Off Topic Politics Thread

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While we fry?

It sounds like you’re suggesting more CO2 will give us more plants and more oxygen?

Not at all. I was arguing against deniers but then a greenie started arguing about plants not using CO2 which then sort of fell straight into their hands.

I would however suggest that cutting down forests to grow bio-fuel is sort of counter productive seeing as those forests would have helped (how much I don't know) remove some of that CO2.

CO2 doesn't give us more plants. But more plants use more CO2. They don't work in a circle like that. Plants grow faster. Maybe they produce more seeds? I can't say but I would go on a theory of one tree produces the same amount of seeds and thus more CO2 doesn't give us more plants.
 
Tbf, your answer is barely any different to my view. Again, just my thoughts.
I totally get that people aren't listening. People, in my experience, don't if the initial perception is, 'am I going to be worse off from this change?' 'Is this going to cost?' Well, it's costing now.

The 'little old lady and gent' part could be solved by well thought out infrastructure, as you say, throughout Europe, financed at national government or EU level [no good leaving it to individual councils] and a more obvious and consistent labelling system that is 'people proof'. Then it is just a matter of us people doing the quick check so see which bin we throw it into. That would be 7 different bins, just for different plastic types. Already there, I can begin to see a human 'I don't know/don't give a toss' problem. The present inconsistent system, as it stands, is still no excuse for people not to adhere to, yet it does give people an excuse. For example, what should one do with a tin can or a cardboard milk carton, both with thin plastic liners? Some councils say recycle, some say don't.

There will always be plastics, and consequently there will always be an oil industry. They are too damn useful. But we need a closed cycle method of producing them, using them, and recycling them, and they need to be harmlessly biodegradable or recyclable. And we need a change in society's responsibility through education, taught in schools and through public information films and online information and notifications. No leaflet drops.

Not understanding this. We have one recycle wheelie bin and one refuse bin. Anything recyclable (or think it might be recyclable) goes in the recycle bin. The recycle plants are very clever and their machines separate the glass from the tin from plastics from the cards. Simple Nos for the recycle bin is no carrier bags or film. Everything else goes in. There should not be any need for 7 bins or multiple bins. Just the one.

Even with that system in Lincoln of one bin I know a few people that still proudly announce "f*** that. It all goes in the the black bin." There really are people out there who could not give a flying .... and will never separate, even though the council states that it will refuse to empty people's bins if they aren't following the rules. The council is not going to open up each black bag in the refuse bin to check if it has recyclables in it.

But in answer to the number of bins and what different councils will recycle, that question will in the very near future become irrelevant, because the machinery that is now being used in some places is capable of making that decision so the public can just chuck everything they think is recyclable into the one recycle bin.
 
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Not understanding this. We have one recycle wheelie bin and one refuse bin. Anything recyclable (or think it might be recyclable goes in the recycle bin. The recycle plants are very clever and their machines separate the glass from the tin from plastics from the cards. Simple Nos for the recycle bin is no carrier bags or film. Everything else goes in. There should not be any need for 7 bins or multiple bins. Just the one.

And even with that system in Lincoln of one bin I know a few people that still proudly announce "f*** that. It all goes in the the black bin." There really are people out there who could not give a flying .... and will never separate even though the council states that it will refuse to empty people's bins if they aren't following the rules. The council is not going to open up each black bag in the refuse bin to check if it has recyclables in it.

But in answer to the number of bins and what different councils will recycle, that question will in the very near future become irrelevant because the machinery that is now being used in some place is capable of making that decision so the public can just chuck everything they thing is recyclable into the one recycle bin.
The short-term answer is to start charging people by the weight of their general waste bins on collection. Easy enough to fit a scale to the lift on the truck.
 
Not understanding this. We have one recycle wheelie bin and one refuse bin. Anything recyclable (or think it might be recyclable goes in the recycle bin. The recycle plants are very clever and their machines separate the glass from the tin from plastics from the cards. Simple Nos for the recycle bin is no carrier bags or film. Everything else goes in. There should not be any need for 7 bins or multiple bins. Just the one.

And even with that system in Lincoln of one bin I know a few people that still proudly announce "f*** that. It all goes in the the black bin." There really are people out there who could not give a flying .... and will never separate even though the council states that it will refuse to empty people's bins if they aren't following the rules. The council is not going to open up each black bag in the refuse bin to check if it has recyclables in it.

But in answer to the number of bins and what different councils will recycle, that question will in the very near future become irrelevant because the machinery that is now being used in some place is capable of making that decision so the public can just chuck everything they thing is recyclable into the one recycle bin.

Why don’t you recycle film or bags?
 
Why don’t you recycle film or bags?

EDIT: Before I answer what you meant here. I do recycle carrier bags. I use them again and again and again. When they are broke though moves into what you meant:

Carrier bags and film because I remember reading it on a sticker once when they slapped stickers on each bin. I would suggest that also they don't want people bagging up the recyclables, so want it all loose. I have also known a mate post up on facebook a picture of this bin content moaning that he got home with a notice attached to his bin. He thought everything was fine but got a long list of people that commented "you have left the lids on the bottles."

That is right, they refused to empty his recycle bin into the bin lorry because bottles had lids on!!

This is from the council site. first time I've looked on the site. I just go by the sticker that used to be on and if its plastic, paper, tin or glass it goes in the bin. It isn't hard to follow that rule. Clothes or textiles go in the charity bins at the Fire station.

Carrier bags/thin Plastic
Carrier bags and thin soft plastic that looks similar such as bread bags and food wrapping, (not cling film) is poor quality plastic which is hard to recycle. It is almost worthless to recycling processors however in large quantities (for example when collected separately at Lincoln tip/recycling centre) it can be worthwhile.

Bottle tops (Plastic and metal)
These can be recycled but we ask for them to be removed from their container before binning as they are often a different type of material - and removal will have to be done by hand at the sorting facility.
 
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EDIT: Before I answer what you meant here. I do recycle carrier bags. I use them again and again and again. When they are broke though moves into what you meant:

Carrier bags and film because I remember reading it on a sticker once when they slapped stickers on each bin. I would suggest that also they don't want people bagging up the recyclables, so want it all loose. I have also known a mate post up on facebook a picture of this bin content moaning that he got home with a notice attached to his bin. He thought everything was fine but got a long list of people that commented "you have left the lids on the bottles."

That is right, they refused to empty his recycle bin into the bin lorry because bottles had lids on!!

This is from the council site. first time I've looked on the site. I just go by the sticker that used to be on and if its plastic, paper, tin or glass it goes in the bin. It isn't hard to follow that rule. Clothes or textiles go in the charity bins at the Fire station.

Carrier bags/thin Plastic
Carrier bags and thin soft plastic that looks similar such as bread bags and food wrapping, (not cling film) is poor quality plastic which is hard to recycle. It is almost worthless to recycling processors however in large quantities (for example when collected separately at Lincoln tip/recycling centre) it can be worthwhile.

Bottle tops (Plastic and metal)
These can be recycled but we ask for them to be removed from their container before binning as they are often a different type of material - and removal will have to be done by hand at the sorting facility.

Film and bags can be recycled. So many councils say not to though which is a shame.
 
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The argument is the wrong way round. Growing more trees and plants absorbs more CO2 and produces more oxygen, but what is actually happening is that the rain forests, the lungs of the planet, are being systematically destroyed and not replaced with equivalent amounts of chlorophyll-bearing plants. The other major source of oxygen, the blue-green algae in the oceans, is also being systematically destroyed by pollutants.

If we cleaned up the oceans and planted a few billion trees it would at least be a start.

The idea that the world is being deforested just isn't true. The forested areas of the world are increasing. https://www.independent.co.uk/envir...ion-farming-rainforests-forests-a8486096.html

All this goes to show that it's never quite as simple as it's made out.

Vin
 
I agree. But that doesn't alter the fact that the world isn't being deforested.

Vin
My point was the rain forests are being destroyed, and they are, at an ever-increasing rate. In a lot of places the cleared land is used to farm cattle, which creates methane, an even worse greenhouse gas than CO2, in that plants don’t absorb it.

Talking of methane, the more the permafrost warms up, the more trapped methane is released into the atmosphere, which accelerates the warming. This is why we are reaching the point of no return if something isn’t done soon to halt emissions.
 
Not at all. I was arguing against deniers but then a greenie started arguing about plants not using CO2 which then sort of fell straight into their hands.

I would however suggest that cutting down forests to grow bio-fuel is sort of counter productive seeing as those forests would have helped (how much I don't know) remove some of that CO2.

CO2 doesn't give us more plants. But more plants use more CO2. They don't work in a circle like that. Plants grow faster. Maybe they produce more seeds? I can't say but I would go on a theory of one tree produces the same amount of seeds and thus more CO2 doesn't give us more plants.

I knew you weren’t
Just sounded like it
 
The idea that the world is being deforested just isn't true. The forested areas of the world are increasing. https://www.independent.co.uk/envir...ion-farming-rainforests-forests-a8486096.html

All this goes to show that it's never quite as simple as it's made out.

Vin
Those trees are in Tundra's, basically the north Russian wastelands and North Canada. You're comparing a light cover of trees with dense jungle over land that's been made fertile through millennia with a cycle of grown and decomposition vs a spattering of trees over a larger area.

Basically:

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It will take a looong time for the soil in the north to become as rich as in the South American jungles and be able to support the same level of foliage.

The worst part is that as the deforested jungle is being replaced with farmland, the fertility of the soil is being used up and without trees to hold the soil, washed away.
so the Amazon won't easily regrow either.
 
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I'm not disagreeing with you at all about the impact of climate change. I never have and I never will.

It's an odd world. You point out that, factually, something isn't the way it's popularly portrayed and you run the risk of being jumped on as a heretic who has your facts wrong.

And the reason it's important is that if you don't know the true facts about the world then it's easy either to sink into despair and decide that nothing can be done or demand action in the wrong areas. Facts matter.

I've been watching as someone who I know knows a tad about the impact of plastics on CO2 outputs and about recycling plastics has been told he's wrong. I'm now being told that, despite a major scientific journal (Nature) printing a peer-reviewed article (https://www.nature.com/articles/s41586-018-0411-9) whose headline conclusion is that forest cover has increased by 7% in 34 years that that's wrong as well.

Not everything is exclusively good or bad. Understand that we can both be increasing the output of CO2 in a reckless manner that threatens the future of the planet and increasing forest cover. One doesn't preclude the other, and stating that one is true does not means you're denying that the other one is true.

Vin
 
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I'm not disagreeing with you at all about the impact of climate change. I never have and I never will.

It's an odd world. You point out that, factually, something isn't the way it's popularly portrayed and you run the risk of being jumped on as a heretic who has your facts wrong.

And the reason it's important is that if you don't know the true facts about the world then it's easy either to sink into despair and decide that nothing can be done or demand action in the wrong areas. Facts matter.

I've been watching as someone who I know knows a tad about the impact of plastics on CO2 outputs and about recycling plastics has been told he's wrong. I'm now being told that, despite a major scientific journal (Nature) printing a peer-reviewed article (https://www.nature.com/articles/s41586-018-0411-9) whose headline conclusion is that forest cover has increased by 7% in 34 years that that's wrong as well.

Not everything is exclusively good or bad. Understand that we can both be increasing the output of CO2 in a reckless manner that threatens the future of the planet and increasing forest cover. One doesn't preclude the other, and stating that one is true does not means you're denying that the other one is true.

Vin
I'm not saying your fact is wrong I'm saying its misleading and was clarifying.

The final line from from that study;
That "greening," however, masks the ecological impacts of replacing diverse natural landscapes with monoculture crops. So while Earth may presently have more trees than 35 years ago, the study confirms that some of its most productive and biodiverse biomes—especially tropical forests and savannas—are significantly more damaged and degraded, reducing their resilience and capacity to afford ecosystem services.

so they felt the need to point it out as well.


Remember that the carbon is stored in the plants themselves and there's significantly less mass of plantlife in the same amount of space in a boreal, or even temperate forest like the New Forest, than a tropical rainforest.

Having read that study now one thing i will say is while it confirms what i said about tree gain in Russia and North America, apparently China are doing really good job of planting trees.
 
Not understanding this. We have one recycle wheelie bin and one refuse bin. Anything recyclable (or think it might be recyclable) goes in the recycle bin. The recycle plants are very clever and their machines separate the glass from the tin from plastics from the cards. Simple Nos for the recycle bin is no carrier bags or film. Everything else goes in. There should not be any need for 7 bins or multiple bins. Just the one.

Even with that system in Lincoln of one bin I know a few people that still proudly announce "f*** that. It all goes in the the black bin." There really are people out there who could not give a flying .... and will never separate, even though the council states that it will refuse to empty people's bins if they aren't following the rules. The council is not going to open up each black bag in the refuse bin to check if it has recyclables in it.

But in answer to the number of bins and what different councils will recycle, that question will in the very near future become irrelevant, because the machinery that is now being used in some places is capable of making that decision so the public can just chuck everything they think is recyclable into the one recycle bin.
This is exactly the kind of thing I was writing for FLT to take a gander at. There are 7 different categories of plastic waste. Ideally each should go in separate bins as putting them in together devalues or renders them uneconomincal or useless. Which means the system of recycling we have at present is inadequate, especially as we have a significant proprotion of the public who say 'f*** that' to any form of recycling. This is a societal problem. We ask the most uneducated and/or poorest to be responsible citizens whilst we've been screwing them down for eveything else all their lives. No wonder they can't be bothered to be responsible. If you were ignorant you possibly wouldn't and maybe me neither.
This problem cannot be ignored and has to be solved. Sweeping it under the carpet and hoping nobody will notice will simply not do. The environment has been the most important subject for the last 30+ years only very few people realised it. We've run out of time. It's time to realise it. I can't make it any plainer. There are no more excuses.
 
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Not sure having 7? Recycling bins will be an answer. We have 4 which is easy enough but can’t imagine the need for 7.