[indrasis_gun]

For me, car is only for highway trips. Inside the city I prefer public transports or if the destination is within 1 km, I prefer to walk unless in extreme summer. I admit that I do not do this only for lessening my carbon footprint, but I like to walk a lot.

[Renjith Rajan]

Once up of a time most of the life on earth was killed off by too much oxygen in the atmosphere (Great Oxidation Event) caused by the photosynthetic organisms on earth. Then there was PT extinction, which killed off 70%+ terrestrial and 95%+ marine life. Recently the KT extinction wiped out the mighty dinosaurs and many others. Our great mother earth has seen so many extinctions and probably we are heading for one such event.

A single human life is too small in terms of geological time scale and for most of us, the short term pleasure/benefits/convenience outweighs the long term harm we are doing to ourselves. We can be proud of the bits we do individually, but probably not going to change much. We need a revolution instead.

In anycase, life will continue, whether we humans can survive or not.

A good watch

https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=ldLBoErAhz4

[mpshah68]

Moving towards a greener planet -- is the theme I try to follow whenever and wherever possible. My small contributions towards reducing my carbon foot print is try and conserve water and other precious resources where the situation permits. Recycling is also done where possible. Unfortunately my work involves travel daily to the office and the nature of my work does not allow me to work from home. Because of the proximity of the work place I try and walk when possible & driving in a fuel efficient manner

[sherlocksride]

I drive to work only if my car is at least Me + 3 passengers full. This way I have the comfort of my car during my commute and also help reduce carbon footprint by taking off at least 2 more cars from the road.

Needless to say, helps me compensate for the guzzler that my Verna Petrol AT is.

Also, as a rule of thumb, I don't use a car if my destination is within 5 km. Prefer walking for anything less than 2km and use Yulu or Tilt bikes for anything longer

[am1m]

Sometimes a pic really brings the point home. In Chikkaballapur, this massive, massive tree that's being cut down. If the Rain trees in Bangalore are supposed to be 80-100 years old, this one (not a Rain tree though) must have been at least 150?

Of course I was in a car myself, and this tree was cut to widen the road so that people like me can have a quicker drive.

Depressing. (But hey, I'll get over it and continue to live my high-consumption lifestyle.)

[civic-sense]

Originally Posted by Renjith Rajan

Once up of a time most of the life on earth was killed off by too much oxygen in the atmosphere (Great Oxidation Event) caused by the photosynthetic organisms on earth. Then there was PT extinction, which killed off 70%+ terrestrial and 95%+ marine life. Recently the KT extinction wiped out the mighty dinosaurs and many others. Our great mother earth has seen so many extinctions and probably we are heading for one such event.

Very unlikely. We are such an advanced species that can override natural selection. Natural selection in humans has practically stopped. We are not dinosaurs that were helpless against natural selection.

Extinction is a process that takes thousands, if not millions, of years. Dinos didn't even have the cognitive ability to understand what was happening to them. We are different. Human race is here to stay as long as the planet called earth exists.

[dark.knight]

Originally Posted by mpshah68

Moving towards a greener planet -- is the theme I try to follow whenever and wherever possible. My small contributions towards reducing my carbon foot print is try and conserve water and other precious resources where the situation permits. Recycling is also done where possible.

Appreciate your concerns and actions, however, you can breathe easy. Carbon di-oxide is a friendly gas, not the demon that it has been made out to be by the nutty media that wants us all to freeze to death. CO2 is more essential to life than oxygen ever was, think of it this way, without CO2, there would be no grass, shrubs and trees which are essentially, THE only manufacturers of oxygen. Even today, look around you.. grass isn't growing as easily as it should, trees arent as green and overall green is lower. Blame lack of carbon di-oxide for this, as also much colder winters than ever before.

We are in a carbon deficit, yes other gases from cars like carbon monoxide, chemicals from the fuels etc are harmful but not carbon dioxide. 98% of greenhouse gas is from the ocean (water vapour), do we stop the sun from hitting the water next?

They've roped in Greta Thunberg to guilt us all into believing a lie and live in perpetual despair/guilt, don't fall for it. Not to mention Ocasio-Cortez in America fronting the same cult.

Originally Posted by civic-sense

Very unlikely. We are such an advanced species that can override natural selection. Natural selection in humans has practically stopped. We are not dinosaurs that were helpless against natural selection.

We are ants, pretending to be the most advanced species when the reality is that nature is sleeping and thank god that it's sleep cycles are hundreds of years.

Consider the Solar storm of 1859, an event that hit and damaged all power lines in America and destroyed them (basically a solar storm is energy/magnetic waves combining with the Earth's magnetosphere to work like a massive EMP cannon, blowing any and every radio wave, electrical device, power lines, grids etc).

What would happen if the solar storm took place today? Zombie Apocalypse no less, a world without power, internet, banks, transport, food etc.

Dinosaurs, according to most zoologists and archeologists, had their time on earth for roughly 2 million years, 6.5 million years ago. Evolution of all of mankind put together - homosapiens go back hardly 2 lakh years, and neanderthals before them 5 lakh years (most religions are hardly 20k years old and scripts appeared about 25k years ago). We are infants, and we have no control on earth, the only thing we are good at is arrogance.

To even assume there are gods shaped like us when we're this new to the 4.5 billion years old earth is sheer foolishness.

[am1m]

Originally Posted by dark.knight

ABlame lack of carbon di-oxide for this, as also much colder winters than ever before.

We are in a carbon deficit

Huh? The percentage of CO2 in the air has gone down? I assume that's what grass and plants use. (Millions of years ago, the CO2 concentration may have been much higher, but in the recent past?)

I know there are CO2 supply shortages for industries that utilize it, but that's because commercial supplies have gone down, and because it's too expensive to extract the CO2 from air. But didn't know the amount of CO2 in the atmosphere was decreasing in the recent past. Any source for this info?

[Kosfactor]

I agree with Dark.Knight - Carbon Dioxide levels too are important in the air as well as in our blood stream.

Now for all the eco guilty folks, cheer up! There is a difference between reducing carbon footprint & being eco friendly. They arent always in the same direction.

Example?

Hmm, a plastic bag is an environmental disaster when thrown in the landfill, however making it from dinosaur juice is not that energy intensive in comparison to someone making a paper bag strong enough to carry the same weight. Lets not forget the carbon dioxide absorbing, oxygen generating, Tree that gave up its life.

How about Coca Cola in plastic containers Vs Glass bottles? Glass bottles are not carbon footprint friendly, its the other way around!

While we let that sink in a bit, Car pooling is fantastic! Salute to those who are able to.

[m8002?]

There have been many comments on replacing plastic bags and bottles with cloth/paper bags and glass bottles. But the energy footprint of cloth bags and glass bottles is much higher than plastic.

I remember reading some study that mentions using cloth/glass atleast 20 times before it breaks even on carbon footprint. And currently the typical average usage is only around 15 times for glass coke bottles before they are discarded/damaged.

[am1m]

Originally Posted by m8002?

But the energy footprint of cloth bags and glass bottles is much higher than plastic.

But can't glass be recycled many more times than plastic? Asking the question, because there must certainly be newer plastic recycling techniques.

[m8002?]

Originally Posted by am1m

But can't glass be recycled many more times than plastic? Asking the question, because there must certainly be newer plastic recycling techniques.

I am not sure of the specifics. For glass, the study took into account the initial carbon cost of production, transportation ( heavier and fragile ), transportation back and cleaning(sterilizing) for re-use, etc. Plastic has only the cost of proper disposal. Even to recycle glass, it again involves a high carbon cost. Recycling reduces extracting more silica though.

Also when coming to bottled drinks, there is the aesthetic value. People would hesitate to buy a glass Coke bottle with lots of scratches. So these bottles are sent for recycle/discard much before they break even on carbon footprint.

I am not advocating using plastic instead of glass/cloth. Just that things are not as black and white as some people portray them. Using a cloth bag 10 times and discarding it may not be as eco-friendly as people think it is.

[dark.knight]

Originally Posted by am1m

I know there are CO2 supply shortages for industries that utilize it, but that's because commercial supplies have gone down, and because it's too expensive to extract the CO2 from air. But didn't know the amount of CO2 in the atmosphere was decreasing in the recent past. Any source for this info?

To start with here are two, will be happy to give more intense scientific journals if interested :

https://youtu.be/U-9UlF8hkhs

https://youtu.be/BQHhDxRuTkI

When an individual is quoted as saying that they've undergone severe, crippling depression in their childhood (8 years old), not eaten for 2 months, and is medically diagnosed with advanced aspergers syndrome and learning difficulties alongwith selective mutism, also having begged and pleaded with parents not to fly (even though flights keep flying, even when half full), I'd say propping such an individual as the new face of saving the earth is a horrible idea. It is child exploitation at its finest.

I'm also pro nature, I'm also of the opinion that a happy environment equates to a happier us, but the approach to it today is all wrong. We as the end users are being punished, not corporations, we as the end users are being begged and pleaded with not to drive/fly/consume, without even blinking an eyelid at the tonnes and tonnes of new products thatve been already manufactured and dispatched. People are even willing to lynch us for using plastic when the only option today is water in plastic bottles, food in plastic packaging and milk in plastic or an even more resource intensive tetra pack.

Once again, CO2 is NOT the enemy, chemical discharges and effluent disposals are.. we need to target them by policies ruling over manufacturing units, not end consumers. Even in car manufacturing, the painting process is the most destructive (40-60% of the total VOC discharge).

Rise in CO2 equates to more food for trees, even we cannot do without it in our breathing. We are a carbon planet, a carbon life form as are everything else. This propaganda needs to end here.

https://www.google.com/amp/s/www.was...se%3f_amp=true

[alpha1]

Originally Posted by dark.knight

We are in a carbon deficit, yes other gases from cars like carbon monoxide, chemicals from the fuels etc are harmful but not carbon dioxide. 98% of greenhouse gas is from the ocean (water vapour), do we stop the sun from hitting the water next?

How are we in carbon deficit?
You mean that there is less carbon in atmosphere (of course as CO2 and CO and perhaps volatile organics) compared to say 1000 years ago?

Find this hard to believe since if we compare our lifestyle to that of a millennium back, we were not consuming as many resources and energy as today. Most energy that we produce comes from organic stuff, and in parallel we have also been wiping the green cover that has capability of fixing the CO2 from atmosphere to soil.
Nor has the ice cover increased (which fixes the CO2 dissolved in water).

[m8002?]

Originally Posted by dark.knight

Carbon di-oxide is a friendly gas, not the demon that it has been made out to be by the nutty media that wants us all to freeze to death. CO2 is more essential to life than oxygen ever was, think of it this way, without CO2, there would be no grass, shrubs and trees which are essentially, THE only manufacturers of oxygen. Even today, look around you.. grass isn't growing as easily as it should, trees arent as green and overall green is lower. Blame lack of carbon di-oxide for this, as also much colder winters than ever before.

We are in a carbon deficit, yes other gases from cars like carbon monoxide, chemicals from the fuels etc are harmful but not carbon dioxide. 98% of greenhouse gas is from the ocean (water vapour), do we stop the sun from hitting the water next?

I am not sure if dark.night's quote was sarcasm. It actually reminds me of Trumps stand on climate change. You missed out on the other requirements needed for grass to grow like land, water and other minerals. I am yet to come across landscape with water and nutrient rich soil lying bare because of no CO2.