Alberta BS Thread

Taking the commuter train is bad for the environment, putting new tires on the bike you ride to work is bad for the environment.

 

Let's just nuke everything and be done with it lol

 

The acidification of the oceans is a direct result of increased carbon dioxide in the atmosphere which is directly related to man made climate change , they are part and parcel

 

Carbonic acid yo. It's the same cycle basically that happens in our own blood to regulate our own pH.

https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Ocean_acidification

 

On another note, the NDP finish fourth in a recent byelection in Calgary. Tories narrowly edge out the WR for the seat.

http://calgaryherald.com/news/politics/close-results-so-far-in-calgary-greenway-byelection

 

No the trees are dead. Forest don't need replanting unless you want a tree farm and not a forest. The boreal trees will burn anyways every 50 years.

 

Even dead the trees are a carbon sink. When you burn them you release that carbon. Hence it's not carbon neutral. If you didn't burn the tree, the carbon in the hydrocarbons and complex polysaccharides in the tree would stay bound up instead of being released as CO2.

 

This is getting a bit complex, i am but a simple minded trades worker...

 

Carbon neutral is not my definition but an accepted rule for carbon budgets. The idea is simply that these surface bound and renewable carbon sinks are part of the natural carbon balance while coal and oil are not.
The biggest problem in Albert is 5 million burping and farting cows as well as millions of acres kept in grass and not allowed to regrow forests.
Farmers are the worst.

 

Meh, it's not that complex. The carbon dioxide ocean thing is pretty simple to understand. You see everything in this world forms a chemical equilibrium. That's why steel rusts, aluminum corrodes, fuel burns, etc etc. Basically Carbon Dioxide, which is the GHG everyone is talking about, is left in the presence of water a certain amount of it dissolves in the water. This is much like how if you drop a couple of sugar cubes in water and left them for a few days they'd dissolve on their own until they saturate the water with sugar.

Anyways, the amount of Carbon Dioxide that will dissolve in the water in the environment really depends mainly on two things. The temperature of the air/water and the concentration of carbon dioxide. Like how it's easier to dissolve dirt from your clothes with warmer water, the warmer the oceans the more CO2 they take in. Also, it stands to reason, the more CO2 is available in the atmosphere the more it will dissolve in the ocean. Now I'm not explaining why these things happen I'm just showing you that they are things you probably already know but don't know if that makes sense.

Anyways, dissolved CO2 is carbonic acid. It's a weak acid and you already know this if you've ever had a soft drink, which is just water, flavor, sugar, and CO2. You'll hear people talking about how the acid in the soft drink drink eats away at the calcium deposits in your teeth. It's the same way in the oceans with Coral. The more cabonic acid we put in the ocean the harder it is for organisms that need calcium for building corals or other structures like shells to do so properly.

 

Thanks. I'll make sure I pass this onto my growers while you live in the North burning extra fossil fuels in an area where people don't need to live.

Cattle heards are the smallest they've been per person in decades. Something interesting to note.

Honestly farms, as in plant based agriculture, are basically carbon neutral. A wheat crop with the residues left on the field is a massive carbon sink. Corn is even better unless it's silaged.

The animal husbandry side of this though is not good for the enviroment and the methane production is a real issue in terms of global warming. However, Methane also breaks down far faster than CO2 because it's an unstable gas so it's effects are much shorter lived. It also doesn't raise CO2 levels in the atmosphere and doesn't contribute to ocean acidification nearly as much as CO2 from other sources.

 

It's also worth while mentioning that there is a large difference between modern Agriculture in the Western World where, at worst, there is a focus in the last ten years on becoming fully sustainable versus a place like Brazil where they are burning forests to create land for Soybeans and Cattle production.

But hey who cares burning a forest is natural and carbon neutral, right?

 

Farmers are the worst? Guess you should stop eating then.... Do you enjoy beer? Better stop drinking that too.

 

Honestly you can't blame @tango zulu for saying that but, yes, everyone has to eat. Honestly this planet wasn't built for 8 billion humans to be running around. It'll be tricky to come up with a system that works and is truly sustainable for energy and food production.

 

Love beer. Not my point.
Global warming is a big problem and I am a big part of it. I get that. But and mean a big but, I know plenty of mostly younger, anti everything types who usually work in a government office who are always worried about everyone's carbon contributing life style EXCEPT their own. They always have the best skis, (replaced every year)the newest cell phone and lots with lots of data, fly the whole family to sunny vacations several times a year, eat grapes flown from Chile to Yukon and......... they think I am the problem.
I admit I am part of it.
Until we all accept that our choice to drive gas guzzling 4500 lb 4x4's to the mall and back is part of the problem and stop blaming your neighbor for doing the same thing, we are doomed.
So I eat moose meet, haven't had a sunny vacation in a decade, cut my own wood for heat to help my carbon account a bit. Not patting myself on the back but the problem is not just me, it not just you either, it is US.
BTW, my little sister in Alberta runs about 400 cows and farms 2000 acres.

 

Exactly

 

Yup.

 

Gonna make a solid effort to get to the market most weekends to buy local stuff, I suppose a little effort by everyone will go a long way.

 

Farmers markets are becoming extremely popular here. Even the local Coop is now posting signs to tell people how many KM's some foods had to come to get to them, though they are only doing it for the local stuff and not posting the rating for goods from overseas.

 

Co op is awesome! They make an honest effort to buy local stuff and 90% of their co op brand products are made in Canada which is sweet. Everyone says its too expensive and that I should go to wallmart. I refuse to step foot in that store, its everything thats wrong with the world today.