Comments on: Map Backwards: How the West Was Warmed

By: bobh

bobh — Wed, 30 Apr 2008 10:28:47 +0000

It would have been interesting to do carbon dioxide sinks as well, since it is sources-sinks that is the real story.

By: MarkH

MarkH — Wed, 30 Apr 2008 03:40:52 +0000

If one believes in global warming and that carbon in the atmosphere is becoming a problem, then there are a lot of things to be done.

more clean transportation of a group kind (like trains) as well as cleaner cars

more clean energy production plants

more conservation built into the building codes

fewer non-bio-degradable plastic bags and other packaging (or for that matter, ocean-going shipping containers) which can’t be recycled

from more energy efficient cities to walking-distance work & entertainment & grocery shopping communities to cut down on the need for going places in a car

even more Internet to enable better communications without having to go there in person

Creative thinkers can tackle these problems and many of them require solutions we already have! We just have to put the solution in place.

By: MarkH

MarkH — Wed, 30 Apr 2008 03:28:52 +0000

Try Atlanta, they keep Marta out of the burbs so guess who can’t get out there?

I was in Atlanta just recently (4/17-22) and rode the Marta from the airport into town and back. It is fast, comfortable and got pretty full.

I don’t know which areas it covers, but if we had a lot more train systems like that, then there would be a lot less need for most commuters to use cars.

BTW, what’s up with one-way trains instead of more circly curvy routes where a train can run all around town one way without having to turn around and just run the same track back & forth?

Also, don’t trust your friends when they say you should buy the ticket and they’ll reimburse you later. Somebody, not sayin’ who, still owes me about $5 for transportation.

By: marymccurnin

marymccurnin — Wed, 30 Apr 2008 02:50:56 +0000

one word:

methane emissions

By: SuburbanGrrrl

SuburbanGrrrl — Wed, 30 Apr 2008 02:45:08 +0000

There was a great article in the New Yorker last year or two. The writer analyzed the difference how his carbon footprint was much less in Manhattan as compared to the exurban, wooded community he moved to in CT or upstate NY. He required two cars and had to drive everywhere. The exurban wooded environment had the illusion of being “green” given the environmental crowd and their philosophy but in reality the noisy, smoggy city was more so. The conclusion is that vertical, density (and the walking and public transit that support it) are more green.

I was living in western Massachusetts at the time, a progressive oasis of environmentalists and alternative energy. Yet, everyone had two cars (usually low mileage AWD Subaru’s) and drove long distances daily to their jobs. Many commuted from Brattleboro, VT and Franklin County, MA down to Springfield MA or Hartford CT. Quite the footprint. My own commute for 4 years was 80 miles round trip a day.

By: prostratedragon

prostratedragon — Wed, 30 Apr 2008 02:41:36 +0000

If you’re using Firefox, you might try Image Zoom. The install widget at the site should work smoothly. I couldn’t surf nearly so well without it.

By: RogerHWerner

RogerHWerner — Wed, 30 Apr 2008 02:23:44 +0000

They raise a lot of beef in West Texas and the cattle industry is one of the largest consumers of energy. I think this explains why the per capita energy use is so high.

By: PJEvans

PJEvans — Wed, 30 Apr 2008 01:48:47 +0000

The per-capita map is really interesting:
That big red area in southwest TX may be the Permian basin oilpatch; I don’t know what’s going on north of Amarillo, though.
A lot of those red areas are in odd places.
In CA, they’re in places without a lot of people: maybe more oilfields? Forests? Lots of cattle?
Surprisingly, LA/Orange county is not high, nor are most of the other urban areas.

By: mulligatawny

mulligatawny — Wed, 30 Apr 2008 01:47:11 +0000

When I occasionally still look at the comments to an interesting topic here in FDL, I quickly stop again, because in the midst of information sharing, there is, like often, a coffee klatsch – today on turkey. I just don’t have time for that.

By: readerOfTeaLeaves

readerOfTeaLeaves — Wed, 30 Apr 2008 01:17:40 +0000

Eric, wow… the posts today have been so terrific (!).

The issue of climate change is so complex and difficult that we need new tools. The mapping is terrific, so there’s a great start.

Here are two other tools that you might find of interest:
(1) How do we do a better job of collecting information in real time from a multitude of sources: http://cci.mit.edu/
MIT Center for Collective Intelligence

and
(2) How do we get away from pseudo-science, from he said/she said, in which bogus (even brazenly false) information sinks to the bottom of a better ‘information net’. Again, MIT is developing resources, but here’s a link to a page at NYT, for a bit more context if anyone is interested:
http://dotearth.blogs.nytimes......-steroids/

Democracy certainly needs steriods, and now we can SEE why.

Blueloe2 @9: you may feel a bit more encouraged if you Google the term ‘Climate Care’. Evangelicals who supported Bush in 2000 and 2004 got a big wake-up, mostly from Katrina but also due to other factors. People are catching on — now, we have to be wary shills selling us bogus ‘green’ products that aren’t well thought out. Climate change items are a huge and growing market.