Sunday, April 22, 2012

T & A Green Corner Salutes Earth Day



Earth day falls on 4/22, which is appropriate due to the massive deforestation and carbon emissions that occur just a few days earlier on 4/20 (thanks Frank).


In the past 150 years, average atmospheric CO2 concentrations have climbed to ~400 ppm (this is beyond any calculable standard deviation from the ~200 – 300 ppm natural “cyclical” levels recorded for the past hundreds of thousands of years).
(Stick that in your smokestack, Bull)

To put that excursion into terms that DPT readers can appreciate, let’s compare the normal CO2 “cyclical” concentrations of 200 – 300 ppm to Party Paige’s normal BAC “cyclical” concentrations of 1.0 – 1.5 %.  400 ppm CO2 concentration is equivalent to Party Paige’s 2.0 % BAC on display for Chelsea Lately.  Holy crap.

Even more startling is the acidification of our oceans. The average pH of the oceans has dropped from ~8.3 to ~8.2.  When dealing with #s operating on orders of magnitude, as pH, that’s a big deal.  I will spare the details of the underlying water chemistry principles behind how CO2 is readily absorbed into water, but this irreparable damage cannot be undone.
(Shove that up your excel spreadsheet, Chandler)

 What can we do? One person can’t make a difference?  Bullshit, we’re all Americans (except for Juno, Jayda, Teneille…).  Car pool to kickball, Jacked Up girls will appreciate the ride.  Use CFL lighting.  Use a space heater and a sweater in the winter.  Rip off your shirt in the summer.
detail…  http://tampaelectric.com/residential/saveenergy/savingstips/
detail…   http://michaelbluejay.com/electricity/howmuch.html

 Also, you can buy renewable energy from TECO, or install renewable energy.  TECO rebates & federal Tax credits make this not only economically viable, but also a sure investment with Europe hanging just above the toilet bowl. 
detail…  (quarterly, TECO will release applications for rebates on this page):  http://www.tampaelectric.com/environmental/renewableenergy/

If you believe in your existence for a few years, want to secure your energy needs for future decades at a fixed price, reduce CO2, and support American companies that manufacture quality renewable energy equipment… check it out.
(Fly that up your flagpole, Steve Westphal)

Since I’m on the soapbox,
Bottle water a bullshit snake-oil industry that didn’t even exist a generation ago.  Bottled water CEOs will even state that bottled water is no healthier than regular tap water (they can’t state otherwise due to legal repercussions of lying), and in some cases is just bottled tap water.  If you are concerned with removing trace amounts of industrial pollutants, pharmaceuticals, residual chlorination by-products and microorganisms from municipal water, buy an under-the-sink reverse osmosis (RO) system.  You can get these at Home Depot, or talk to me, I have one, I can get them via a work vendor for 1/3 cost, I can help you install it (1 hour).  It will give you free “good” water & pay for itself in a month & your coffee will be better than Starbucks.
(to quote the Beastie Boys, “This plastic stuff is out of control”, you may discredit my appeal for eco-awareness and supporting scientific facts, but no one discredits the Beastie Boys)

21 comments:

Chandler said...

My jeep gets 15 mpg. Is that good?

Natalie said...

Not to be argumentative (or a nerd), but you can totally calculate that standard deviation. For example, if you use two data points and assume 250 ppm for last year and 400 for this year, the std dev is 106 ppm. If you use three data points, i.e. 250 ppm for last year, 250 ppm for 2010 and 400 ppm for this year, the std dev is 86 ppm.

Florian said...

Can someone please translate into English what Natalie said above?

!! HOT TUB PARTY TODD !! said...

I rephrase as "measurable" deviation. in the past hundreds of thousands of years, p p m of c o 2 in the atmosphere was never measured within 100 ppm of where it is today. Chandler, or should I say good will hunting, math doesn't lie.

Smooty said...

I'm still worried about acid rain and the ozone layer.

!! HOT TUB PARTY TODD !! said...

the party page reference should have quashed any doubts, Natalie. run a clinical study on that, natalie

Chandler said...

Currently, the United States produces 18.11% of the world's man-made CO2.

China produces 23.33%. And has billions of people who don't give a fuck.

Good luck on your up-hill battle. I'd suggest getting tight with E-Flo, which might one day get you into a secret ninja society. From there you can work your way up to Grand Master Ninja... and perhaps all of Asia will then do as you command and quit polluting the Earth.

bull said...

Dick Clark died so now there is no one to ring in 2013! Just further proof that the Mayans are correct!! The world will end on December 21 2012 and you've wasted your time with this long haired, tree hugging, hippy, recycling nonsense!

!! HOT TUB PARTY TODD !! said...

I don’t have time to go into details of how grossly inaccurate your narrow-minded perception of the world & reality are. People have been doing that your whole life, to no avail. I can say, though, I commend you, you seem to realize that CO2 emissions play a detrimental role in our environment, however you just seem to appear that you accept this and assume you’ll just die before it starts causing any real problems. Cool. For those of us that care about the existence of humanity, we realize that changes must be made. You’re facts on USA vs. China are not properly taken into perceptive, Americans have way more CO2 emissions per capita than any other country. China IS outdoing us in the renewable energy sector. Seems those billions obviously care more than us here. This is an uphill battle and we’re getting our asses kicked by China.

!! HOT TUB PARTY TODD !! said...

Natalie, I think you're wrong too, thinking about, and I did have a statistics course, put not spending so much time as proofing I'm a nerd, look at 3 data points from each of the 3 natural cyclical occurences. That's 9 data points over the past 300,000 years, compared to last. yes, beyond calculable standard deviation, I don't even need good will hunting for that one.

Chandler said...

When talking about the alleged deterioration of the Earth, "per capita" statistics (USA ranks 12th, China 78th) are pointless and misleading. If the atmosphere can only take so much CO2, then all that matters is which society is pumping out the most. China's numbers are diluted since 49% of their population live in rural areas and don't really contribute to the supposed problem.

A better view is CO2-GDP ratio, which shows the worst polluters per unit of economic output. In that list, China ranks 5th. USA ranks 90th. So we are FAR more efficient nation when looking at how much CO2 we release in order to obtain our large GDP.

In other words... China farts out a lot of CO2. And they got dick to show for it.

Finally... human CO2 emissions are a tiny fraction compared to CO2 released from 1) the ocean, 2)volcanoes, 3) animals.

But don't take all this as me trying to piss on your parade (although... I am). I want to see you succeed. There's a great documentary you should rent called: "Joe Versus the Volcano." I think it'll give you valuable information in stopping those evil volcanoes.

JD said...

Todd,

I put my plastic water bottle in that blue can thingy. I'M MAKING A DIFFERENCE!!!!

Thank you,

!! HOT TUB PARTY TODD !! said...

Don't mock the beasties, jd. Chandler u can recite ur fox news broadcasting, doesn't change what is happening in oceans. Math don't lie, ghw.

!! HOT TUB PARTY TODD !! said...

Also, per capital, americans are the worst. I don't count those little peon countries, way to slew facts chandler, yeah let's compare the vatican city against america in this discussion.

Chandler said...

Haha. No, comparing CO2 vs GDP does matter. Because it means my quality of life rocks, even if we had to shit out some greenhouse gases to accomplish that.

The only difference of opinion between you and me, is you're doing the Chicken Little thing about the sky falling... whereas I'm not convinced there's impending doom.

Which is exactly why China is going to continue to increase their greenhouse gas output. They're trying to catch up and improve their financial stability. Nobody is going to stop it. And polar bears will start drinking margaritas.

!! HOT TUB PARTY TODD !! said...

CO2 in the air doesn't scare me, I'm actually not convinced it is contributing to "global warming" (even though chemistry & scientific theory shows it should), I'm actually a very skeptical person, probably more so than you. But CO2 in the oceans is a big problem, pH dropping by .1 is huge, and it's proofed we did it, CO2 did it, not animals or the earth. I could go into more detail on this, but I'd be a nerd and get kicked off ligers for my dispensing too much scientific knowledge and being too uncool (that's what happened to Natalie). And in general, you take care of your stuff, knowingly contributing to deterioration of your surrounding space is what assholes do. they flip tables, and throw mcdonald's wrappers out windows, and prefer to be on antiquated sources of energy out of pure laziness. once your head surfaces, you'll see investing in renewable is actually MORE ECONOMIC than fossil. Money talks. quality of life is the quality of your surrounding environmental conditions.

!! HOT TUB PARTY TODD !! said...

I like nuclear too. just not in tusnami zones.

Chandler said...

Where does putting sandwiches in freezers and pissing the bed fall in the "deterioration of surrounding environmental conditions?" Better or worse than hydraulic fracturing?

!! HOT TUB PARTY TODD !! said...

Probably same as licking the bottom of people's shoes, but you know that stuff and people better than I do to make that call.

Natalie said...

Natalie did not "get kicked off" the Ligers. She left because she was too busy this season. Now she is team Cheerleader. A pH change of 0.1 is significant and would probably be harmful to microorganisms, but I would be interested in how that study was done. Also, one of the big global warming guys in the 90s recently said he over-stated the significance of his results and admitted to being an alarmist. Just some food-for-thought. And, I am not wrong about std dev. :)

!! HOT TUB PARTY TODD !! said...

Natalie refers to herself in third person. Natalie's thought state is wierd and she is not a credible person to weigh in on CO2 emissions. Haha, the pH change is a big deal because it will try to neutralize itself, and nothing works better than using calcium carbonate (shell & coral reef material). And the CO2 will never come out of the water once it's there. Done deal. (It's good to not burn bridges... not doing things that are irrepairable) I'm not scared of climate change/ global warming/ temperatures (read above), it's the fact that we're knowingly trashing something, and it is getting real worse real fast. I don't know why you guess try to argue that, the numbers are there, and if we Changed (I know, how aweful) we could use new, clean, more economic technologies. What's pretty ironic too is that my work jsut quoted equipment to put on a brand new gigantic oil rig. We'll probably get it, so I can contribute a whole lot more to the use of fossil fuels than any of you could dream of.