Plantation-style forestry like that found in the US is much less efficient as a sink because the harvesting carbon cost is amortized across a much more frequent harvest cycle.
This comment breaks the site guidelines. Would you please review them and stick to them while posting here? We're trying to avoid this sort of low-quality, off-topic subthread.
Note that they include: "Eschew flamebait. Don't introduce flamewar topics unless you have something genuinely new to say. Avoid unrelated controversies and generic tangents."
Edit: Damn. I think OP was being sarcastic. A quick look through the comment history shows a different view than the one expressed in the comment. I removed the downvote.
---Original comment---
Here's why I downvoted you:
- It doesn't matter if the water is clean or dirty because that's not what's causing climate change.
- The United States was the second largest emitter of carbon dioxide in 2015. CO2 is a leading cause of climate change.
- The term "bigly" is often used by people who are proud of their ignorance. Ignorance isn't something to be proud of.
To be fair the only real giveaway was "bigly", which was subtle. Otherwise I've heard people try to make this exact argument. "Well the air isn't all smoggy so I don't know what you all are so worried about."
Should get international politicans to use their nation's climate virtue as a beating stick. No need to manufacture other kinds of outrage since climate atrocity is in plentiful supply.
The parent comment was of course sarcastic. However, your trip savvy list is seven countries long.
The US does not have the best tap water in the world, I think everyone here can guess that already. It does have extremely safe tap water overall however, save for a few examples like Flint (and fracking regions in West Texas or Oklahoma, both of which get bad ratings on water violations). Its rate of serious drinking water violations is low nationally going back over the last 20-30 years.
Right now it does. Major financial/political interests are seeking to gut the laws that got us the cleanest water and air in order to make more money for themselves.
The air in the US is in fact as clean as Western Europe. Comparing it to individual smaller nations, then I'm sure there are many examples that are cleaner. Comparing the US to larger population regions however it does compare very well to the best.
