How long should air conditioner run?

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Fletch
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Joined: Thu Jun 04, 2009 1:25 pm
Location: USA

Post by Fletch »

Valuethinker wrote:
englishgirl wrote: Thanks for the kind thoughts about the planet, by the way.
If one wants to save the planet, then *anything* that does something about rainforest deforestation is so far far above anything we can do in our personal lives, in terms of carbon avoided, that you have to focus on that.

Rainforest Trust. Greenpeace. Various groups opposed to biofuels (biodiesel and the palm oil from which it is sourced, could finish off the Indonesian and Congolese rainforest by themselves). As Jane Goodall said at a recent public address I attended 'there is no such thing as sustainable palm oil'.

There are 3 rainforests left on the planet of size: Democratic Republic of Congo, Brasilian and adjacent Amazonia, Indonesia. The last is almost gone.

The only other impact you can possibly have of similar size would be to stop flying.

I went through this with the solar panel. Spent £10k, save 1 tonne of CO2 pa and consume £700 pa of subsidies.

That would be the same benefit to Planet Earth of saving less than 1 acre of rainforest, at a cost of £30, roughly.

I try to find groups that are prepared to fight, to preserve the rainforest.

it's not enough now to talk of personal virtue.
Valuethinker - there you go again trying to bring logic to an emotional discussion! :lol: :lol:
Valuethinker
Posts: 49030
Joined: Fri May 11, 2007 11:07 am

Post by Valuethinker »

Fletch wrote:
Valuethinker wrote:
englishgirl wrote: Thanks for the kind thoughts about the planet, by the way.
If one wants to save the planet, then *anything* that does something about rainforest deforestation is so far far above anything we can do in our personal lives, in terms of carbon avoided, that you have to focus on that.

Rainforest Trust. Greenpeace. Various groups opposed to biofuels (biodiesel and the palm oil from which it is sourced, could finish off the Indonesian and Congolese rainforest by themselves). As Jane Goodall said at a recent public address I attended 'there is no such thing as sustainable palm oil'.

There are 3 rainforests left on the planet of size: Democratic Republic of Congo, Brasilian and adjacent Amazonia, Indonesia. The last is almost gone.

The only other impact you can possibly have of similar size would be to stop flying.

I went through this with the solar panel. Spent £10k, save 1 tonne of CO2 pa and consume £700 pa of subsidies.

That would be the same benefit to Planet Earth of saving less than 1 acre of rainforest, at a cost of £30, roughly.

I try to find groups that are prepared to fight, to preserve the rainforest.

it's not enough now to talk of personal virtue.
Valuethinker - there you go again trying to bring logic to an emotional discussion! :lol: :lol:
;-).

;-).

All decisions come from values. Values are the core of human existence.

The thing that defines 'human' as against 'animal' is values. Once the raw struggle for survival is accomplished (which for 50% of this planet, is never) then it is about values-- how we choose to judge ourselves and the world around us.

Knowledge, understanding, reason, logic, these can inform values. It's a moving target.

But the question is always 'what are my values, and how then shall I live?'

Once we have the values, and I do, and once our logic has engaged with a problem (which Tim Flannery and Elizabeth Kohlbert were instrumental in my case in so doing) then we have to follow that logic through to its conclusions.

The guys are insulating my loft as we speak-- the payoff is slight, but it's real (10+ years, but real, and risk free). So I am all for 'living your values'.

But you have to see the big picture. James Lovelock makes the analogy to 1938-- this is not just about Anderson shelters (name of UK Minister of Home Defence) in the back yard.

But 'we have met the enemy, and he is us' as Pogo would have it. This is a long fight, and we must not be too late. Time is not on our side.
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