The only reason the USA didn't sign on with respect to the Kyoto agreement (as I
understand it) had to do with our country's economic well-being.
Placing clean air WELL BEFORE reasonable economic well-being would be like
placing our civil rights before our very survival at the hands of Islamic
Xtremist Global terrorists.
I mean....
what good are your civil rights if your not
going to be around to enjoy them? And clean air is fine but to what extent over
time if it means economic collapse?
In truth, it's all a balancing act of course.
Just because we couldn't meet a Kyoto
schedule in certain respects without severely penalizing our economy
doesn't mean we haven't made progress... at least we have in the NYC metro area.
I can remember learning to fly out of LaGuardia back in the mid-60's. Thick
brown smoke hung over the NYC metro area during summer days (and some winter
ones also depending upon wind direction) to a depth of 2-3000' above sea level
with visibility restricted to less than
3 miles. And above this layer was usually a slightly "cleaner" heavy haze layer
that often went to 7-10,000' wherein it was like
flying in a milk bottle in terms of "slant"
and "vertical" visibility.
By the 80's, the lower brown layer had virtually disappeared and far more rare
was that haze layer in terms "thickness" and of depth.
Much cleaner air over the 30 years
I flew the NYC metro area for sure. No doubt about it.
Can we do better? Sure. Brazil is running
ethanol for automotive fuel. France is way
ahead on nuclear power. No reason why
we shouldn't be doing the same in both
cases and herein, we are definitely behind
the times (most likely for the almighty corp. $$$ I bet). Hell, we shoulda been
way
ahead on solar power by this time as well.
Cap'n. Bob '60 :{)
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