RSS/XML |
|
Essays |
Main Page |
Disclaimer |
|
|
Essays |
Main Page |
Disclaimer |
|
Nature.com - “the best in science journalism” - reports,
Reductions in industrial emissions in many countries, along with the use of particulate filters for car exhausts and smoke stacks, seem to have reduced the amount of dirt in the atmosphere and made the sky more transparent.
That sounds like very good news. But the researchers say that more solar energy arriving on the ground will also make the surface warmer, and this may add to the problems of global warming.
Well, I am so intent on ending global warming that I think I’ll go buy a new SUV and rip out the catalytic converter.
Comments policy, read and heed!
17 queries. 0.340 seconds
May 12th, 2005 at 8:42 am
Nah, no new SUV for me. I’ll be retiring soon and the payments would be too high. I’ll just continue to drive my 12-year-old car and add to pollution in my own small way.
I get sooo tired of those for whom life in general is a series of catastrophies. Lighten up, already!
I’ think that I’ll put the top down on my Miata and go for a drive and enjoy the additional sunshine. HAH!
May 12th, 2005 at 9:51 am
What! Are you crazy? Do you want to start a global ice age?
May 12th, 2005 at 11:36 am
I don’t know where they get these scientist but when I took physics you couldn’t destroy energy. The radiation from the sun that hits the Earth will either reflect back into space or be deposited. The photons that stay transfer their energy from radiation to heat (that is photo hits an atom increasing the KE of that atom). The only way to globaly cool or heat the planet would be to: 1. change the reflectivity, 2. change the output of radiant energy. The quantity of particals in the air only change WHERE the energy is deposited (ground or air) not how much is is deposited.
May 12th, 2005 at 12:36 pm
We’re-all-gonna-die-because-of-global-dimming!
We’re-all-gonna-die-because-of-global-warming!
We’re-all-gonna-die-because-of-global-cooling!
I’m better now.
Ryan: True, though I suspect that where the heat goes has a significant effect on its, er, effect,s such as on global albedo. Heat in the upper atmosphere might make less or more cloud cover than heat at the surface - I’m guessing less, but I’m no climatologist. It might, admittedly, also have no significant difference in effect.
May 13th, 2005 at 11:18 am
So, driving a car contributes to global warming? And on the other hand, not driving a car contributes to global warming?
Maybe we should all chip in and just buy a giant A/C unit…
May 14th, 2005 at 10:40 am
What you need is a coal-fired behemoth of an SUV. Like the Canyonero, only with coal boilers and a dragline on the front for strip-mining yourself a full tank. That might put enough particulates in the air to save us.