Pictures of Kuril Islands Volcano From ISS 65
KindMind writes "The Daily Mail has cool pictures of the Sarychev Peak (Kuril Islands) volcano eruption taken from the ISS back on June 12. From the article: 'A chance recording by astronauts on the International Space Station has captured the moment a volcano explosively erupted, sending massive shockwaves through the atmosphere. Sarychev Peak, one of the most active volcanoes in the world, had been sitting quietly in the Kuril Island chain near Japan for 20 years, when it suddenly sprang to life on June 12. Fortuitously, the International Space Station was flying overhead at the time, and managed to capture this spectacular image of the ash-cloud tearing through the atmosphere, sending clouds scattering in its wake in a perfect circle.'"
Re:Yay greenhouse! (Score:2, Insightful)
Because, on a per country basis, or a per energy-usage basis, let alone a per capita basis, China and India pollute far, far less than the US. Even if China and India tripled their pollution output, on a per-capita basis they would pollute only a small fraction of the amount of pollution per capita that the US would be spewing after conforming to the Kyoto requirements.
Re:Yay greenhouse! (Score:2, Insightful)
Sigh. Yes. Because we (the industrialized countries) have already been at it for ~200 years, have created the great majority of the human-generated CO2 that is in the atmosphere currently, and, logically, we should be the ones to move first on solutions. Upon successfully meeting the initial goals, the plan was for India and China (among other countries) to be held to the same standard, because we can then say "See? It can be done." If we sit back and do nothing, then why shouldn't they proceed to do exactly the same thing we already did for a couple of centuries? The point is: they have ZERO reason to be held to any standard at all, because neither were we for all of that time. They want to do what we did, how can we possibly say "No, you can't do that." However, if we can change, then they can too, and they have no excuse.
If you read the Kyoto Accord, you can find the rationale for the approach taken. It was never intended to be the final agreement, or that developing countries would be off the hook FOREVER. All I hear are people whining about how countries like India and China don't have to do anything. Duh. Neither did we. The level of misunderstanding about this point is amazing. It's like telling the latecomers to a party that they can't have the same amount of pizza that you've been stuffing in your gut for hours, and that you're still consuming faster than ever. The Kyoto Accord is a bargain along the lines of "Look, yes, so far I've been wolfing down pizza as fast as I can get it, but I'll show you I can cut back to 2 slices of pizza an hour, and then isn't it reasonable to expect you do to the same?"
Of course, none of it is likely to happen now, so we're probably going to have to be content with whatever impact will result as developing countries proceed with little or no restraints at all. So much for the pizza.