Adding the environment as a topic of discussion was both prudent and enlightening. The tours, presentations and discussions gave a whole new meaning to knowing what the whole issue is about, regardless of your personal opinion of global warming. It certainly made me more aware of my surroundings and the impact that we have on society. What an eye opener!
I just wanted to leave a word or two about a thing or two, which is the point of the blog, I reckon. First of all, one of the really interesting questions that came up at our fascinating tour of the coal plant was "which of the pollutants is the worst for humans." Ray listed the major pollutants, NOx, SOx, particulates, mercury and CO2. NOx plus sunlight plus VOCs equals ground level ozone (smog). Smog and particulates are responsible for thousands of "premature" deaths according to EPA and the ALA. So they kill you quicker than mercury which gives you brain damage. Acid rain damages the natural and built environment. And, we all heard about the climate change impacts of CO2. So, pick your poison! The point is that we need to become incredibly more efficient in our production and use of energy so that we can minimize all these impacts. Cars cause just about all the same problems plus no one every crashed their coal fired power plant into a median strip during a snow storm.
Just to blog a bit more, since I'm on a role. The entire US has about 75 billion square feet of buildings. And we know that heating, cooling and lighting of buildings causes about a third of our emissions. To put that in context, the Chinese built 2 billion square feet just last year! We need to address our energy and emissions issues if for no other reason than competitiveness and setting an example. I encourage you to look at the following http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=ljbI-363A2Q It puts our demographic discussion in whole different context.
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Adding the environment as a topic of discussion was both prudent and enlightening. The tours, presentations and discussions gave a whole new meaning to knowing what the whole issue is about, regardless of your personal opinion of global warming. It certainly made me more aware of my surroundings and the impact that we have on society. What an eye opener!
I just wanted to leave a word or two about a thing or two, which is the point of the blog, I reckon. First of all, one of the really interesting questions that came up at our fascinating tour of the coal plant was "which of the pollutants is the worst for humans." Ray listed the major pollutants, NOx, SOx, particulates, mercury and CO2. NOx plus sunlight plus VOCs equals ground level ozone (smog). Smog and particulates are responsible for thousands of "premature" deaths according to EPA and the ALA. So they kill you quicker than mercury which gives you brain damage. Acid rain damages the natural and built environment. And, we all heard about the climate change impacts of CO2. So, pick your poison! The point is that we need to become incredibly more efficient in our production and use of energy so that we can minimize all these impacts. Cars cause just about all the same problems plus no one every crashed their coal fired power plant into a median strip during a snow storm.
Just to blog a bit more, since I'm on a role. The entire US has about 75 billion square feet of buildings. And we know that heating, cooling and lighting of buildings causes about a third of our emissions. To put that in context, the Chinese built 2 billion square feet just last year! We need to address our energy and emissions issues if for no other reason than competitiveness and setting an example. I encourage you to look at the following http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=ljbI-363A2Q
It puts our demographic discussion in whole different context.
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