Where is Earth headed?

[TheTypist]

headed?

That is a very unhealthy question to ask. If we dwell on these statistics rather than on improving the world starting with ourselves, all we do is shorten our own lives, and the lives of others.

Do we really want to darken the statistics further by doing that?

[alvask8er]

But what can we really do? Two of the problems on the list, probably three, stem from the destruction of trees( forrest and rain forrest alike) I dont see a way that we could slow this down, boycotting paper products wont do much, much of it is recylced, or at least claims to be, and jam said that lots of the wood is just burned off by the third worlders who cannot afford better disposal. For all the carbon dioxide, we all could write into our state reps, (presuming your from the US), and suggest law ideas about tightening pollution controls. But it would take a lot of effort and people power. And it would also be difficult to develop new stuff to abide by the new laws, people are hard at work anyways on that kind of stuff. Or tell all your buddies with their hot import to change the exaust system to non-aftermaket gear....reduce pollution....All the previous= far strech

[Moogy]

No one got my joke.

That makes me sad.

[Jam930]

3 things need to be done.

1. Forests belong to earth.
2. It is illegal to cut down a tree you do not own.
3. Make use of non-fossil fuel sources of energy. Solar power, lunar, winds, gravity, etc.
4. Cars need to run on electricity generated from these non-fossil fuel sources.

Idea: Gas station -> Charge stations(name?). They'd have a big solar panel on top and they'd also get electricity from power stations that used wind etc to get their electricity.

You'd plug your car into one of the many charge spots in the station and it'd charge you up. And you drive off.

No fuel crap or anything, you'd just have 2 or more big batteries in your car.

[Squeek]

Jam, they've invented these kinds of cars. Oil companies are so rich that they buy out the plans and development for these ideas so that they never happen. All for money, you see? This is Conservativism at work. You're lucky to see Hybrids on the road these days. (Just so you know, I'm not liberal or conservative)

The pinnacle of these inventions was a "Smart Car" that drove itself due to magnetic handling. You would drive your electric car to a special road that would have been created and magnets placed every 4 feet in the road would keep your car aligned. There would also be magnets on the bumpers to keep perfect space between cars in front and behind you. The car would also drive itself at an exact speed so you could eat or watch TV on the windshield (they had a projector-like thingy) while the car drives you to work.

But that would take away 0.1% of the billions that oil companies make. That's a horrible horrible thing. Who would dare take money from such caring individuals?

~Squeek

[DracIV]

I think you're wrong. Besides that smart car being insanely expensive to buy and insanely expensive to make useable, it's pointless for so minor a change. Oil companies don't buy out all the plans; none of the plans are good enough yet to be commercially profitable. In fact, probably the easiest solution for now is to ban gas-guzzlers, especially most types of SUVs. Once that is done, then we can wait for new cars to become cheaper and more efficient.

[Squeek]

Except that SUVs are awesome. I drive a Ford Explorer Sport. My parents bought it for me for 2 reasons:

1) SUVs are safer to drive.
2) I wanted it, it was used, it has a sunroof, etc.

If they ban SUVs then we'll all just die quicker in accidents now won't we? A silly little aluminum frame isn't going to save your life in a head-on collision. Solid steel has a better likelihood to.

~Squeek

[Chrissi]

We'll be out of the solar system in 500 years or less. Out of the milky way in 1000-1500.

Are you sure of this? Where in the world did you get this? Do you realize how little 500 years is in the earth's lifespan? And what a co-incidence it would be for us to be at the dying end of our earth?

I don't doubt that we'll be out of the solar system (or the solar system stop existing) eventually, but 500 years? Please... Shakespeare was around a little less than 500 years ago ('bout 400 or something, I'm not exactly sure on this).

[Omeganitros]

Statistics are for wussies. Real men/women just blindly guess.

[DracIV]

MrSqueek, your SUV may be making you safer but now every is more dangerous for everyone else. If no one drove SUVs you'd be equally as safe in a normal car, but since jerks drive the overpowered SUVs, it's more dangerous for everyone, even the SUV drivers. SUVs don't have to be gas guzzlers, though. It's only if you are too lazy to get a good one that you become a gas guzzler yourself.

If they ban SUVs the roads will be so much safer for all, the gas prices will plummet, air pollution will become less of a problem, and we can get rid of a bunch of overcompensating people. (That's not to say that normal people don't dry SUVs, but those are less often the massive gas guzzlers)

[talisman]

I think by out of the solar system she meant we would be engaging in interstellar travel....

[Chrissi]

I think by out of the solar system she meant we would be engaging in interstellar travel....

Ahhh jesus, maybe I misinterpreted her then. I never considered that. I thought she meant our planet would be out of the solar system and etc, just from the context she placed it in... it seemed that way to me, and really ridiculous at that.

I think I thought that because this is about where EARTH ends up.. not humanity..

[Squeek]

If they didn't invent SUVs we'd still be taking trips to the campground with huge boxes on top of the car and have the car loaded to the brim with junk. That's the main reason they made SUVs: hauling crap.

I knew you'd use the "If SUVs were never invented ploy" so I used the above example. Granted, you could use a minivan, but that also requires more gas than cars and would take less damage in an accident.

Statistics are for wussies. Real men/women just blindly guess.

Works for me.

~Squeek

PS - The commercial that had the people saying SUVs support terrorism was priceless. That's like saying eating a bigger lunch supports terrorism.

[Jam930]

Screw that commercial.


All your talk about SUVs being safer in accidents and so forth is just stupid.
I hope you're joking.


SUVs are famous for CAUSING accidents simply because they're big, heavy, and unstable(They're top heavy). They flip easily, causing huge problems...see if you don't flip... you still have some amount of control. If you DO flip, you better hang on tight. And if it crashes into another car, the other guy is DEAD. It's like getting hit by a tank, and you spend the rest of your life paying for his death to his family members.

I admit, they're cool vehicles, but impractical.


Conservatism is all about companies buying other companies' plans isn't it?
what the hell.

Sound like fun?

[TheTypist]

In a certain country only a little more than ten years ago, my father and mother fought to introduce unleaded gasoline, because as you know, the other stuff kills. But they had such a hard time doing it because it actually would hurt the bigger oil companies. They even went as far as bomb threats and kidnapping threats (I was only 4.) They were willing to sacrifice the safety of the people and the environment to make more money.

Now we obviously have unleaded gas in the states, and it's taken for granted. But there is so much more that's being hidden from us, even with the oil we are buying right now, just because certain people will profit from the way things are now, and they want to suck out the rest of it for as long as they can in their pathetically short lifetime.