Finding the Truth
They say that the devil is in the detail; well the truth is also in the detail. Maybe that is why religious fundamentalists are so opposed to scientific inquiry - they realize that the details that are uncovered will lead us to uncomfortable propositions like for example that the earth is much older than the Bible and Koran claim.
Putting aside religion for a moment, one of the biggest debates currently raging concerns the changing weather patterns that we are experiencing. Rather than making proposal and counter-proposal the better method to proceed is to collect facts. One major source of information about climate change is found in the Arctic Circle. Scientists have been measuring ice levels and other factors for several years now, and from this they can begin to form theories about what is happening to the planet’s climate.
A study by the U.S. Geological Survey (USGS) Alaska Science Center shows that average annual erosion rates of ice along one part of the Beaufort Sea increased from historical levels of about 20 feet per year between the mid-1950s and late-1970s, to 28 feet per year between the late-1970s and early 2000s, to 45 feet per year between 2002 and 2007. The study was published in Geophysical Research Letters. (Source: http://soundwaves.usgs.gov/2009/05/research2.html)
This study clearly shows a speeding up of ice erosion in the Arctic Circle. The results of this increased rate of erosion have been manifold - higher water levels, the loss of cultural sites connected to the Inuit people and the early whaling communities and negative impacts on wildlife habitats. The wider impacts are rising ocean levels leading to loss of coastal areas and the releasing of CO2 frozen in the ice, which if the theory of greenhouses gases causing climate change are correct will lead to a speeding up of the process of the earth becoming warmer.
The theory of greenhouse gases states that certain gases such as CO2, methane, nitrous oxide and chlorofluorocarbons (CFCs) when let off into the atmosphere do not react and form a barrier trapping the solar heat in the atmosphere. As more greenhouse gases are released into the atmosphere so the amount of heat trapped will increase and the earth will warm up.
As I said, the devil is in the detail. There is a lot more to consider. First there are the Himalayas. The mountain range is still rising at 5mm a year. This mountain range increases the overall amount of rain, and rain washes CO2 out of the atmosphere. Secondly, there is the fact that a rise in temperature will actually increase plant growth in many areas and this too will reduce CO2 in the air.
Another pertinent fact is that we are coming out of the last glaciation period that started about 20,000 years. This fact is used by climate-change skeptics to prove that human activity has had no impact on climate change.
That seems unlikely when considering how the rate of greenhouse gases has been exponentially increasing since the start of the industrial revolution in the late Eighteenth Century.
William Ruddiman contests this theory claiming that human activity much earlier disrupted the flow and ebb of glaciers. He dates our impact on the climate to the time when agriculture became a large scale enterprise some 8,000 years ago. This greatly increased greenhouse gas levels speeding up our exit of the last Ice Age.
Prior to this, the cycle of ice ages was determined by Milankovitch cycles. These cycles refer to the changing orbit of the earth around the sun. At points the earth’s orbit is slightly further from the sun, causing the earth to cool down.
This brings us on to the final factor to consider - the sun itself. The sun is a continuous series of atomic explosions. It is constantly in change. Obviously, there have been times in the past when solar flares have caused a heating of the earth’s atmosphere. When the sun burns out we all die. It is our battery.
However, those who claim that it is the sun that is currently causing global warming are wrong. NASA has shown that since 1750 the sun has remained at a nearly constant temperature. Moreover, if the sun was behind global warming they would find higher temperatures in the outer layers of the atmosphere. That has not been the case.
In the end, NASA scientists along with other scientists around the world and the UN insist there is a 90% probability that human activity over the last 250 years has caused the ice erosion in the arctic, the rising water levels and the general increase in temperatures.
The truth comes down to percentages. Those who speak adamantly and dogmatically are not to be trusted. The purpose of www.arcticice.org is to show facets of the truth, to reveal the complexity behind the over-simplified point of view. It is to bring detail to the table, the devil’s advocate, to show we should be cautious in jumping to conclusions. Instead we should look at probabilities, we should look at the history of an idea, we should gain context. The goal is to seek the facts, not to stand still with the present conventional opinions.
Al Gore Has Convinced Me That Global Warming Is A Lie
Al Gore once was the Vice President of The United States. He ran for President and was narrowly defeated by George Bush. From that time on, he has become a very rich man.
How did he do it? If you want to learn how to make money, you should use Al Gore as an example: create controversy about something that might or might not be true and figure out every angle you can to profit from it. I guess it helps a bit if you are famous first though.
Al Gore is now very wealthy because of his books, movie, speaking fees ($175,000 a pop) and other things he has invested in that have all turned to gold. Take a look at the pictures of his house and tell me whether you think he has any ulterior motives in the global warming debate?
Now maybe man does have a thing or two to do with global warming, shrinking arctic ice, and all the other things embroiled in the controversy. I don’t really know. But we all know that there was an ice age and many, many periods in earth’s history where the climate was VERY different from what it is now. No one really disputes that.
So the real question is whether what man may or may not be doing to the environment today will every really matter in the long run. Even if we still were living like cavemen did 1000′s of years ago, the earth may have warmed up on its own. Or it might have cooled. Who knows? The point is, nobody really knows.
Just seeing all the effort Gore has put into his crusade has convinced me that it is all a charade. That’s probably because I never liked Gore in the first place but seeing how pompous he is has convinced me that this whole man made global warming thing is pretty much all a lie.
Using the Sun For Heat
In some sense it is a paradox, we are worried about the sun heating up our planet through global warming. Yet we often fail to utilize the heat of the sun to warm our homes. Instead we burn more fossil fuels to provide a heat that could be generated without power.
That’s one of the main problems with our society and heat – it’s something that is created from nothing. A switch or button and suddenly everything can be warmed up. But we neglect a natural source of heat – the Sun.
Simple concepts like installing solar energy or building our houses in alignment with the Sun on order to capitalize depending on the time of day. Of course if you’re building a new home from scratch it becomes even more important, constructing a home properly can make maximum use of all the ’free heat of the sun’.
It’s also worth trawling the web for other methods to minimize your carbon footprint. For example read up on the subject of thermal mass which is a critical factor in creating an environmentally friendly house. There’s loads of information on this and other green tips on this site - http://www.mylilgreendress.com/
Making changes in conserving heat can bring down your fuel bills very easily. There are lots of new technology available to help you to and the great thing is that it normally saves you money too.
The Enviromental Impact Of Smoking
There is no hiding the fact the effect smoking can have from a health perspective but have you ever considered the impact lighting up a cigarette has on the environment? Many smokers probably don’t, not because they don’t care but because they probably just haven’t considered the impact they can have.
The first thing that has an effect is the pollutants that are found in the smoke itself. There are 4000+ chemicals in tobacco smoke so just consider for a minute if say 1.4 billion people smoke how much of this is being exhaled into the atmosphere!
The second big impact comes from the manufacturing of cigarettes, it is reported that for every three hundred cigarettes produced one tree is used. If you consider that there are approximately 10 million cigarettes sold every minute this is a lot of trees.
The third problem to the environment is the disposal of cigarette butts. These butts are highly toxic and not biodegradable which is a real problem as millions of them are thrown away on a daily basis not only on sidewalks but in waterways world wide. This not only effects the water quality but also causes massive problems to wildlife that mistake the butts for food. To add to the environmental impact these butts have there is also the fire hazards that discarded butts bring in dry weather.
So what can be done about this? It all comes down to quitting smoking or finding an alternative. There are alternatives out there such as the e cigarette were blogs such as www.ecigclick.co.uk cover every aspect of the product as an alternative to cigarette smoking. They have passed the stage of being a ’gimmick’ and are now considered to be a viable option.
The other thing is obviously to quit outright, for anyone that has tried the cold turkey method of quitting this really is easier said than done. One thing is certain ’something’ needs to be done and done now!
Global Warming Chemistry
The Earth is caught between too hot and too cold. At the moment the average temperature for the earth is 15 degrees. Our planet has to balance receiving too much heat from the sun and burning up and giving out too much heat to outer space and freezing. It is known as the Goldilocks Syndrome. The earth is neither too far away from the sun (doesn’t receive enough heat), nor is it too close to the sun (receives too much heat).
The controlling mechanism for controlling the temperature of the earth are gases in the atmosphere that allows visible light to pass through but traps reflective heat energy or infrared light. These gases are water vapor, methane (CH4), carbon dioxide (CO2) and nitrogen oxide (NO), Ozone (O3) and freon (CCl2F2). The latter freons were used in refridgerators until it was discovered that they were getting into the atmosphere and destroying the ozone layer (turning ozone into oxygen) and exposing the surface of the earth to higher levels of UV-B light.
Carbon dioxide is often singled out as the greenhouse gas. We need some carbon dioxide in the atmosphere to trap heat but not too much. Carbon is the basis of organic life. Mammal respiratory systems exhale carbon dioxide. It is also along with water and sunlight vital to plant, tree and algae growth. None of this is as much of a problem as the inorganic carbon involved in burning fossil fuels that is increasing the parts per million count of carbon in the air to levels of no return – where the ice caps will melt, a third of existing land mass will disappear and the weather patterns will change.
One solution to the carbon dioxide problem is to derive an energy system that doesn’t produce CO2 as waste. Hydrogen power produces H2O or water as waste. We are as yet a long way off replacing fossil fuels with hydrogen cells.
The other greenhouse gas is methane. This has lead to speculation that rises in temperature before the industrial revolution must be due to sudden expansion in ruminant farming.
We need to do better accounting of the sinks and sources for green house gases, especially carbon dioxide. The graphic from www.chemistryland.com neatly shows the plus and minuses of carbon in the atmosphere.
New Facts About Global Warming
Do you believe in global warming? If you are on the fence and are unsure about your stance, you are not alone. While a lot of speculation and debate surrounds global warming, many are still concerned. After all, if the predictions are right many coastal residents will be displaced, it will be easier for diseases to spread, and our economy can suffer a huge blow. this is why there have been more and more research in solar enegi and solar collectors. Some of the most recent solar panels are the ones called Sol Energi which is almost twice as effective as the old models as they claim on their website here at Sol Energi. If just 10% of the energi in the US could be generated by solar energi using technology like Sol Energi it would mean a huge reducement of CO2 every year. When it comes to determining if global warming is an issue that you should be concerned about, there are a number of different approaches that you can take. As previously stated, many scientists, meteorologists, and computer generated models, predict that global warming can and will have a profound effect on our planet and the way that we humans live our lives. Over the past century the earth has gotten warmer by approximately 0. When using the internet, you may want to visit the online websites of global warming activists and watch groups. With such a hot topic, it is easy for the facts and statistics to get distorted. While what you find will vary, you are likely to find websites, on both sides that list statistics and facts supporting their viewpoints. Fast nuclear reactors are a smaller and safer version of the typical reactor. Speaking of documentaries, two well known documentaries that cover global warming and one of the two is enlightening.
The concern of whether global warming is according to the sound technology or indeed is a scam may come down to the point that the concept is a little bit of both.
People also start to concern the degree of any offer to restrain temperatures rising that comes out due to the point that Indian and Chinese suppliers will not likely indication on to any such offer. There are nations that are having a problem on global warming and they are now seeking for any good idea or solution on this problem. Our climate has really a big effect on our daily lives and for survival and that is why we have to take care of our environment.
Simplicity, Science and Wine
We’ve talked a bit in this space before about some of the unintended consequences of global warming. The wine industry is a favorite subject of mine, peculiarly because of how fragile agriculture can be.
Looking at it again, but this time in terms of the wine gift baskets market, which is worth about $2.2B per year we see that there is a ton of money to be lost. San Francisco is cold. Really cold in fact. It’s so cold that Mark Twain said the coldest winter he ever experienced was a summer in SF. Many locals don’t own shorts.
The question quickly becomes, how does Napa Valley grow such great wine only an hour north? While Napa Valley is warmer than the city of SF, it isn’t a ton warmer.
The follow up question is how only a 2 degree temperature swing might affect the wine in your gift basket this coming holiday season. Do you purposely buy a lot of wine from Lodi?
I don’t and the average temperature is only about 4 degrees warmer than Napa. In wine, small temperature swings mean the difference between a world class product and one which is going to barely be sold at your local drug store.
The ugly truth behind consumer financial leasing structures in the car industry
Having a car is a necessity and cannot be ignored whether one has the finances to purchase one or not. However, for those who have a credit history that is undesirable, it is even harder to get a loan approved by the regular lending institutions that they can use to purchase a car. Most times these potential car owners will seek out lending institutions that are known to accommodate their flawed credit history by offering them a bad credit loan. Bad credit loans are designed specifically for individuals who have a poor credit history that does not enable them to be able to borrow any loans. These types of loans allow them to borrow the amount they need with no hassles.
When making an application for a bad credit loan to purchase a car, there are only few requirements that need to be met before the loan is transferred into the account of the borrower. These requirements do not include the checking of the status of the borrower’s credit history which is one of the reasons why many opt to use it to finance the buying of cars. However, the underlying consequences of such loans are not brought to the forefront but are quite tough especially when it comes to interest rates. Most lending institutions attach high interest rates to a bad credit loan when making repayments which in turn raises the overall cost of the car.
Furthermore, the lending institutions can repossess the car in case there is delay in repayment or even penalize the borrower by increasing the interest on the repayments done every time there is a default in payment. Therefore, it is important to understand the conditions attached to the bad credit loan before using their services to buy a car.
Read more at http://badcreditloansguide.co.uk/
What will happen when the Arctic Ice Melts
It looks like the Arctic ice will melt sooner than computer models had predicted. At the current rate of melting the arctic ice will melt by 2030 at the latest. How will this affect our lives?
The answer is that it might not have a devastating impact. This is because arctic ice is floating. This means that the volume of water will not change considerably. There won’t be big increases in sea levels due to the ice in the arctic turning into water. However, the release of massive fresh amounts of water into the northern ocean will dilute the salinity of the water. The movie, The Day Before Yesterday predicts that this loss of salinity will cause the warming gulf stream to stop and many parts of Northern Europe and Northern America will quickly become ice – perma ice. Scientists are not unanimous in their adherence to this hypothesis.
The bigger problem will be when and if the glaciers melt in Greenland and on Antarctica in the South. This is ice on land and if it melts will greatly raise water levels. If all the ice melted the sea levels around the world would rise between 175 and 225 feet. About a third of the world’s land mass would disappear. The Maldives would disappear, New York would disappear, no more beach parties in Thailand, no more Fiji, the Netherlands would go, much of England would vanish. 60% of the world’s population live on the coast so it is easy to see the extent of the tragedy that would unfold. It would be like a Biblical flood.
For the places which survive the weather would become much warmer; many species would die out and ecosystems would go out of balance. Those that survive will not have a life style like we enjoy today.
The Rate of Arctic Ice Melting
Take a look at this YouTube video. It makes very interesting viewing. It shows some of the leading scientists in the world discussing the rate at which arctic ice is melting. They are all in agreement that the ice is melting faster than expected.
This is visually borne out by ship captains that note that new routes over the peak of the American continent have appeared over the last two years.
The worrying thing is that the sophisticated computer generated models made to chart climate change and ice cap reduction are wrong. The models need to be drastically altered. The question is: what is the variable that they are missing out? Where has the math gone wrong?
Rather than the earlier prediction that the poles will be free of ice by 2050, at the current rate of polar ice reduction we will be at the zero ice scenario by 2020 or 2030. That is not very far away. For those who thought that global warming was the next generation’s problem – they need to think again.
The facts also show that the shrinking of the ice caps has a direct correlation with carbon dioxide emissions.
It won’t be long before the environment becomes the number one political priority, not the economy or fighting terrorism.
All about CO2 And The Melting Of The Poles
For the last few decades, the thing we call global warming, has became a huge and significant issue that has an extreme impact on the increase of temperature in the environment’s surface. With the use of new decision support system software it is now possible to take actions to reduce the amount of CO2 the companies produce. Aside from this issue,CO2 and melting of the poles is also one of the most intriguing issue and a big news of this decade. However, there are two important things related to global warming and these are climate change and greenhouse effect. Co2 really helps a lot when it comes to melting the poles because of its heat temperature. If you try to check greenhouse effect, as it caused from greenhouse gases trap in the atmosphere and then forms certain layer that will prevent reflection on the earth’s heat. With this effect, it will increase the temperature at the surface of the earth. Carbon dioxide also known as CO2 which is the biggest contributor to global warming which is currently melting the ice poles.
By using a high quality decision support system you can optimize the work of your company, and in combination with business intelligence locate the proper places where the CO2 levels are to high and take action to reduce these. If you still don’t know what decision support system software is and are wondering how it may help your company to reduce the amount of pollution and co2 you produce you can find general information and reviews of the various DSS systems here at Decision Support System.
CO2 increased temperatures and it changed natural equilibrium that causes climate change. The high temperature from it will absolutely cause the melting of ice at the poles. So, the volume of the ocean water will rise in several inches that is more higher than normal. The sea water temperature changes due to the volume changed and results in the extinction of certain species. There are a lot of disasters being caused by global warming namely; hurricanes, droughts,extreme floods, hard weather. There is a researcher revealed that the phenomenon of earthquakes might be the impact of global warming and this is one of the main reasons they suggest you use a decision support system to monitor your company to avoid producing to much CO2. A mentioned and cited that the growth of carbon dioxide is the extreme contributor to global warming. The growth of the CO2 emission in the atmosphere has reached 31 Gt per year. With this increasing temperature caused by carbon dioxide will make the melting of the poles be at ease and quick. In fact, if the growing rate of carbon dioxide is not pressed then this concentration will be 400 ppm in 2060 and will absolutely range to 550 ppm for many years from now. With this news, we have do do something to stop and do some change to decrease carbon dioxide rate.
Yet it can be helpful for melting the poles but it can be also harmful to our health. But let’s not look at it in its negative side as it can help us today on the hard rocks of ice at the poles. Mitigation to decrease carbon dioxide (CO2) in the atmosphere opens a new paradigm of technology to against global warming. It is nice to know and discover that there is now a preventive measure to be use for global warming. So, though carbon dioxide produce a heat temperature more than what we expected but still it will help for melting of ice on the poles.