Quote:
Originally posted by MagiK:
Which is exactly why I advocate technology and explorations into newer and more efficient sources of power, on cleaner technology and all of that, I just don't go along with the alarmist, sensationalism that is so prevelant in the media. It can be done in a calm and affordable rational way.....it has been going on...cars are cleaner now than ever, our factories are cleaner our goals are for cleaner.....we do not have to wreck our society to get there is my message. [img]smile.gif[/img]
You know, I am from Pennsylvania, and I still have vivid memories of going to Pittsburgh to see a Steelers game....I remember all the buildings being covered with soot, I remember the haze in the air, and the smell of the steel mills (and the background roaring)...if you go to Pittsburgh today, you see clean buildings, no haze in the air and it is not such a bad place to be. (yes they did close the steel mills eventually, but they have far more people there now with far more business and far more cars and yet it is also one of the cleanest cities)
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I agree 100% that technological advances are a major part of the answer to our problems. The internal combustion engine is well over a hundred years old, and has not evolved significantly in the last fifty or so. There was very little pressure until recently to make it significantly more efficient, which means cleaner in the end, so little was done to improve it. The changes did not take place until economic pressures were applied to the industries who manufacture the cars and components. Those pressures came about in part due to the shitty state of the atmosphere, the dwindling resources, political pressure, and so on...
My concern with the questions we now face is that if insufficient economic return is seen, will we be able to stop or change in time to prevent lasting damage? In the early 70's would the more fuel-efficient and cleaner engines have even been developed if it weren't for the OPEC crisis?
As you noted with environmental extremists, a change in the status quo toward cleaner technologies would not necessarily benefit those who make their money doing the research. Likewise, without the pressure to change, the companies who are making money with equipment and systems that are unclean will have no reason to do anything that would lessen their profits. It's certainly not a light issue, this state of our planet.