[Gllug] [OT] Technobabble

[David Damerell]

On Monday, 21 Nov 2005, Jim Bailey wrote:
>On Nov 20, 04:54, David Damerell wrote:
>>The point is that the idea that the Chinese are concerned about the
>>environmental stability of their growth - at any rate, that they are
>>concerned enough about it not to have ever-increasing emissions - is
>>obviously false.
>Actually it isn't I suggest that you read this article.
>http://www.worldchanging.com/archives/002312.html

Perhaps it is unclear to you that this is someone _talking_ but it is
their _actions_ that affect the environment. And their actions are to
increase emissions and energy consumption year-on-year.

>The Chinese have made the connection between eco-design, sustainability
>and efficiency.  Which translates in to productivity and profits in the
>real world always has always will.

That's just the usual nonsense. An obvious counterexample is that
coming up with clean industrial processes in the Victorian era would
have been enormously expensive and would not have provided any benefit
to an individual firm surrounded by a thousand dirty industrial
processes.

This claim is often made and it's basically an attempt to reassure
people by lying to them; the fact is that cleaning things up - let
alone reducing production and consumption - are not going to
painlessly escort us into a new green future where little bunnies
gambol over the fields. These are painful and difficult processes
which nevertheless are necessary.

>Despite your efforts to make this a bivalent debate

A "bivalent debate" is one where when you talk nonsense someone points
it out, right?

>>Hint; orders of magnitude more somewhat cleaner cars doesn't get you
>>reduced emissions. That's rearranging the deck chairs on the Titanic.
>It not rearranging deck chairs, it one of many, many things necessary to
>stop the destruction of the environment

No, orders of magnitude more somewhat cleaner cars is *not* one of the
things necessary to save the environment. It is one of the things that
will ensure the destruction of same. What is needed is _fewer_ motor
cars (and cleaner ones wouldn't hurt, either).

-- 
David Damerell <damerell at chiark.greenend.org.uk> Distortion Field!
Today is First Sunday, November - a weekend.
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