Significant Fall In Co2 Emissions

[manshimajin]

I have raised this matter before but there is now more concrete information available. The current economic crisis was bound to have a major impact on polluting emissions due to the reduction in manufacturing, transport of goods, decline in international mobility, lower use by industry of power etc...

 

The International Energy Agency will be issuing a detailed report on 10 November. In the meantime they have put out a preliminary report. To quote from their findings:

Investment in polluting technologies has been deferred and CO2 emissions could fall in 2009 by as much as 3% - steeper than at any time in the last 40 years, finds the International Energy Agency (IEA) in its new study, a special early excerpt of the World Energy Outlook (WEO) 2009. This would lead to emissions in 2020 being 5% lower – even in the absence of additional policies -- than the IEA estimated just twelve months ago. The economic downturn has thereby created an opportunity to put the global energy system on a trajectory to stabilise greenhouse gas emissions at 450 parts per million (ppm) of CO2-equivalent, in line with an increase in global temperature of around 2 degrees Celsius.

IMO it is a shame that environmentalists and politicians don't talk more about this progress as it points the way forward and records a real success story. Sometimes I wonder if they want good news to build on or prefer to promote only the negative news.

 

Clearly there are huge initiatives that continue to need to be undertaken in agriculture, transport, energy production, industrial and domestic energy consumption but it is great news that CO2 emissions are falling! The challenge is to motivate people to build on what is already being achieved. Personally I find it much more motivating to hear positive as well as negative environmental news.

 

The ironic issue of course is that governments around the world are now trying to pump up consumption of traditional goods to stimulate economies which in turn may reverse the positive trends being achieved through lower consumption.

 

Maybe we actually have something to thank the incompetence of bankers for

[Terse]

IMO it is a shame that environmentalists and politicians don't talk more about this progress as it points the way forward and records a real success story. Sometimes I wonder if they want good news to build on or prefer to promote only the negative news.

Good news doesn't grab headlines or the readers' attention.

The constant stream of scare stories, however, is also beginning to be ignored because so many people turn their backs on it eventually. The environmentallists have made a rod for their own backs in that respect.

[manshimajin]

The constant stream of scare stories, however, is also beginning to be ignored because so many people turn their backs on it eventually. The environmentallists have made a rod for their own backs in that respect.

I suspect that it may also be connected with the fact that a lot of environmentalist spokespersons prefer to lecture people about how bad things are, not to share good news. IMO this is a grave misjudgement of human nature - people like to be told about success as well as problems.

 

I find it a little troubling that on the run-in to Copenhagen I have not heard one 'environmentalist' mentioning that CO2 output is falling faster now than in the last 40 years. Surely this is an important input into the 'big picture' and an indication of some of the progress that now has to be sustained.

 

Many of the spokespersons I have heard or read in the media appear to be technical introverts, not 'people persons' which means they tend to believe that involvement comes through lecturing others. The best encouragement comes through encouragement.

[=^..^=]

And for your reading pleasure articles that question the link between CO2 and Global warming

 

http://www.theregister.co.uk/2009/02/25/js...rt_translation/

 

http://www.theregister.co.uk/2009/03/27/at...urricane_study/

[manshimajin]

When it comes to global warming and CO2 emissions the IEA is very much an advocate of actions to reduce emissions and has a comprehensive programme to achieve this.

 

There is plenty of evidence of climate change even if people disagree as to why this is occurring and its long term impact. What I find interesting is that the current economic crisis is having a very marked impact in reducing CO2 emissions. This demonstrate clearly the links between high material consumption and CO2 levels. When manufacturing and its spin offs reduce, as it has done at present, CO2 emissions drop significantly.

 

The downside is of course that we have become used to the "economic benefits" of high consumption and consumerism - something that poorer countries seek also to emulate. So on the one hand we have politicians preaching the need to reduce emissions and on the other preaching that they have got GDP growing again by stimulating consumer spending!

[Slim]

And for your reading pleasure articles that question the link between CO2 and Global warming

 

http://www.theregister.co.uk/2009/03/27/at...urricane_study/

 

I think you misread this one.

[=^..^=]

http://www.theregister.co.uk/2009/03/27/at...urricane_study/

I think you misread this one.

 

Boffins: Atlantic temperature ruled by dust, not CO2

 

American scientists say that variations in atmospheric dust levels affect the temperature of the Atlantic ocean far more than global warming. Research indicates that 70 per cent of the change in Atlantic temperature over recent decades has resulted from reduced dust, rather than climate change.

 

The new analysis comes from scientists in the US National Oceanic and Atmospheric Administration (NOAA) and the University of Wisconsin. They say that the Atlantic temperature trend has been warmer by approximately a quarter of a degree each decade since 1980: but that most of this is actually because more sunlight is reaching the sea due to reducing levels of dirt in the air above it.

 

"A lot of this upward trend in the long-term pattern can be explained just by dust storms and volcanoes," says Amato Evan of Wisconsin uni. "About 70 percent of it is just being forced by the combination of dust and volcanoes, and about a quarter of it is just from the dust storms themselves."

 

Why did I misread it? According to the paper that article is based on the significant cause of the recent increase in sea temperature is down to particulates and not CO2 levels.

[manshimajin]

Why did I misread it? According to the paper that article is based on the significant cause of the recent increase in sea temperature is down to particulates and not CO2 levels.

It will be interesting to see what happened in the Pacific off New South Wales after that huge dust storm. When I was down there the scientists were saying one side effect would be that with the dust dropping into the Tasman Sea it would encourage algae which would in turn have a beneficial effect on CO2 absorption and fish life. Its all an intricate eco-system.

[Slim]

Why did I misread it? According to the paper that article is based on the significant cause of the recent increase in sea temperature is down to particulates and not CO2 levels.

 

No, it says the effect changes temperature MORE than global warming, it doesn't challenge anthropomorphic global warming/climate change at all or suggest that it's is a result of these temperature changes.

 

"This makes sense, because we don't really expect global warming to make the ocean [temperature] increase that fast,"

 

And:

 

"The result suggests that only about 30 percent of the observed Atlantic temperature increases are due to other factors, such as a warming climate. While not discounting the importance of global warming, Evan says this adjustment brings the estimate of global warming impact on Atlantic more into line with the smaller degree of ocean warming seen elsewhere, such as the Pacific."

 

He's challenging the scale of the warming in that specific area.

[jimbms]

Fantastic if we do nothing the sea temperature increases, if we cut polution the sea temperature increases.

[Jimcalagon]

Good news doesn't grab headlines or the readers' attention.

The constant stream of scare stories, however, is also beginning to be ignored because so many people turn their backs on it eventually. The environmentallists have made a rod for their own backs in that respect.

 

Truth.