OT: Gas Prices

[PvK]

Gas companies are ripping US customers off, using the excuses of current events (Gulf war, hurricanes) to raise prices even though it just means billions of profit for them.

Gas costs $6.00 outside the US because the governments are less supportive of mass consumption of fuel (fewer subsidies, more tax).

More important though is global warming and destruction caused by human carbon emissions. Humans are killing the planet, essentially because we are selfish short-sighted morons, and that's way more important than "prices at the pump", whatever pleasure some people have from commuting to a city job as the only passenger in a ridiculously enormous truck or SUV, and so on. As more and more countries (or just China, all by itself) motorize on the American model, good luck for the planet's ecology.

PvK

[Renegade 13]

That is, if you believe all the media sensationalism about global warming...personally I've taken a look at the 'evidence' and have found it lacking. I believe it's part of a natural cycle, perhaps slightly (though not significantly on a geological timescale) accelerated by mankind's actions. Greenhouse gases rise, then they natually fall, resulting in a natural ice age. Greenhouse gases rise, raising temps. out of ice age, until greenhouse gas level rise too much, plunging into an ice age...etc etc ad nauseum

But that's a subject for another thread...

[PvK]

No, media is late to the game. I've been listenning to the scientists who have been saying this for decades, and who are saying it louder and louder as things get worse and worse. Yes there have been ice age cycles in the past, but we are also accelerating things a lot. Greenhouse gasses from life are a cyclical system, but humans are defossilizing huge amounts of carbon and dumping it into the atmosphere, which is not part of the cycle except when a major asteroid has hit the planet and has caused mass extinctions. Only this time, we're making our own. I am really worried about what has been said recently about the effects of ocean warming, and the general health of the oceans, and of birds and other animals, and eventually us (though we're the only ones who may deserve to be extinct...).

[Atrocities]

shinigami said:
Are the oil companies sticking it to us? Sure they are.

Should the government do something about it? No, its called free enterprise. You have the option to not pay that outrageous price for gas. Of course, if you exercise that choice then you may also be choosing to not work and by extension, not eat, but you do have that choice.

Seriously, I don't feel that it is the government's place to step in and do something about high prices. History has shown that whenever the price of a product goes higher than the market will bear people will start to find alternatives.

Now, having said all that, I do believe that the oil lobby uses our government to squash any alternatives that come along. My solution, ban all lobbying of Congress.

the problem is, there is not a free market. The oil company is protected by the government. Just try and start a new oil company. We as consumers are captive to the monopoly that is the oil industry.

[Renegade 13]

There is evidence pointing to ocean levels that were 6 meters higher than today's levels. This evidence includes oceanic wear on rocks far above today's high-tide levels on cliffs in Alaska, and old coral reefs that are high and dry above current sea levels.

This shows ocean levels have been much higher in the past and thus the average worldwide temperature must have been much higher. Life adapted, or died out. That's life for you. Attempting to stop climate change is a futile battle, it will happen whether or not you want it to. The rate can be altered, but not forever.

Like I mentioned before, when the Earth heats too much we plunge into another ice age. The Earth is a self-stabilizing system, it will adapt. Perhaps scientists have not surmised the mechanism yet, but it has historically happened, and there's no real reason to believe it will not happen again.

I'm not saying we need another ice age! Though actually, I would like it. I love winter! Maybe you southern people would learn what it's like living in the cold...Floridians would learn 20C isn't cold enough to turn the furnace on!!

[Suicide Junkie]

Sure, there are feedback mechanisms.
But its not a good idea to turn the furnace on when its already hot out.

[Atrocities]

not all of global warming is because of the US and our gas guzzeling wasteful way of erogant living. What about volcano eruptions, forest fires, natural warming trends, tbe changes in the megnetic poles, etc. Don't blame it all on the US.

[Suicide Junkie]

Its not about blame, its about fixing things.

[Atrocities]

I am all for doing my part. I am a big conservationist myself and have always gone out of my way to use less.

[Captain Kwok]

Renegade 13 said:
...personally I've taken a look at the 'evidence' and have found it lacking...

And I'm sure that a 1st year university student (no offence intended) can really interpret the evidence better than the large percentage of professional scientists who do this for a living.