Cool Green Morning: Thursday, July 22 | Cool Green Science: The Conservation Blog of The Nature Conservancy
Cool Green Morning: Thursday, July 22 | Cool Green Science: The Conservation Blog of The Nature Conservancy
Can the climate and energy bill overcome inertia? (The New York Times)
Dear Darcy: The question is not overcoming "inertia?" We might as well take the time to get the scientific terms correct.
Inertia http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Inertia
Sir Isaac Newton defined inertia in Definition 3 of his Philosophiæ Naturalis Principia Mathematica, which states:[1]
The vis insita, or innate force of matter is a power of resisting, by which every body, as much as in it lies, endeavors to preserve in its present state, whether it be of rest, or of moving uniformly forward in a straight line.
\mathbf{F} = \frac{\mathrm{d}}{\mathrm{d}t}(m \mathbf{v})
Newton's Second Law
My understanding is that the climate bill was not making any forward motion. Climate science and scientists have been attacked in the media. This would be negative motion. Then there was then a much smaller climate bill introduced by Democrats. That would mean that it had lost "mass." Now, supposedly, the climate bill has been terminated for this Congress. With no mass, the climate bill's inertia would be zero; not very hard to overcome an inertia of zero.
Scientists have known that anthropogenic climate change is occurring and have been informing the world of the negative impacts. There are plenty of disaster movies where scientists working feverishly find a solution to the world's problems in a few days, hours or minutes. Americans are comfortable driving their Mercedes SUVs and their Hummers. For 45 YEARS scientists have been telling America to cut down on its oil use. Ecologists haven't even been able to introduce a good recycling law. Plastic bags litter the trees. Each and every sewer grate leading to the Chesapeake Bay is covered with plastic bottles and aluminum cans. None of the 59 Superfund sites in Pennsylvania are being cleaned up. There is no money in the Superfund. BP did not put the $5B in the "slush fund."
The Nature Conservancy must see that this is not a simple matter of a car making a U-turn. There are 7 Billion people on this planet and 3200 Tigers. The island of Haiti and the country of Afghanistan have both been entirely deforested over the past ten years. The oil spill in the Gulf has most likely wiped out 5 endangered species of sea turtle. There is no magic wand. There is no scientific Superman. The people in the Gulf are suffering; and they may be the first Americans to be effected. But even the Governors and U.S. Senators from the Gulf Region are against climate change legislation!
Can the climate and energy bill overcome inertia? (The New York Times)
Dear Darcy: The question is not overcoming "inertia?" We might as well take the time to get the scientific terms correct.
Inertia http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Inertia
Sir Isaac Newton defined inertia in Definition 3 of his Philosophiæ Naturalis Principia Mathematica, which states:[1]
The vis insita, or innate force of matter is a power of resisting, by which every body, as much as in it lies, endeavors to preserve in its present state, whether it be of rest, or of moving uniformly forward in a straight line.
\mathbf{F} = \frac{\mathrm{d}}{\mathrm{d}t}(m \mathbf{v})
Newton's Second Law
My understanding is that the climate bill was not making any forward motion. Climate science and scientists have been attacked in the media. This would be negative motion. Then there was then a much smaller climate bill introduced by Democrats. That would mean that it had lost "mass." Now, supposedly, the climate bill has been terminated for this Congress. With no mass, the climate bill's inertia would be zero; not very hard to overcome an inertia of zero.
Scientists have known that anthropogenic climate change is occurring and have been informing the world of the negative impacts. There are plenty of disaster movies where scientists working feverishly find a solution to the world's problems in a few days, hours or minutes. Americans are comfortable driving their Mercedes SUVs and their Hummers. For 45 YEARS scientists have been telling America to cut down on its oil use. Ecologists haven't even been able to introduce a good recycling law. Plastic bags litter the trees. Each and every sewer grate leading to the Chesapeake Bay is covered with plastic bottles and aluminum cans. None of the 59 Superfund sites in Pennsylvania are being cleaned up. There is no money in the Superfund. BP did not put the $5B in the "slush fund."
The Nature Conservancy must see that this is not a simple matter of a car making a U-turn. There are 7 Billion people on this planet and 3200 Tigers. The island of Haiti and the country of Afghanistan have both been entirely deforested over the past ten years. The oil spill in the Gulf has most likely wiped out 5 endangered species of sea turtle. There is no magic wand. There is no scientific Superman. The people in the Gulf are suffering; and they may be the first Americans to be effected. But even the Governors and U.S. Senators from the Gulf Region are against climate change legislation!
posted by Unknown | 9:02 PM
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