Good addition, kimstu. As BP’s example shows (and studies such as the so-called “four labs” study by Federal government labs have also suggested), we can get much of the way, if not all of the way, to the Kyoto targets with “no regrets” actions and policies.
A few years back, I was working for a charitable foundation. Giving away money, can’t hardly have more fun than that. But every once in a while, we get a letter from Russia. You could always tell, they looked like they’d been done on a Bulgarian word processor, printed on 8 1/2 by 11 toilet paper. Dont know how they got the address, law said we couldnt give anybody any money outside the USA. But anyway…
This guy writes us asking for help buying equipment. Seems he was doing a study on the Volga river, the extent of heavy metal contamination. But his problem was cadmium. The equipment he had couldn’t measure properly, it only went as high as 100 times the EPA’s allowance! He figured he needed something that would go another exponent.
We capitalist jackals are pikers, apparently, when it comes to raping Ma Earth. The Stalinists beat us all hollow.
So you want a fair study on ecological effects? Check out the life expectancys of people who drink river water in Russia.
How real is our threat to the environment? Not very. It will still be here. We won’t.
Unless we wise up, and toot damn sweet.