None of which makes it any les ignorant to suggest that oxygen is an issue when it comes to clearing rainforest.
There’s a fair bit of evidence that we’ve done that already. But once again, this still doesn’t justify a claim that clearing rainforests will affect the oxygen cycle, That simply isn’t true.
I think we can safely say it will affect us with or without domestic animals. Increased sedimentation, increased runoff, altered rainfall patterns. Those aren’t usually good things.
I found it to be absolute nonsense, not least because he neglected that the Easter Islanders had settled into a stable and harmonious relationship with their altered environment by the time European contact was made. Diamond tried to portray it as though the population reduction was ongoing and would have led to inevitable extinction. Of course that wasn’t the case.
It’s not a big deal. There are places where rainforest should be preserved of course, but the idea that it is worth millions of lives spent in poverty to preserve millions of square miles of essentially useless jungle makes no sense at all. Obviously some of it can go with no discernible effects at all. The task is to decide how much and what bits we should take. Not to make ridiculous claims that every individual species extinction that results will be a tragedy.
Just a point: Finlands Population density is only 15/km[sup]2[/sup] and the USA is 30. The GDP per Capita of Finland is 35,666. The USA is 39,935. It is less but not much less.
You have picked out the worst parts of the EU to compare to the average of the USA. Many nations is the EU are comparable to the USA for Standard of Living.
Do you have any stats on the waste levels of any of the successful EU countries.
1 Luxembourg 69,737
2 Norway 54,600
3 Switzerland 49,300
4 Ireland 45,675
5 Denmark 44,808
6 Iceland 41,804 7 United States 39,935
8 Sweden 38,493
10 Netherlands 37,326
12 Austria 36,244
13 Finland 35,666
14 United Kingdom 35,548
15 Belgium 33,866
16 Germany 33,390
17 France 32,911
20 Italy 29,014
21 Spain 25,320
Allow me to rephrase that. The US is a nation with large amounts of sparsely populated area that still need to be serviced.
That’s nice. Now all we need to know is how much more waste Finland produces.
Tommyrot. The original comparison was total US waste per capita with total EU waste per capita. Following that I compared total US GDP per capita with total EU GDP per capita. I didn’t pick anything. the selection was made entirely and exclusively by Henry-Finland.
You seem to be trying to equivocate. You want to be able to compare the low waste output of the EU as a whole, but only want to consider the most productive and wealthy members when you consider SOL and GDP. Everyone but you can see how invalid that is. You and Henry-Finland, need to compare apples with apples.
The fact is that the people of the EU produce half the waste of the US per capita because the people are less than half as productive. Which is precisely what so many posters have said: these environamntal policies come at a cost to productivity and standard of living.
… thus Rashak Mani completely ignores the entire thread and all the complexities raised. Congratulations.
Argh.
On to Nuclear Power. Actuall, Nuke plants seem to be a very good thing, and are probably much better for everyone and everything. Mathematically, even if some reactors and acidents happen with all the safety we can muster, they’ll be less damaging that fossil fuels. I even think that the current fossil fuels companies won’t really care, since they have a great deal of business anyway and can easily restructure.
So the nly thing which keeps it back is groups opposed to nuclear anything, without actually paying attention to thse important details.
Blake!
As I already explained to you before, there is no “we are better”-meaning in my answers. Even if you take it like that, why do you not understand when I clearify it?
Read once more the bold text:
So, did you understand now ??? :dubious:
One more thing I want to comment:
We discuss an environment issue, and you drag in some "forced prostitution" into the discussion. :rolleyes:
I call it a strawman…
Then you claim that I probably do not understand what a “strawman” is!!! :smack: Wow!!!
No Blake. You level of discussion is not worth commenting, but feel free to attack posts as “American bashing”, posts that does just try to give mostly facts about this side of the Atlantic.
IOW Henry has absolutely no response for the cricticisms of his argument I have provided. The fact remains: the EU can maintian low wates production only because the people maintain an even lower level of productivity overall. The action Henry mentioned doesn’t appear to have any effect on the amountof waste produced whatsoever, or may actaully have made it worse than the amount produced in the US.
Similarly Henry’s claims that nobody clears rainforests is utter rubbish.
And Henry’s claim that logging can never occur without reference to science is equally garbage. People cut lumber for millenia before anyone knew what science is, and they still do so.
Frankly Hnery I get the impression that you know nothing at all about this issue beyond what you’ve read on some environmentalist websites. Whatever would make anyone belive that no rainforest is being cleared anywhere in the world or that all logging operations are carried out with full regard to scientific planning? It boggles the mind that an adult could believ such rubbish.
I am not equivocating on anything. You said you wished to fight ignorance, it sounded as if you could back up the stats you were tossing around and I honestly wanted to learn what the waste levels of the successful members of the EU looked like vs. the US.
I realize that as they are less dependant are cars and commuting that air pollution should be lower, but actual waste production of lets say France, I know nothing about. If you can point to the information it would be appreciated.
If you could stop spewing venom for a post and try answer some questions civilly you might actually convince some people. Maybe you should realize that none of the posters you are slamming even know each other.
You are being extremely rude to a new member from overseas. I think that is very bad form. I would not be as rude as you have been to a Japanese Whaling Captain. Can you actually debate civilly?