More to read

Much more to read on last post now.

China talks about a greener future

http://news.bbc.co.uk/1/hi/world/asia-pacific/5192376.stm

One of the problems with China's economic growth has been the amount of pollution that has come from it. It's not just a global problem affecting climate change but it's caused a lot of problems at home as well.

Bit like in the early days of industrial growth in this country.

There were still problems upto the the last years of the 1950s until the Clean Air Act (1956) became law. This was in response to the smog that enveloped London in 1952 and killed thousands of people. About 4,000 people died from the effects of the smog while it was there and it's estimated that around another 8,000 died as a result of it in the months that followed though no-one really knows just how many people died prematurely as a result of it.

Article about the smog

(smog is a word that comes from combining smoke and fog)


http://www.portfolio.mvm.ed.ac.uk/studentwebs/session4/27/greatsmog52.htm

There was a lesser problem in 1991 but it wasn't on the scale of the old smogs. This happened because of the increase in traffic in the city. And there were two more times when pollution in London was recorded as being very problematic.

http://www.londonair.org.uk/london/asp/information.asp?view=howbad


How will the traffic tax affect the pollution in London

(a nice article from Australia with an environmental outlook)

http://www.abc.net.au/rn/science/earth/stories/s1057768.htm

http://www.chemistry.org/portal/a/c/s/1/feature_pol.html?id=c373e9ff775b76088f6a17245d830100

And, ofcourse, there's now catalytic converters to help with pollution and greener fuel which are more widely used.

http://auto.howstuffworks.com/catalytic-converter1.htm


It's a good thing that China's doing this, not just for the obvious benefits but it'll also keep the fact that pollution is affecting the climate of the planet with the results that are showing now in the public eye.

Climate change "real and severe"

I was going to write something in one of my other blogs this morning but I pulled this one up so here I am back with the environment.

Climate change "real and severe"

http://news.bbc.co.uk/1/hi/sci/tech/5150816.stm


You know what has always amazed me is that it is accepted (by the majority) that the holes in the ozone layer were/are caused by our activity here on the planet but some people seemed to think that we could carry on pumping carbon and other chemicals into the environment without causing any negative changes in some spheres.

When I first started writing about it here, long after being interested, I said that I thought there would be surprises on the way as far as the progression of the climate change in action. And that has turned out the way it is. Some things are becoming clearer but there obviously will be further surprizes away from conventional thought.

The good thing I guess is that more people are becoming more aware that there is a real problem.

Ayaan Hirsi Ali update

Ayaan Hirsi Ali left The Netherlands for the US saying she was sorry that the government had resigned.

I just don't feel that way at all. They withdrew the security protection she'd had for several years because of the citizenship dispute. It was handled so badly when it was dealing with someone who had already stated the facts years before.

Withdraw someone's passport and question their citizenship and it seems they are not to be given protection when they have been under threat for years with a collegue who has been murdered and when they are a prominent political figure.

I think the resignation was justified.

Back in 2001

http://news.bbc.co.uk/1/hi/world/americas/1375089.stm

Actually Mr Bush has involved the American public in climate change since he started to believe that it is actually happening and that some factors are down to some of what we're doing. And he's given out more general information about what people can be doing about it than we've been given over here.

The president commissioned a report from the National Academy of Sciences which is a private company which works with the US government. The Academy found that evidence pointed to the fact that there was a very good chance that climate change is happening at the moment in tandem with and as a result of human activity.

There are difficulties I suppose in that it is difficult to know what the weather would be like without all the carbon in the atmosphere and other global problems like the hole in the ozone layer.

(which is still there by the way and not getting smaller in any seemingly permanent way despite it looking as if it might have been shrinking for a year). The change could have been due to different wind patterns as the winds carry ozone.

Reports from a few hours ago

When reading these articles it is worth remembering that these gases take years to reach the ozone layer and that is why there aren't immediate results from banning them.

http://news.com.com/2061-11204_3-6090340.html

http://www.ens-newswire.com/

http://www.ens-newswire.com/ens/jun2006/2006-06-30-05.asp

Slightly off topic ... but ... awww ... look

http://www.ens-newswire.com/ens/jun2006/2006-06-26-02.asp


It is strange to read that there is a new though smaller hole appearing over the Artic too because I read a couple of months ago that the ozone layer was improving everywhere around the planet apart from over the Antartic.

I suppose it is possible that there is some kind of difference at the two poles which appears to be halting the improvement that was seen elsewhere at lower latitudes.



The hole in the ozone layer

http://www.dnr.wi.gov/org/caer/ce/eek/earth/air/ozonlayr.htm

http://news.bbc.co.uk/cbbcnews/hi/sci_tech/newsid_2266000/2266608.stm


What will happen to the hole in the ozone layer should be easier to predict, though there will be more variables now due to climate change and differences in the winds etc, than what is going to happen due to climate change overall.

Surprizes are happening all the time, though some changes and effects are becoming more noticeable now.

Summer ......

Well, have been out enjoying the summer. I guess for years I was interested in the science behind the change in the environment. As I've mentioned before what is happening now was predicted at the end of the 19th century by British scientists. But now I accept that it's happening and I'm not sure what will have to happen before any real notice is taken of the situation.

It's not a situation that's going to be easy to change. If it was just dealing with environmental change then I guess that we'd all be being encouraged to get out there and really do something. Unfortunately climate change doesn't just stand alone. The factors that are causing it are tied in with the economy and commerce. Even then it's not a situation where big buisness is out there just devastating the earth for pure profit.

The economy provides things like schools, health care and other services, in different variables depending where you live. It also provides the money for security both in a national and a world sense. Countries are afraid of losing their place in the global economy.

On top of that some people don't believe that it's happening. In one country where creationalist doctrines are pushed the feeling is among a lot of people that if it is happening that "God" will save the planet.

....... so, er, carry on destroying it I suppose.

Even if people don't agree with this view having it pushed at you by influential people tends to water down the impact.

I think the only thing that people can do is to talk about things like carbon emissions and the effect they have on the planet and things like that. Explain the simple science. There have been a few variables which made it look as if there was a chance that at one point in the warming procedure that conditions right at the edge of the planet's atmosphere might produce enough of a cooling effect to sort things out to some degree. But there are reasons why this is unlikely to happen and if it did it would be too late anyway.

I think an understanding has to be out there in society but that awareness has to involve the commercial realities and the way they affect society and global connections.

The environment

Someone came up to me a couple of weeks ago in Birmingham and asked if I wasn't interested in the environment anymore.

Well, I am. Things continue much the same though. People are saying that carbon emissions targets aren't going to be met.

Goes off to find at least one link

Ah, here, from yesterday

http://news.bbc.co.uk/1/hi/sci/tech/5121334.stm?ls

I just haven't really felt like kind of pulling it all apart and talking about what's going on like I used to a blog or so ago.