World’s nations simply won’t get serious about tackling world climate problems

I remember how amazed I was as a kid to see one of the NASA launches canceled because there were storm clouds within X number of miles of the Florida launch site: If we could send people to the moon, shouldn't we be able to launch rockets even if there were storms??

Fast forward to my adult years, and I am beginning to learn a lesson all the world needs to take more to heart: The weather, everything related to Climate Earth, is awesome and cannot be controlled -- but it appears that we can do stuff as puny little human beings that isn't HELPING the climate/weather/global warming crisis we appear to be facing.

One of the things we can do that's very harmful, and we do it every day, is pump pollutants and so-called "greenhouse gases" (chiefly carbon dioxide) into the atmosphere, hoping somehow it will just go away and all will be well.

All is not well, and with the G8 and G5 nations -- arcane labels for the world's leading and second-leading industrialized nations -- addressing such issues, things are not looking much better. You see, there's a price attached to cleaning up the gases we release into the atmosphere that no one really wants to pay. If you're an "industrialized" nation, you risk slowing or even shutting down your economy if you restrict greenhouse gas emissions significantly. If you're an "emerging" industrial power, you'll likely not get there if you restrict industry enough to make significant cuts in greenhouse emissions.

What's it gonna be? We have two choices, it seems, in the end: 1) stifle or even cripple the economy, or, 2) boil/roast in our own pollutants and take a good deal of the world down the tubes with us.

Gee, what I wouldn't give for a quick, easy answer to this one. But, as I often said here in the past, I'm just a guy who reads the papers. So, what are we going to do about this mess? Anyone??
[tags]greenhouse gases, atmospheric pollution, industrialized nations, emerging nations, just a guy who reads the papers[/tags]

July 8, 2008 | Filed Under Business News, Science News, Technology News