Texas: capital of both executions and carbon spewing

[thatcrazycajun]

Apparently people in Texas really, really enjoy killing other human beings—both the fast, direct way (Texas has more executions of condemned criminals yearly than any other death-penalty state) and the slower, indirect way...by spewing carbon into the air from cars, factories and energy production. NPR News reports in its "Climate Connections" series here (the first of a 3-part subseries) about Texans' refusal to buy into the global-warming consensus (which even their favorite son, Junior Bush, now acknowledges is largely due to human activity) or to give up their gas-guzzling SUVs and coal-fired power plants.

I still firmly believe the cancer that killed my mother, whose cause no doctor could figure out, was precipitated by her spending most of her life living in two of the most pollution-choked states in the Union, Texas and Louisiana. And people wonder why I didn't want to keep living in either of them... (It wasn't just the politics.)

Comments

[technoshaman.livejournal.com]

Having personally seen the extent of the destruction caused by *one* volcanic eruption I find it extremely difficult to believe that us puny humans are doing *all* the change, or even a significant fraction of it. Much of the research out there is political, or at least aimed at getting more funding rather than real results.

OTOH, as Dr. Bob Roper of Georgia Tech says, it's not polite to foul one's own nest.... which is one of many reasons I got the hell out of Atlanta.... ever look at the skyline in high summer these days? (Can you even see it then? It was difficult enough when I left...)

I'm a believer in sustainable. That means using energy resources that will be around as long as we are, e.g. solar or its direct by-products, plant-based, wind, and wave. (This also includes hydrogen fuel cells... if I had my druthers, I'd like my hydrogen in a more stable form than, say, the Honda Clarify puts it, but still. Making hydrogen from solar and water is legit in my book.) It also means we do things without breaking economies. Big Oil is Evil, but we're gonna have to convert'em, not kill'em, because we need the ChemE's. I could go on, but duty calls..