U.N. Study on the health of our planet

Some highlights from the study:

1. 60% of the world's grasslands, forests, farmlands, rivers and lakes have been depleted
   
2. 1/5 of the world's coral reefs have been destroyed in the last few decades
   
3. 1/3 of all mangrove forests in the world have been destroyed
   
4. 1/3 of all species on the planet are in danger of extinction
   
5. We have changed the ecosystem more rapidly and extensively in the last 50 yrs than any other time
   

All quite true. Recent reports from China say that more than 50% of their fresh waters are polluted.

Considering the shear SIZE of China, that's a big freakin deal. Even if they finally decided to filter their water and implement some sort of environmental protection plan; the damage is so great that it would take decades to gain back even like 10% of what is already lost.

As a side note -- cynics and people who wanna just put down other people -- whatever man. I do care about this sort of stuff, even if I alone cannot change it. I can't help it.. it's part of being aware. So I actually do my part to be as efficient as possible and waste as little as possible.

Each time a new survey comes out I wonder when we'll start applying all the dusty patents we're acquiring to solve the problem. As of today, we have enough technology to restructure our entire energy system to be portable and renewable and based entirely on sunlight, wind, and water (and the hydrogen and oxygen water vapor processes). There are also electric motor that outperform chemical ones for just about every application. Even space travel can be accomplished without the use of large booster propellents or rocket fuels.

But it'd be too hard to switch everything over, right? No, not really. We'd probably spend less on it than some small sections of humanity spend on their 'defense' budget.

As a specific example of combining some key technologies into say, a car, you could embed lightweight composite plastic solar panels in the body, wind turbines built into spoilers to recoup in addition to regenerative braking (currently available on many hybrid vehicles), foldable sheet type plastic based batteries for less weight more stability and ease of placement, regenerative water tank (via simple collection, pump addition, or regeneration via combination of hydrogen and oxygen from the atmosphere in idle times).

So why not make such an efficient vehicle? The common claim is there'd be no market for further vehicles. SL shoots THAT all to hell. New models, colors, shapes, designs, different features, all sorts of things will continue to expand the market. It doesn't kill off the petroleum business either. Plastics are made from it, so even if gas prices shoot over $100 a gallon/litre/whatever, you'll still find that someone has to buy it to make TVs, remotes, keyboards, packaging, etc., unless we start making those out of wood or something which also isn't renewable if we consume it at the rate we are.

meh