MAGA?

[kenny]

But I love your Octavia more than I love you...

 

[Calliecake]

Isn’t it also our responsibility to leave the world and our country in a better place than how it was when we were born? For this reason alone we all should be listening to what the scientists are telling us.

But HIllary's emails...!!

Thank you for the laugh @mrs-b!

 

[OboeGal]

If the liberals are so green why arent the liberal states blanketed with windmills and solar panels? oh not in your backyard..

Many of us liberals absolutely DO put our money where our mouths are. My husband and I did, to the tune of $21,000, to put 22 solar panels on our roof last spring. This is in addition to all the smaller things we have been doing for some time, like recycling, driving the most fuel-efficient cars we can afford, working mostly from home, driving the minimum necessary, etc..... We're scrimping and saving for the next items on the list: geothermal heating/cooling for our house and an electric car (when one of our current vehicles need replaced). There are only a couple of other houses with solar panels in our village - perhaps because our area of our state is pretty much as "red" as it gets. There is one nearby town that is a "blue haven" in that sea of red, though, and I see solar panels and windmills all over the place there, including a huge solar array in a field that I believe provides a good chunk of the power for good old liberal Antioch College.

You know so little of what you speak.

 

[Dancing Fire]

Many of us liberals absolutely DO put our money where our mouths are. My husband and I did, to the tune of $21,000, to put 22 solar panels on our roof last spring.

Only liberals have that kind of $$$.

 

[partgypsy]

I think it is great that we all self reflect and do what we can do individually. That said, this problem is not going to be solved on the individual level, but on the community/government level. The most important thing we all can do is to vote for politicians, both locally and nationally who will address this problem and we can throw the ingenuity and skills that the US has on this issue. While Trump withdrew the US from the Paris Agreement (shameful lack of leadership) many local communities are pledging to uphold limiting their energy usage to try to limit climate change. I helped organize a march that ended at City Hall about climate change. This was in 2004. I marched with my then 2 year old at that time. My city now has an action plan, which started in 2007. Basically, cities and communities are stepping up where Trump, and conservatives in general have failed in their leadership.
https://durhamnc.gov/DocumentCenter...-Renewable-Energy-Resolution-November-13-2018

 

[partgypsy]

Other things our community have been doing, is credits for solar panels (my yard is too shaded for it to work for me) and a local group that does energy audits for houses, and if needed, weatherproofing. The weatherproofing is on a sliding scale where lower income people pay less than higher income folks. If people want to help not just reduce energy consumption but also the environment, the main rule is reduce. Everything from purchases, the use of plastics or paper or other packaging, the amount of meat and animal products, to the amount of driving one does. After that comes reusing, and recycling. These are not new ideas. These are the practices that our forefathers did when living on farms, living on a budget or living through the great depression. We all have the ability to be less wasteful.

 

[Karl_K]

Other things our community have been doing, is credits for solar panels (my yard is too shaded for it to work for me) and a local group that does energy audits for houses, and if needed, weatherproofing. The weatherproofing is on a sliding scale where lower income people pay less than higher income folks. If people want to help not just reduce energy consumption but also the environment, the main rule is reduce. Everything from purchases, the use of plastics or paper or other packaging, the amount of meat and animal products, to the amount of driving one does. After that comes reusing, and recycling. These are not new ideas. These are the practices that our forefathers did when living on farms, living on a budget or living through the great depression. We all have the ability to be less wasteful.

I am for that kind of stuff as long as the gov dont go all nazi about it.
But giving our money away to other countries, no way.

 

[partgypsy]

Well Karl, there is only 1 Amazonian rain forest, which affects global climate and weather patterns. Coral reefs don't just grow based on where countries borders end and begin. And the north and south pole again not limited to US waters. We already spend a lot of money on other countries. Our defense budget for a single year is 686 BILLION. I am all for us using our might, either diplomatically or economically to make a difference. Sometimes you have to put your money where your mouth is. This is the time.

 

[cmd2014]

Which has nothing to do with global warming and everything to do with local pollution.
Being anti-global warming hysteria does not mean someone does not care about the environment.
But transferring more wealth to the 1%ers with frauds like carbon credits...well just stick it.
Giving our many away .. same answer.

If the liberals are so green why arent the liberal states blanketed with windmills and solar panels? oh not in your backyard..

Are you really that willfully ignorant? What exactly do you think air pollution (aka smog) is if not a toxic brew of greenhouse gasses altered by the sun into an even more toxic mess and trapped by local geography in low lying areas? And where do you think it comes from other than large corporations belching out CO2 and other emissions (mainly from burning coal and/or other fossil fuels) into the atmosphere. Well, that and exhaust emissions from cars (which also belch out C02 emissions in addition to a bunch of other toxic stuff). And where do you think it goes other than eventually dissipating into the atmosphere where it contributes to the loss of the ozone layer and global climate change?

And perhaps if you traveled outside of your own borders you might realize how common it is for the rest of the world to use renewable green energies. As an example, just across the North Dakota border is a massive wind farm that generates electricity that fuels the entire surrounding area (and yes, including the US, because it is sold to you). This is only one of many that exist. Many countries are moving exclusively to hydroelectric power. And the rest of the world is moving to using solar panels too. Most of Europe has also switched to extremely fuel efficient induction cooktops because they use 90% less energy than gas and also do not pollute the atmosphere with methane the way natural gas and propane cooktops do. That change alone could make an enormous difference in the US. As would switching away from gas guzzling SUV's (which again, many people in many countries already do). Not to mention recycling, reducing use of single use plastics, composting...

This isn't a political issue, and the fact that people seem to want to make it one is really sad. And the problem is that the rest of the world can do everything right but if the US doesn't get its act together, it won't matter.

 

[Tekate]

picky. No it's not the answer and you know it, it's about money, time and willingness, all not under the orange man.

The examples you gave are local.
The answer is simple tear em down and plant trees.
Problem solved.

 

[cmd2014]

I’m sorry for my rant, all. I guess my only excuse is that while I completely understand people not wanting to pay higher taxes, spend money they don’t necessarily have on retrofitting their homes or buying new vehicles, and the anxiety that all of this creates for people whose jobs rely on the fossil fuel industry, what I don’t get is people turning that into conspiracy theories and science denying. If you‘re economic worries overshadow any concern you have for the planet and for future generations, just say so. If you figure you won’t be alive to see it anyway (given that boomers make up the largest segment of climate change deniers), then own that. If you disagree with *how* to go about solving the problem, fair enough. But trying to pretend that the overwhelming majority of the scientific community is wrong and/or doesn’t know more than some whack job right wing conspiracy website or whatever other non-credible source you’re getting your info from is insanity. Just my (non boomer) opinion of course.

 

[OboeGal]

Only liberals have that kind of $$$.

You have no idea what our financial situation is. I don't own any of the kind of diamonds that you - clearly a conservative - or almost everyone else on this board does. I never will; the money will never be there. You have no idea how we scrimped and saved and saved and saved for years and years for this, because this was my husband, the scientist's, dream, so that he can live with himself as he can, as a scientist, clearly see where this world is going. Instead of going out to eat. Instead of buying new clothes - unless you count buying them at the thrift store, because that's the only place I've been able to afford to buy them for the last three years. Instead of buying the big new diamonds that I fancy here and would love to have. For your information, I have disabilities that prevent me from working any more than a little bit of part-time here and there. My husband will be laid off at the end of the year. He's looking for another position, but at his age, the odds are not in his favor. But he, and I, believe in something - that our lives aren't just about our own comfort or desires, or our town's, or our state's, or even our country's. Our duty is to leave this world a little bit better place for ALL living things.