With respect to rescue divers.
The main reason why they jump feet first is because a dive from say 5 meters, would result is serious damage to their face.
Divers ware masks that have a nice flat surface on the front, the impact would compress the air in the mask to an extend where bruising...
Aren't the burning coal layers in China the biggest source of Co2 in the world?
But then again, you really can't do much about that.
But true, The US could cut down a bit on fuel consumption.
There are several problems around (drinking water) in europe and the US.
One of the problems is the location of useable freshwater.
In the US for instance LA (or that what my memory tells me, could be San Fransisco, if i´m not mistaken there is a tread about it on the forum already) has a vast...
On the area of oceanograpy i´d suggest: "Invitation to Oceanography" by Paul R. Pinet. It covers the basics of oceanography and it proved quite usefull to me during the first and second year for me.
I´m more into the management side of it all but it´s a fine place to start and easy accesible...
-=Catastrophic; Life as we know it will change fundamentally=-
Why?
I don´t see humanity change over the next 500 odd years to a species that will look further into the future than say 10 years (talking about humanity as a whole, not the <10% that actually uses its brain for more than...