Thread: Envirotwits ....

Another Misanthropic Envirotwit is calling for the reduction of human population by 4.4 billions.

Needless to say, he is not volunteering to lead by example.


Ban Having Children for 5 Years
http://newsbusters.org/blogs/erin-br...ildren-5-years

Originally Posted by janelle

LOL, you can't ban people from having sex for two seconds. If we could, then AIDS would have been cured. But hey, if the health plans that are proposed are passed then those who have AIDS will all die and that will reduce the population. Then the elderly and those with complicated health problems will also die. That will make him ecstatic for sure. I hope he hasn't been breeding. Practice what you preach.

I have to say I laughed why I read it, but with this new government.........
anything is possible. lol
Cause they sure aren't practicing what they are preaching by any means.

It is like Al Gore - who has five kids - telling others to be enviromentally considerate and not have more then three children. Reduce the burden on the ecosystem blah, blah, blah ... :icanthearyou: Ted Turner also preaches that people should only have two children ... I think he has seven. The epitome of "Do As I Say Not As I Do" ....

Environmental alarms raised over home electronics
Greg Keller, Ap Business Writer
43 mins ago

PARIS – Charge your iPod, kill a polar bear?

The choice might not be quite that stark, but an energy watchdog is alarmed about the threat to the environment from the soaring electricity needs of gadgets like MP3 players, mobile phones and flat screen TVs.

In a report Wednesday, the Paris-based International Energy Agency estimates new electronic gadgets will triple their energy consumption by 2030 to 1,700 terawatt hours, the equivalent of today's home electricity consumption of the United States and Japan combined.

The world would have to build around 200 new nuclear power plants just to power all the TVs, iPods, PCs and other home electronics expected to be plugged in by 2030, when the global electric bill to power them will rise to $200 billion a year, the IEA said.

Consumer electronics is "the fastest growing area and it's the area with the least amount of policies in place" to control energy efficiency, said Paul Waide, a senior policy analyst at the IEA.

Electronic gadgets already account for about 15 percent of household electric consumption, a share that is rising rapidly as the number of these gadgets multiplies. Last year, the world spent $80 billion on electricity to power all these household electronics, the IEA said.

Most of the increase in consumer electronics will be in developing countries, where economic growth is fastest and ownership rates of gadgets is the lowest, Waide said.

"This will jeopardize efforts to increase energy security and reduce the emission of greenhouse gases" blamed for global warming, the agency said.

Existing technologies could slash gadgets' energy consumption by more than 30 percent at no cost or by more than 50 percent at a small cost, the IEA estimates, meaning total greenhouse gas emissions from households' electronic gadgets could be held stable at around 500 million tons of CO2 per year.

If nothing is done, this figure will double to around 1 billion tons of CO2 per year by 2030, the IEA estimates.

Televisions are one area where much improvement could be made, Waide said.

The IEA estimates the world will soon have 2 billion TVs in use — or an average of 1.3 televisions for every household with electricity. In addition to becoming more numerous, TVs are also getting bigger screens and are being left on for longer each day. The group predicts 5 percent annual increase in energy consumption between 1990 and 2030, just from TVs alone.

Waide said simple measures, such as allowing consumers to regulate the energy consumption of their gadgets according to the features they actually use, should be adopted to counter this growth.

He said governments also need to encourage minimum performance standards and easy-to-read energy labels, so consumers can take energy efficiency into account along with price when buying home electronics.


http://news.yahoo.com/s/ap/20090513/...reener_gadgets

Washington state moves to ban copper in brake pads
By Phuong Le, Associated Press Writer Mon Apr 12, 2:36 pm ET

SEATTLE – When a driver hits the brakes, friction releases copper shavings that fall onto the road and are eventually washed into rivers, where environmentalists say the metal could pose a hazard to marine life — especially salmon, one of the Pacific Northwest's most prized products.

Washington state responded to the problem last month by becoming the first in the nation to pass a law to phase out the use of copper in brake pads. The move could eventually make copper-free pads the industry standard in the U.S.

"You think about all of this traffic, every day on the road, braking and going," said Curt Hart, spokesman for Washington Department of Ecology. "All of it in total starts to really make a difference."

The new law bans brake pads containing more than 5 percent copper starting in 2021. The allowable amount could drop almost to zero in 2023 if manufacturers show it is possible.

California lawmakers have considered similar legislation, and industry officials expect other states to follow Washington's lead.

The auto industry did not oppose the legislation.

"It was a balanced approach, balancing the needs of our consumers and environmental concerns," said Curt Augustine, policy director for the Alliance of Automobile Manufacturers, a trade group of 11 manufacturers, including Ford, Chrysler and Toyota.

Many brake pads are made of steel, brass and copper fibers — materials designed to create friction and draw off heat. Some contain ceramics, Kevlar and other nonmetallic compounds.

The irony is that copper replaced asbestos as a key ingredient in brake pads in the early 1990s after asbestos was banned as a health danger. Though a federal appeals court overturned part of that ban in 1991, manufacturers continued to use copper.

Copper is a major source of water pollution because it is present in so many products, including plumbing, paint and building materials.

A study by the nonprofit Sustainable Conservation found that one-third of 530,000 pounds of copper released from human activity in the San Francisco Bay watershed in 2003 came from automobile brake pads.

Similarly, state ecology officials in Washington estimate 70,000 to 318,000 pounds of copper are released into Puget Sound each year, with about one-third coming from vehicles.

Researchers have yet to document any instances in nature of copper from urban runoff causing widespread problems for aquatic life. But laboratory studies by government scientists have shown that copper at the low levels that have been found in waterways harms young coho salmon's sense of smell, reducing their ability to escape from predators.

"It doesn't take a lot of copper to interfere with the salmon's sense of smell," said Nat Scholz, a research zoologist with the National Oceanic and Atmospheric Administration who has contributed to studies on the subject.

Copper is also toxic to plankton, which form the base of the aquatic food chain.

Brake pads contain as much as 25 percent copper, a metal used because it is good at dissipating heat, Augustine said. Heavier and high-performance vehicles tend to have more copper, but many cars already contain less than 5 percent, he said.

The industry believes it can produce a safe and reasonably priced brake pad without copper, said Terry Heffelfinger, director of product engineering for Affinia Global Brake & Chassis, a major brake maker. One alternative may be ceramic brake pads, which have grown in popularity in recent years.

"I think this does go a long way toward eliminating a very toxic item in our marine environment," said state Sen. Kevin Ranker, who sponsored the bill.

On the Net: Washington Legislature: http://www.leg.wa.gov

http://news.yahoo.com/s/ap/20100412/...NoaW5ndG9uc3Q-