rd world. Once that's accomplished there's a ton of natural resources to draw on, as well as more chances for people in those areas to do what they want as opposed to what they need.
 
"I'm sure it's changing, but not the way he meant."

Well, that's the thing--it's debatable. Current temperatures (among other climactic phenomena) are soaring at a rate nonanalogous to previous weather patterns in earlier centuries (basically stable). However, occurrences like this have been shown to occur in fossil record many times over.

So now politics and personal media agendas are involved and shit's gone all bat crazy. You're right though; no one can truly prove (as of yet), that these things are happening due to CFCs and CO groups and whatnots degrading the ozone layer and ballooning heat.
 
It's not that hot, and the climate's average temperature isn't even going over an average of half a degree per year. Even to another point, 2 years ago, the greater Houston area had snow for the first time in decades. 1 year ago, it wasn't as cold, but there was still minor frost build up on cars over the night.

Screw Global Warming and Al Gore's half-assed PowerPoint presentations.

Also, FYI, Al Gore owns a mansion that guzzles electricity down like mad, yet he speaks of helping the environment. In the same respect, he's the Health Teacher that preaches to abstain from sex and drugs but smokes and has genital herpes himself.
 
I'm ready to believe something advanced by a majority of the scientific world over a minority of them.

Which is that there is a global warming threat ;[

I believe Striker's method of analysing it over a period of 2 years is the best way to do it because clearly a fraction of a degree sure doesnt meant much in that 2 years timespan and wouldnt either mean much either decades/centuries. ;[

Nobody implied it was "that hot" now, ever. Only that it is slowly warming up, and nothing more than a couple of degrees of difference might apparently have big impacts.
 
Vineon said:
Nobody implied it was "that hot" now, ever. Only that it is slowly warming up, and nothing more than a couple of degrees of difference might apparently have big impacts.
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a few degrees is enough to increase the mosquito population by 50ish million, making malaria a little bit more of a concern

Striker said:
It's not that hot, and the climate's average temperature isn't even going over an average of half a degree per year. Even to another point, 2 years ago, the greater Houston area had snow for the first time in decades. 1 year ago, it wasn't as cold, but there was still minor frost build up on cars over the night.

Screw Global Warming and Al Gore's half-assed PowerPoint presentations.

Also, FYI, Al Gore owns a mansion that guzzles electricity down like mad, yet he speaks of helping the environment. In the same respect, he's the Health Teacher that preaches to abstain from sex and drugs but smokes and has genital herpes himself.
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so what exactly is your argument? gore being a hypocrite doesnt make global warming less of a reality, lol
 
Global Warming is overblown but it certainly does exist. Al Gore is still one of the most offensive people in the world, though.
 
I agree with most of what has been said on the global warming topic. It is true that world is getting fractionally warmer. But as was already said, even a small increase in the temperature ~2 degrees for example would DRASTICALLY change the global enviironment, though not necessarily for the worse as Al Gore and the other "Experts" have said. In fact the last time there was significant global warming (try the year 800 AD to 1100 AD) the vikings were able to escape from their icy abodes in Scandanavia and go and rape and pillage for nearly three hundred years. Also, during that time, for the first time in histoory (recorded that is) vineyards were able to take root in northern England. What's so bad about 2 degrees, there's always RAID to kill off mosquitos, and I don't want to hear anything about (OMFG MORE BUGS!) I just got back from japan where I slept in a room that had 4.5 inch cockroaces runnnig around in it. Global Warming is an issue, but coming from people like Al Gore and Nancy Palosie (who by the way travels in an expensive jet to and from Claifornia like once a week) it is kind of a moot point given that most people in America lack the money (or if they don't lack the money, the balls) to do anything about Global Warming.


Here's some solutions:

-Don't watch An Inconvenient Truth and then run around like the sky is falling-it's not (yet)
-Congress should lower the speed limit to 55 mph, = save TONS of gas
-Blanket limit on elecrtricity usage per house (enforcement would be important especially to deal with the "Carbon conscious" hollywood idiots)
-Stop importing foreign oil. PERIOD.
-Congress should meddle in the private sector and force development of electric cars, hydrogen fuel cell vehicles that WORK and more cost effective hybrid vehicles.
-Stop beating around the bush (not the president, lol) and allow oil exploration in the ANWAR area in Alaska = who cares about 10 eskimos and a polar bear, seriously? Anyone? No bleeding hearts?
-Lower taxes on people who buy hybrid vehicles by 50% (money is a big imperative for the average American sheeple)

Anyone else have anything to add, these are the ones I could come up with in about 30 seconds, I tried to keep things unbiased, because the solution to this problem is non-partisan, especially since, if Al Gore is right (perish the thought) then we'll all die, not just democrats, not just republicans, not just losertarians.
 
-Stop importing foreign oil. PERIOD.
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Somehow I don't think that'll ever happen. Why do you think the "World Police" invaded Iraq? Only idiots (and Tony Blair) actually believed Saddam had "Weapons of Mass Destruction".

-Stop beating around the bush (not the president, lol) and allow oil exploration in the ANWAR area in Alaska = who cares about 10 eskimos and a polar bear, seriously? Anyone? No bleeding hearts?
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In all this "protecting" the environment don't forget what we are actually protecting. Drilling for oil in Alaska will destroy the natural environment completely. The oil used to lubricate the drill will leak into the ice, destroying (in some locations) the biodiversity of the underground lakes. And what about the "ten eskimos", no doubt when the wonderful Americans arrive they'll be displaced from the land where their ancestors have lived for centuries with no compensation and no future - as a world have we learnt nothing from the treatment of the Native Americans, the enslaved African tribes and the Aboriginies in Australia?

Other than that I agree with most of the points: there also needs to be some Government subsidy for wind turbines, solar panels etc. for peoples homes - £15,000 is too expensive for anyone not called David Cameron (the biggest hypocrite in existense - he jets off to Scandinavia to be photographed with huskies then jets off to Rwanda to be photographed with starving children to pretends he cares about something other than his own PR).

It is also interesting to note that the recent catastrophic floods in Southern England were caused by Global Warming; the fact that the waters around the central Atlantic are warming up is disrupting the Gulf Stream causing Europe and North America to become colder. The "Day After Tommorow" type freezing could happen within our lifetimes if something is not done now!
 
-Congress should lower the speed limit to 55 mph, = save TONS of gas
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I think this might cost trucking companies in the long run, what with upkeep of workers and all. How much does a 10~15 mph drop increase fuel economy anyway?
 
-Congress should lower the speed limit to 55 mph, = save TONS of gas
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I think this might cost trucking companies in the long run, what with upkeep of workers and all.
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This won't really make much difference to anything. In the UK Lorries are restricted to 50mph on normal roads and 60mph on motorways anyway (http://www.highwaycode.gov.uk/09.htm) and the rest of the world's laws are probabaly similar.

How much does a 10~15 mph drop increase fuel economy anyway?
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Correct me if I'm wrong but aren't there circumstances where a higher speed (and higher gear) actually mean a greater mpg? I'm too young to drive so I don't really know.

Anyway the most effective way to cut car emmissions is to force everyone to switch to running their cars on LPG and eventually Hydrogen - before you say it will be too expensive I think I saw somewhere that to convert all America's petrol stations to Hydrogen would only cost around 3 billion dollars.
 
timw06 said:
Correct me if I'm wrong but aren't there circumstances where a higher speed (and higher gear) actually mean a greater mpg? I'm too young to drive so I don't really know.
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No, you're completely correct. Cars reach their maximum fuel efficiency from 55-60 miles per hour, once you start adding speed the efficiency drops DRASTICALLY. You lose something like 10 miles per gallon if you're going 70mph, and once you're up to 80 you're really killing your wallet.
 
When it comes down to it, humans are and never will be capable of coming to together and changing the earth for the better, so I think we all need to just go with the flow and live =P
 
What's so bad about 2 degrees, there's always RAID to kill off mosquitos, and I don't want to hear anything about (OMFG MORE BUGS!) I just got back from japan where I slept in a room that had 4.5 inch cockroaces runnnig around in
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If you're not joking, do you not realize the importance of vector borne diseases?

Why do you think the "World Police" invaded Iraq? Only idiots (and Tony Blair) actually believed Saddam had "Weapons of Mass Destruction".
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Not for oil, obviously.
 
I happen to believe in the fact that there are three divisions of people for the most part: Sheep, Sheepdogs, and Wolves.

Most people I run into I find to be sheep for as long as all their wants and needs are met; they don't give damn about anything else. You can try to engage them in conversation about world affairs or politics but they look at you blankly if you seem to be all over the map there. Independant thought seems to be dead for the most part.
The majority of this group seems to only care about single issue politics.


Basically, more people will care about who is in the final three on American Idol than what is happening in Darfur, the fact that their SUVs are costing them a fortune in gas, or that this gas is currently coming from an area of the world that is just full of pent up anger and aggression which is mis-directed and sent at us by those who are responsible for the problems there.
 
CupofLifenoodles said:
I think you mean America, because a great deal of your list is not applicable to much of the world (free artistic expression in China, what's that about? Enforced nature/environmental protection in Brazil? Yeah, okay.).

Anyways, I think people are inherently piss poor, so, here's my list:

Good:
Pure technological and analytical advancements in all fields of study.

Bad:
Every other thing on this planet.
Click to expand...

Actually I think if you look waayyyy back int he beginning, technology is what started all of the "bad" while everything else was inherintly good. IMO the world as a whole would be a lot better off without humans or at least advanced humans as we are.
 
The world would be good if the world didn't spin around because of money. I think people are good in nature, but politics, greed, and other nonsense can really change the way people think.

As for saving gas, there are lots of things the US can do. I doubt we'll ever actually stop being dependent on oil until it runs dry, and I prefer to drive gas guslers myself lol. Even with 6.0 Liter+ engines running around in the US, there are a few things we can do:

-Lowering highway speed limit as already been stated, but it makes a HUGE difference. If you're a sceptic in this, next time you go on a trip, average 60mph on one way and 70 on the other. You'll be amazed at the results.

-United States Manufacturers should start making more manual transmission vehicles. Vehicles with manual transmission are generally cheaper, actually use LESS gas than automatics, and you get more power and control out of your engine. The only reason I think we don't have manual as standard here is out of laziness or companies just trying to get more money out of peoples' pockets.

-Hybrids are nice, and for those that want to drive them, that's great. I like hearing the roar of my engine so I'm not really into them, but they are way more efficient.(If that wasn't obvious.)

-As for depending less on oil, I think the US should generally start producing more smaller engine cars. There's a reason why Toyota, Nissan, Honda, and Japanese manufacturers in general are outselling US made cars, and I find it hard to beleive that we still haven't caught up.

That's all I can think of atm since most of the stuff I posted was on cars anyway lol.
 
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