CLEAN AIR Causes Global Warming????
This has to be one of the stranger things I've read recently. According to Yale Environment 360, clean air in Europe has resulted in an increase of average temperature of at least a half a degree.
It's yet another example of the complexity involved
with nearly every environmental and alternative fuel/energy issue.
Ethanol seemed a wonderful alternative until the World started starving from lack of
corn. Palm Oil held promise until the tropical jungles became huge
producers of carbon emissions. Hybrids certainly use less gas but do we
know the full implications of all the left-over batteries? Giant carbon dioxide vacuum cleaners could clean the air, but the energy required to power them is staggering.
It reminds me of a girl I once dated who believed in the two steps forward, one step backward approach to relationships. On my part, I was required to display an unusual level of patience and proceed with caution in order to avoid disaster. I've been married to her for 10 years now, so it was definitely worth the extra effort.
The point is that each environmental and alternative energy advance must be explored. Rushing into a solution without understanding the long-term implications is a sure-fire recipe for disaster. The painful lessons we've learned from ethanol and palm oil should serve as warnings to fully evaluate the consequences of our actions. Just as with a relationship, fools rush in and usually end up looking foolish for doing so.
A significant improvement in Europe’s air quality over the past 30 years may be responsible for at least half of the one degree C warming the continent has experienced since 1980, according to a study in the journal Geophysical Research Letters. A drastic reduction in pollution and aerosols — up to 60 percent in the past three decades — has allowed more of the sun’s rays to strike the continent, making it warmer, according to the study by scientists at the Institute for Atmospheric and Climate Science in Switzerland. The researchers believe that their study, conducted at six locations in northern Europe, may help explain why the continent’s recent warming has been higher than climate models had projected.
It reminds me of a girl I once dated who believed in the two steps forward, one step backward approach to relationships. On my part, I was required to display an unusual level of patience and proceed with caution in order to avoid disaster. I've been married to her for 10 years now, so it was definitely worth the extra effort.
The point is that each environmental and alternative energy advance must be explored. Rushing into a solution without understanding the long-term implications is a sure-fire recipe for disaster. The painful lessons we've learned from ethanol and palm oil should serve as warnings to fully evaluate the consequences of our actions. Just as with a relationship, fools rush in and usually end up looking foolish for doing so.
Saw this NOVA episode a while ago (http://www.pbs.org/wgbh/nova/sun/) on global dimming (couldn't find it on NF). Very interesting, and scary. I used to think people who rushed into relationships were pretty stupid...and still do to an extent...but after I got engaged to my wife after 5 weeks, I had to rethink my stance on the subject. 12 years later, were still pretty happy. Considering that Global Warming has essentially been ignored for 30+ years, I'm not sure how much that is exactly rushing things. -Lance
Reply to this