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I've been on holiday this week, though because of two furry things, I don't go away, except the odd day trip. I did two this week, one to Portsmouth and the other to Bath.
All in all the weather has been the worst I can remember for a summer. June was the wettest on record, and July seems intent on beating it. Parts of Devon, the next county over from me, had a month's rain in 24 hours, I think we must have been close behind because it tipped down all day. I did go out because I wanted my Guardian for the weekend and I got some more furry food, although they'd just as soon eat mine.
I watched the TdF again and the sunshine there made me envious, it was still raining outside albeit less hard than earlier. I've ridden a bike twice - to go shopping. Tomorrow we have a ride, but half the roads we use will be under H2O.
The scientists keep on about climate change and global warming. Well I try to do my bit and use the bike instead of the car when I can, but the weather seems intent on preventing me doing that. As for the global warming bit, we've had the coldest summer since the ice age as well as the wettest, so I'd like to put in an official complaint about that too.
I'm way behind with my riding, as I don't ride in the wet unless it starts after I have, because I get cramp and aches and pains later on.
Okay, my grumbles are minuscule compared to the people who drowned in Russia with the flooding there, or the dozens who were killed in the States with the storms the other week. If the scientists are correct and we are in danger of drowning or dehydrating depending upon where we live, why aren't we doing something about reducing the CO2 and other greenhouse gasses instead of just pissing about with conferences that achieve bugger all.
For those of you wondering who are the main offenders: (from wiki)
Motor vehicle emissions are one of the leading causes of air pollution.[12][13][14] China, United States, Russia, Mexico, and Japan are the world leaders in air pollution emissions. Principal stationary pollution sources include chemical plants, coal-fired power plants, oil refineries,[15] petrochemical plants, nuclear waste disposal activity, incinerators, large livestock farms (dairy cows, pigs, poultry, etc.), PVC factories, metals production factories, plastics factories, and other heavy industry. Agricultural air pollution comes from contemporary practices which include clear felling and burning of natural vegetation as well as spraying of pesticides and herbicides[16]
About 400 million metric tons of hazardous wastes are generated each year.[17] The United States alone produces about 250 million metric tons.[18] Americans constitute less than 5% of the world's population, but produce roughly 25% of the world’s CO2,[19] and generate approximately 30% of world’s waste.[20][21] In 2007, China has overtaken the United States as the world's biggest producer of CO2,[22] while still far behind based on per capita pollution - ranked 78th among the world's nations.[23]
Now, where do I complain?
Comments
You can complain where-ever you like...
The problem is it doesn't do much good. I hope that letting it all out at least provides a little comfort to you.
with love,
Hope
Once in a while I bare my soul, more often my soles bear me.
Don't worry China will catch up
Their population is still growing and with better living standards they are going to grow exponentially in terms of waste disposal as well as energy consumption. As for the US, don't know, if the Republicans get to rule totally then we are in for trouble. Part of US energy consumption is due to sheer size of the place and the need for travel. As far as hazardous waste goes, I suspect part of it is disposal of hazardous imports and heavy industry of course. The latter is not likely to go up due to our manufacturing base not really increasing. Manufacturing jobs just are not increasing so I suspect the likelihood of US increasing industrial pollution less so, and should stay pretty much even, I think.
I recall at one time Britain had those pea soup fogs due to their own industrialization and they caused a tremendous number of deaths too.
Kim
Disposal problem
The main problem with hazardous waste is disposing of it. There is no piece of ground, no desert so remote and so worthless that there isn't somebody crying "NO!" That has to be settled, and soon.
We also need to handle our regular waste better, instead of literally burying the problem for future generations. Any petroleum-based waste can be recycled or reused in some form or fashion. Instead of the piece-meal fashion currently used, we need large scale recycling. While our highway system is crumbling apart due to lack of funding for maintenance and repairs, the railroads have been quietly overhauling both track and equipment at their own expense. The passenger system may be a joke, but the freight system is second to none. Imagine everybodies' waste gathered into railcars and sent to a regional recycling plant. There it would be processed and handled appropriately. Out the other end would come clean electric power, raw materials for manufacturing, and CNG to power vehicles. And if it did nothing else at all, it would stop all this trash from buried in the ground. That alone has to be a major win for the environment!
"Life is not measured by the breaths you take, but by the moments that take your breath away.”
George Carlin
Fusion/fission, I can never get the right of it.
I recently read that the EU is planning on having a nuclear power plant on line, not the Hiroshima one but the other one, cold fusion or what ever one calls it. Those pushing those explorations say that a tiny appliance about the size of a dishwasher could soon power a whole house and if a house, then easily cars, boats and trains.
Apparently the waste products are minor and not radioactive. They say that by 2025 it will be working.
If they do get it working they make sure it's deemed.
Illegal and unsafe in North America.
Bailey Summers
Complain?
To Wikipedia, of course! It's their entry!
Seriously, I agree that there is global climate change in progress, I'm just not in line with the idea that mankind has caused it all. The scale of climate-changing events is far vaster than our puny efforts to affect.
1) Our star - the Sun or Sol - is a minor variable star. The degree of variability is around plus/minus 5% as I recall. The output is up about a half-percent and a half-percent is a whole shitload of energy! Usually the earth (Sol 3) is protected from the worst effects by the magnetic field surrounding the planet. That magnetic field, which funnels a lot of the solar energy safely around us, is created by the earth's magnetic field, which leads us to #2.
2) Some of you may already be aware that the earth's magnetic filed is not aligned with the planet's rotation. The Earth's magnetic north pole is actually up in Canada. What fewer of you may know is that the mag. north pole is moving, creeping erratically westward and weakening. Geologic samples have confirmed that on previous occasions the north and south magnetic poles have actually changed places, and at least once the field has disappeared completely. Scientists who specialize in this sort of thing theorize that this may indeed be getting ready to happen again. Their fear is that if the weakening and/or disappearance should occur at the same time as a major solar eruption happens, disaster could overwhelm the planet.
I think it is fairly obvious that there's a pretty big hand stirring the pot, one that we have no control over. Our puny efforts are worthless. All we can do is act as if there will continue to be tomorrows, and clean-up our mess as best we can.
Note: all the above is gleaned from various scientific journals and NASA reports, but I don't have citations to support it. NASA alone should have a whole buttload of papers, along with NASA JPL and other scientific agencies and groups. After all, haven't you wondered why all the interest lately in keeping at least one satellite in solar orbit to continuously observe the Sun?
PS: A, it always rains in England! I'm ever amazed that the UK has not developed a economical hybrid car/boat for use by the general public! Or at least an amphibious taxi for London.
"Life is not measured by the breaths you take, but by the moments that take your breath away.”
George Carlin
Not all negative
On the plus side, global warming may not all be all bad. Some scientists have calculated that the Earth was due to slide back into another ice age when the industrial revolution saved us all from having to buy snow shovels.
BTW, no reputable scientists are saying that mankind is the sole cause of climate change. It would not be scientific to make such a claim because it isn't testable. It's useless to argue against a point no one is making and it makes one look like one is protesting too much. But it only stands to reason that if people keep pissing in the swimming pool, sooner or later it's going to be obvious who is doing it.
Climate change is real, and human behavior is likely a very large component of what is causing it. Quite large probably, because many other trends were the other way before human production of CO2 really began to have an impact. Puny we may be but we are making a big change in the amount of CO2 in the air and we've had a few centuries to do it in.
Hugs,
Erin
= Give everyone the benefit of the doubt because certainty is a fragile thing that can be shattered by one overlooked fact.
Actually Erin
I run into the "evil man is solely responsible" all the time among the Global Warming activists I encounter both in person and elsewhere on the interwebz. It is a point that is being made by Global Warming Fundies, and even if the facts don't support them they are making it loudly. It's not a straw dog argument. I have started pointing out other issues simply because I'm tired of being told how evil I am.
And yes, I acknowledge that mankind has a lot to answer for. My mother used to tell me how bad the air was in St. Louis when she was growing up, since everybody burned coal in some form or fashion. We, H. Sapiens, have a long way to go to clean up our messes and the longer we wait, the worse it will be. But the thinking that this is all we need is ignoring the facts. Some scientists are even now trying to figure out how to put a bit of particulate matter back into the upper atmosphere as a way of shielding us from the sun's increased output.
Piecemeal efforts are not going to do the job long term. A planet-wide accord needs to be reached regarding all the facts, and what needs to be done to protect us and improve our planet.
"Life is not measured by the breaths you take, but by the moments that take your breath away.”
George Carlin
Scientists
Fundies of all stripes can be ignored when displaying ignorance. Arguing with those people is a waste of time. Scientists don't say those things. :)
But again, what thinking that this is all we need? I have NEVER heard that argument from anyone. Maybe I keep company with a smarter group of morons. :)
As far as efforts to reach a planet wide accord go, ain't gonna happen while people are still arguing about who made which hyperbolic statement. People who have money invested in the burning of fossil fuels and clearing off forests and raising livestock are going to fight it all the way. So pointing out that some people who are arguing for needing worldwide action have their heads up their asses as far as the details of why is counter productive to solving the real problem.
Hugs,
Erin
= Give everyone the benefit of the doubt because certainty is a fragile thing that can be shattered by one overlooked fact.
"Human" production of CO2
Quite a bit of "our" production of CO2 is caused by things like cattle and sheep and pigs and chickens, which we've protected and cultivated to the point that they vastly exceed the normal carrying capacity of entire continents.
In general, living things of all sorts can create tremendous changes in the Earth's environment, including human beings and termites.
For example, bacteria alone were responsible for the conversion of the Earth's atmosphere from one dominated by CO2 and methane into one in which oxygen was present, resulting in the Archean Expansion of more complex lifeforms, and the extinction of many forms of anaerobic bacteria, with the culmination of this complex interaction of innovations being a little less than three billion years ago, in the Great Oxidation Event.
Saying that these are natural cycles, so we shouldn't worry, is something like the cyanobacteria agreeing amongst themselves that the development of multicellular lifeforms was nothing to worry about, since this was all part of a "natural cycle." Natural cycles include mass extinctions and devastating changes in the climate of the Earth itself, including periods in which the Earth was probably covered with ice from pole to pole.
The history of the Earth is punctuated with numerous "tipping points" during which everything changed drastically, all at once, and if I were worried about the long-term survival of human beings, I'd be concerned about current trends, which may well be incompatible with same.
What the heck, though. Perhaps the "meek who inherit the dirt" will be the cyanobactia, making themselves a nice little Renaissance.
Cheers,
-
Cheers,
Puddin'
A tender heart is an asset to an editor: it helps us be ruthless in a tactful way.
--- The Chicago Manual of Style
It doesn't always rain here
but then we've had cold winds instead, so the weather is getting more shitty by the week, I hate to think what will happen in three weeks when the five rings lot get going.
While I'm aware of shifts in magnetic fields and reversed polarity etc, there's no evidence to suggest it affects climate, that's more to do with the iron ball in the core whizzing round. As for the sun's output varying, I'm aware of that too. At present it's on low output, it changes every 22 years or something like that. The sunspot activity changes every 7 years, and it's purely a matter of luck which way the eruptions go, come this way we get northern lights and power outtages, plus satellite failures.
What is unprecendented is the rate of change, which is faster than they've found in the core samples of ice and tree rings. That they suggest is man influenced. Apparently one of the worst offenders is livestock farming, cows produce large amounts of methane which is a worse gas than CO2 - however, I still like milk in my tea.
It's still raining here and I'm wondering if I can fix floats to my bike.
Angharad
Rain Fall
On June 24 2012 we had 13 inches of rain in 24 hours thanks to Tropical storm Debbie and the the bugs came.
Rain
Send some of it to the US Midwest its starting to look like the Dustbowl.
-Elsbeth
Is fearr Gaeilge briste, ná Béarla clíste.
Broken Irish is better than clever English.
Back from France
Got in last night. Still drying stuff out. That is from the rain that started just south of Wight...
The Weather is Crazy!
To combat higher CO2, the world can plant more trees/plants to absorb it.
May Your Light Forever Shine
Dear Angie,
Have you heard of the "Ocean Conveyer" or deep ocean conveyer? Warm water from the topics is lighter than the colder water; major surface currents in the North Atlantic and Pacific both move clockwise, maybe due to the coriolis effect. As the warmer water approaches the poles, it cools and sinks, pulling more warm water north and bringing O2 to the depth of the oceans. Anyway, much of Europe is warmed by the gulf stream.
Global warming has been melting hugh amounts of (fresh water) ice around the Arctic Sea, the Greenland ice cap and northern glaciers. All this fresh water dilutes and lightens the ocean salt water so it doesn't sink as fast or pull the ocean conveyer as much. I think I read the the Gulf Stream, or its heat has been reduced something like 50%! There is a prediction that if major global warming happens, like more than a 3° C rise (average world wipe temp) the ocean conveyer will stop.
Anyway, reduction in the heat flow from the gulf stream means NW Europe, especially the British Isles, will cool as the rest of the world warms.
Sorry.
I also bike as much as possible to go somewhere or to shop. I think I've had as much as 90 lbs of food and drink on my steel, 1982, touring bike!
Hugs and Bright Blessings,
Renee
Here in the North-west of England
the weather is, as usual, unpredictable.
According to two forecasts, today was supposed to be torrential rain, like we had for most of last week.
Today turned out to be one of the warmest days we've had all year and we got about a 5 minute 'damp' spell early this evening. Other than that it was a glorious day. I attended an outdoor concert this evening; I am amazed that, only 50 miles away, houses are under water.
What chance a 14 or even 7 day forecast if today where I live bucked the countrywide trend?
Yes, weather patterns are totally different from those that were prevelant when I was much younger; not being a scientist, I have no answers as to why.
S.
Global Warming And "Weather"
I'm not going to get into the whys and wherefores of the causes of global warming, or, as more scientists are labeling it now, "climate change". It's too complex a subject to analyse here (unless it can affect gender!)
What is a fact is that "something" is happening and that "weather" as opposed to "warming" is becoming much more changeable and unpredictable. I believe the UK has had several years of effective drought and earlier this year was catastrophically short of water! Australia has experienced much the same kind of thing, with seven years of drought along the Eastern seaboard being replaced by unceasing torrential rains. Meanwhile, in the West, unprecedented winter storms have just occurred.
So, Angharad, welcome to our climate! "I love a sunburnt country.....a land of flooding rains!" As written in the poem "Said Hanrahan" "We'll all be rooned if the rains don't come" and later, in the same poem "We'll all be rooned if the rains don't stop". "Angharad " bears a certain similarity to "Hanrahan". Are you by some chance related?
In future we'll all have to pack our bikinis, sun-tan lotion and our sou'westers and gumboots when we leave home.
Our Greenies here are fond of repeating the mantra that Australians are the worst polluters "per capita" in the world and we have just been blessed with a "carbon tax" that is either the most progressive in the world or heralds doomsday through economic strangulation, depending which side of the political divide you inhabit.
In my opinion, what we should do...but won't...is act sensibly to reduce our impact on the environment by such means as planting trees (and not cutting them down unnecessarily),imposing increased mileage measures and alternative fuels to our vehicles, cleaning up our power stations, insulating our homes...the list is easy to extrapolate. Dare I mention limiting population growth?
Will that solve the problem? Probably not and we'll just have to adapt to the changes or perish. Now isn't that a happy thought?
Joanne
Too hot!
Yes the weather is crazy! Here in the Great American Heartland, we've just had three days of 100+ degrees heat (Farenheit, that is. In Centigrade its 39 to 40 degrees.) It's crazy.
I don't know if it has anything to do with global warming/climate change, etc. That's the problem with this. Our measurements tell us things like, it's getting hotter, the poles are melting, sea levels are rising (except in North Carolina, where they passed a law banning it. Evidently, they never heard of King Knut!) But, what does that all mean?
Nobody has the foggiest! That's the difference between climate and weather. All that anyone can say is if you live in a dry area, it'll get drier. And, if you live in a wet area, it'll get wetter. That's not much help, is it?
So, it's going to rain in Britain? What's new? My relatives in Scotland joke that a day without some rain is a drought! Not true of course, but we do chuckle about it. And, my relatives in Arizona joke that it's a dry heat. Well, I don't care. When it's 110-degrees F in the shade, it's HOT!!!!
So, enjoy whatever it is that you get. And, get used to it, because the likelihood is that you'll get even more of it. Or, then again, maybe you won't. ;-D)
Red MacDonald