The main consern with global warming is that we continue to consume more and more and more. We drive more cars, we eat more food, we consume more water and paper/trees, we use and dispose of plastics and other products that take thousands of years to decompose. As our global population grows, we will consume more and more and more. Shouldn't part of our global warming 'proactive' approach also include an effort to decrease global population growth? Each person on this planet will consume a certain amount - whether it is gasoline, plastic, paper, energy, etc. To really decrease our global consumption, we need to decrease how many humans are on the planet.

Didn't you watch that 20/20 episode awhile back where John Stossell is talking about how population growth is good? Read Myth #7 http://abcnews.go.com/2020/story?id=123606

This is directed toward that article asianmacker posted. Many of the myths in that article are contradictory to tonights episode. Are we really drowning in garbage? Do we really have enough forests? asianmacker, i read your other posts and you seem to know what you're talking about. Can you give some me some insight to the truth? Will we not have rainforests anymore in 2060? Is it really that imperative that i save water, use cloth bags, yada yada yada? I guess i'm not directing this question towards just you, but anyone else who can clear up all this controversy.

I personally believe that there is such thing as Global Warming happening right now. But there are also people who believe that it's all made up to scare you. You could get arguements from both sides for every point. My personal thought is "Better safe than sorry." You as a citizen and human being have the ability to make change. All of the things that could help you be more "Green" are not things that are completely unrealistic. These are easy things and so for me, yes it is imperative to save water, use cloth bags, yada yada yada.

Of course we have enough forests. North America's forests have been growing since the early 19th century. If we divided the forests in America evenly to every single American, each person would get approximately 2 acres. Sure, completely destroying the rainforests and what not is bad, but there are solutions such as mass replanting and conservation so im honestly not that worried. As for saving water.....everyone should be doing that regardless because it obviously saves you money on your water bill. Common sense. The bottomline is; don't let fear mongering and the media get to you. I choose not to live in fear forever. What kinda life is that? Think about it.....

You don't have to live in fear forever. As a matter of fact, it is common sense to clean up after ourselves and try and do your part to make the world a cleaner place to live.

You don't have to live in fear forever. As a matter of fact, it is common sense to clean up after ourselves and try and do your part to make the world a cleaner place to live.

ok, so what you're saying is that it's okay for me to basically follow my same routines everyday and that i do not have to change much? i shouldn't have to try and cut an extra minute off my already rushed morning shower. And that it's ok for me to use restaurant paper napkins instead of brining my own cloth/hankerchief. I don't have to worry about forgetting to turn a light off or pull a plug out, right? I shouldn't let the grossly exagerated facts in the media scare me is what you're saying? if so, then i feel like i can calm down a bit about all this recycling/global warming hype. so apparently, we have cleaner air in 2007 than in the 1980s. The temperature is not actually skewed off the charts. All these stats are just "the man" trying to scare us. and indeed i think diane sawyer did scare a bunch of Americans.

Let's take apart Myth #7 one by one. "But there's no space problem..." Read: http://www.publicaffairs.ubc.ca/ubcreports/2006/06apr06/footprints.html "The 1973 movie "Soylent Green" predicted food riots would erupt..." Read: "http://www.hrforumzim.com/members_reports/foodriots98/food9801c.htm" "...but the starvation is caused by things like civil war and government corruption that interfere with the distribution of food..." Read: "http://www.worldbank.org/research/conflict/papers/greedgrievance_23oct.pdf" "With more people, we also have more smart ideas..." Read: "The Tragedy of the Commons" (http://dieoff.org/page95.htm) and Dr. Albert Bartlett: Arithmetic, Population and Energy (http://globalpublicmedia.com/transcripts/645). Hardin argues that the population problem has no technical solution.

You posted: "Of course we have enough forests. North America's forests have been growing since the early 19th century. If we divided the forests in America evenly to every single American, each person would get approximately 2 acres. Sure, completely destroying the rainforests and what not is bad, but there are solutions such as mass replanting and conservation so im honestly not that worried. As for saving water.....everyone should be doing that regardless because it obviously saves you money on your water bill. Common sense. The bottomline is; don't let fear mongering and the media get to you. I choose not to live in fear forever. What kind of life is that? Think about it....."

 

But the fact is, they are the WRONG kind of forests. As to mass replantings to replace IRREPLACEABLE resources? What you want to do is replace a fleet  of Mercedes with skateboards.

As to saving water, conservation is imperative .... but the amount of water needed to sustain a population of 300,000,000 in this country, with no waste at all, exceeds the supply we have.

You choose not to live in fear?

We either live in fear and thereby, change DRAMATICALLY the way we live, or everyone dies. It is that simple.