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Nanotech Gone Awry?
westcoaster004 writes "Chemical and Engineering News is reporting what appears to be 'the first recall of a nanotechnology-based product' due to health risks associated with it. The recall of 'Magic Nano' spray, which is for use on glass and ceramic surfaces to make them repel dirt and water, comes after at least 77 people in Germany contacted regional poison control centers after experiencing illness after using the product. The German Federal Institute for Risk Assessment has also issued a warning." Relatedly dolphin558 writes "There is an interesting story in the Washington Post on the unknown dangers facing employees of nanotechnology firms. The jury is still out on whether traditional HAZMAT safeguards are suitable when handling nanomaterials, many of which can be harmful. Research into potential workplace hazards is beginning to ramp up as the industry and government become more aware of this issue."
it is because it allowed those huge developing nations to ALSO "reject" kyoto, as in burn all the crap coal they want, no scrubbers, etc, while other nations had to do massive clean air hoop jumping..WTF was that???? Pretty darn easy to sign on to thing if you don't have to follow the same rules as the other signees.
It is a good idea to come to a world wide consensus on pollution in general, very few people would disagree on that, but kyoto was a bad design for that goal. People didn't reject the idea, they rejected that particular implementation of that idea.
And let's go even simpler and directly to the main point, china has more than enough "trade advantage" now,they don't need ANY hand holding to develop their manufacturing capacity and "drag themselves up by the bootstraps". That's why you saw almost total rejection of it in the US senate, even the most dedicated of environmental senators could see through that particular scam, it was just lame.
The US has gone pretty far with enviro regs in the last 25 years, not that we can't do better, we are WAY ahead of a boatload of other nations in that regard, and another cubic boatload of R&D for alternative energy and whatnot is going on here, from new cool battery tech to solar to wind projects to even "clean coal" tech where they leave the coal underground and just extract the methane, which leaves most of the bad stuff in situ. It's not perfect, but the US gets a bad rap which is mostly underserved with that kyoto disaster.
We have crippled our economy enough from kow towing to second and third world nations so they can "develop", we run trade imbalances larger than a lot of entire nations GDP, if that isn't enough for them to "develop", then I say bring back huge tariffs and let those places see how they like it that way again. We aren't going to cripple our economy any longer, that is a recognized "man in the street" notion now.
I am fully in favor of conservation, alternative energy, clean air and water, etc, but enough is enough on the US bashing on this subject, if you actually look to see what we do over second and third world posturing their arguments are a lot of hot air. Let them clean up their own crap before they start pointing fingers. I could go down a huge list of large second and third world cities where their air pollution is SO bad that you can't hardly see down the block, no US city is that bad any longer, and that's because we have been cleaning up our act, slowly but surely. But we can't do it if our economy collapses from subsidising THE REST OF THE PLANET just to say we "signed on" to some treaty.