Would politicians pay more attention to the environment if there were dead zones in our atmosphere that snuffed out whole cities, congressional districts, counties, or chunks of their base?
I have likened this polluting of the atmosphere to having a fish tank and letting the fish just pollute themselves to death (ammonia buildup, etc) without a filter on the fishtank. No aquarium owner would do that to their fish (I hope), but yet we basically crap in our air and expect some magic filtration to occur.
Also, we (in Ohio) just voted out ALL smoking in public areas. So, 2/3 of the population can agree on that. Now, convince the same 2/3 that the fumes from their cars, trucks, carbon-powered-electric-sources, etc, etc. are ALSO not good to breath. Maybe then we can vote in some real "alternative" energy that doesn't force us to breath these power-byproducts forever. I have a feeling I'll be an old man before that ever happens though. We all love our current power paradigm too much.
Yeah, cars, trucks, boats, planes, etc put out a helluva lot more particulates into the air than all the cigarette smokers do. But since it's a vice, gov't can beat the shit out of it.
I'm a stay-at-home Dad who survived dotcom burnout and a
chemical engineering career that fizzled. While the kids are in school,
I'm free to write stories.
I'm a rational environmentalist, science and technology enthusiast, who leans
libertarian, reads and watches sci-fi, drinks and brews beer, and listens to
metal.
