Change?

A group of scientists visited the garbage patch in the Pacific that is the size of Texas, some say it is larger. The patch mainly consists of plastic products but many other products are there, entangling sea life in a floating garbage grave. This link has a video to watch and the highlight in the video is the phrase "benign by design" which is a call to manufacturers to create products that have the full life cycle of a product in mind. Products become trash, instead they should be an input into a natural system, like forks created from biodegradable material. Along with biodegradable products a residential food-waste pick-up system is needed.


The Economist holds debates on its website, this session the debated claim is: tackling climate change means leaving fossil fuels behind. On this link are links to articles relating to this debate. 60% of respondents say yes, fossil fuels should be left behind (The debate is sponsored by Dow Chemical). From my glance at this what is missing is the broader conversation that climate change is just one part of the equation when it comes to pollutants that relate to climate change; we have species die-off, contamination of water used for human consumption, toxic-chemical contamination of humans, top-soil degradation, and more to worry about. We should switch from a fossil-fuel economy for more then the reason of Climate Change.


A study claims that a greater return on investment for reducing carbon emission is experienced when money is spent on contraception in the unindustrialized world than on green technology. Most of the growth in population (3 billion more people) in the next 40 years will be in the unindustrialized world, but the industrialized world pollutes so much more than the rest of the world so a focus on reducing the wealthy peoples' consumption will actual do the most for combating environmental degradation.


In an article by MotherJones Obama is criticized for his lack of dedication to tackling Climate Change during the recent UN meetings. Is Obama not doing enough, or is there a lack of popular support for him doing a lot followed by a political climate focused on economic recovery of large corporations that will only make small changes in the next decade to mitigate climate change? Blame Obama, or blame the business and political system? Remember that ExxonMobile just finished a costly advertisement campaign against climate change science, and we just had 8 years of an executive administration that denied climate change is anthropogenic. Non-scientists are being required to make scientific judgments and thus far many of them are confused and unprepared for the task.


And some news about the melting of the ever-so-important Greenland ice-shelf.