Quote Originally Posted by El Kabong View Post
Quote Originally Posted by TitoFan View Post
As with the other issues, it's the extremists that do the most damage and drive away people who would otherwise be more open to an opposing viewpoint (such as yourself). "Coercion", "non-believers"...... it's all unfortunate nonsense that fanatics indulge in. Punishing people for believing in "X" or "Y"?? Society's REALLY f*cked up. So basically I don't believe in this type of tactic any more than you do.

Let's talk about hurricanes. I live in a hurricane prone area myself, and haven't experienced one since Georges in 1998. But we can't go by how many hurricanes we've personally experienced, but rather look at the frequency of hurricanes period. Hurricane activity tends to be cyclic, but even with that, it's worth looking at any trends within that cyclic activity. You could have cyclic activity that still trends upwards, if looked at statistically. At some point I'll look it up and see for myself whether there is a discernible trend.

Now onto to your other point: energy.

I'm not a fan of electric cars myself. But what's wrong with solar panels? It's basically free energy, there for the taking. Otherwise wasted as it falls on unused land. Why not put some of that land to use with solar panels? The technology has evolved over the years, bringing down the cost..... and I'm sure they'll become more and more practical as time goes on. Wind generators..... meh..... I've got mixed feeling on those. Enormous structures with a significant failure history, and probably not enough bang for the buck. That technology can definitely stand being improved. You mentioned nuclear? Bring it on! You see..... I'm not anti-anything, unless there's a very good reason for it. I think everything should be on the table for discussion.

I'll beat the dead horse here. Objectivity. Not extremism for the sake of being difficult.
I am quite pleased to read your first paragraph here and glad that we can agree on those things.



Hurricanes are tricky and the hubris shown by some in regards to them is laughable (example New Climate Models Predict Hurricane Seasons Years in Advance | Popular Science ). That article actually has links to people who wish to slow or stop Hurricanes and Typhoons altogether....although I live in an area much like you, where Hurricanes nail us like clockwork (typically) there's no way I want for MAN to slow or stop those storms! Hurricanes, although very costly and destructive are a natural occurrence and absolutely VITAL to life in your country as well as where I live. Those storms clean out wetlands, those storms provide much needed water, those storms PROBABLY do a great deal to help aquatic life as well and the ONLY reason for rising costs of hurricanes and lives lost (at least in America) is people have moved to the beach in record numbers and before the "Modern Age" the beach was for vacationing and there were not multi-million dollar structures built there. In regards to predicting the frequency of Hurricanes, maybe that can be done, but predicting landfall is something altogether different and THAT is the important thing as lives, commerce, and infrastructure are at stake.


Energy....Windmills kill scores of birds there's no way around it. They produce little to nothing in regards to energy but they sure kill the fuck out of some birds and bats US windfarms kill 10-20 times more than previously thought | Save the Eagles International.....I love wildlife, I do not wish to see it needlessly destroyed because it makes some crunchy hippy "feel good" about their God damned carbon footprint.

For solar...I'm fine with using solar on the roofs of houses, I'm fine with small amounts of it, but giant "Solar Farms" are not good, they use up a lot of square footage, they make the land unusable for wildlife, and they also cook birds....This Solar Plant Has Been Burning Some Birds To Death. Solar would be a fine way of SUPPLEMENTING energy, but running entire communities off of it? It's ridiculous, costly, ineffective, and has tragic results for nearby wildlife both where the panels are AND where they are made (lots of toxic chemicals in that process).

So for both windmills and solar I'm asking myself....DDT was deemed barbaric for what it supposedly did to bird eggs, albeit while the product in question was saving countless lives from malaria (and could be improving lives by doing away with Zika right now), but the birds needed to be protected and so that invention although bloody brilliant as it was had to be tossed onto the scrap pile of history because birds are important.....so why are wind energy and solar energy still a thing if DDT is no longer allowed to be used? Are those processes not killing enough birds or is the environmental impact more important than the birds? I just don't get it....why is LIFE SAVING (especially in 3rd world countries) DDT reviled and wind and solar energy lifted up as some saving grace? It, like much of the Anthropogenic Global Warming alarmism makes little to no sense at all.



Titofan, I must say, I'm quite happy with your post, very pleased in your thoughtful and measured response. I know I can be heated over many issues and sometimes I just need to vent my frustration, but these last few posts have shown that there is indeed space for discussion and debate here at Saddos and I am very thankful that we were able to share in this debate however small and insignificant it may be viewed on the boxing forum.



I think we would both be surprised at just how much we probably agree on a great many topics, when you get down to it. I'd venture to say if we were discussing these in person over a beer.... we might not resolve the world's problems, but we could probably teach politicians a thing or two about debating issues rationally and logically.

Energy is near and dear to my heart, given my technological leanings. I'll again agree with you on wind turbines, not so much because of the birds (hope that didn't sound heartless).... but I just don't see the benefit outweighing the burden of these large, ghastly things that sometimes break down catastrophically. To some they might look beautiful... but in reality they can be more of a nuisance, taking up precious air space. Never mind birds. Just think what would happen should some kind of aircraft were to invade their space. On solar, it's got to be judiciously used. Granted, taking up acres and acres of usable land to install solar panels might not be the best answer in some cases. And yet, I'm sure there is a lot of uninhabited, desert land that could be put to use in that way. As technology advances, I'm sure solar panels will become cheaper, more efficient, and probably more friendly to the environment. Why not? There are a lot of other energy technologies out there as well. You mentioned nuclear. Mankind's fears aside, I think nuclear is a great alternative. We just need to make sure all the T's are crossed and I's are dotted when it comes to safety. No expense spared, and no shortcuts allowed. But nuclear is highly efficient, and non-polluting. Waste incineration is a pretty good technology as well, which basically shoots two birds with one stone. We generate energy and we get rid or our waste without the need for landfills.

But back to the original point, I think you're slowly getting to know how I really feel about certain topics. I consider myself pretty objective on most of them. And... I think in many instances the real solution lies somewhere in the middle of the extremes. But people get too emotional about issues, and tend to gravitate toward one extreme or the other, which further polarizes the issue and makes finding solutions even more difficult.