I studied enviromental science for about a year in college, which entailed learning about the relationship between weather, human activity, what we are doing as a species to influence things. At the time the focus was on cleaning the air, water and stopping the massive use of energy that was making all the pollution.
Seems to me that about 10 years ago the media started picking up the theme of Global Warming, which has reached fever pitch in the last few years. I think the attention to "green" policies is great, but thats not what I want to discuss.
Today I was thinking about how the last few summers out here in California haven't been as hot, and the winters colder, and I started thinking about the various scenarios put forward when i was in school, that greenhouse gases would trap all the heat, and make the planet a global hothouse; the other scenario would be that the while that would happen to a small degree, the weather was more influenced by ocean condition, and solar activity. I found this article today:
"Dr David Whitehouse, an astronomer and the author of ‘The Sun: A Biography’ writes in The Independent today that we might be about to enter a period of unusually low sun activity. Such periods, in the past, have been associated with low temperatures on planet Earth.
Some members of the Russian Academy of Sciences, Whitehouse writes, say we may be at the start of a period like that seen between 1790 and 1820, a minor decline in solar activity called the Dalton Minimum. They estimate that the Sun’s reduced activity may cause a global temperature drop of 1.5C by 2020. This is larger than most sensible predictions of man-made global warming over this period.
This is something we must take seriously, Whitehouse adds. What happened in the 17th century is bound to happen again some time. Recent work studying the periods when our Sun loses its sunspots, along with data on other Sun-like stars that may be behaving in the same way, suggests that our Sun may spend between 10 and 25 per cent of the time in this state."
OK, so we know that we are continuing to dump pollution into the air, water and landfills. And Americans are growing weary of escalting energy(aka petroluem) costs, so we could put this part of the equation away by improving how we deal with our environment..in my book by curtailing the massive reliance on gasoline. 'But Canice, how will people get around? Are you going to make people stop using their car?' Well, no; i would instead urge that by a concerted effort to reduce usage, buy more fuel efficient vehicles, and stress "Green" we can reduce use of fossil fuels and make the enviroment a little cleaner.
Global warming? I used to be fairly convinced , but then again, i have started to doubt that we really understand the complicated independencies that impact this planet and its weather...
So in the new year, I have started to apply some of this to my own life; replaced bulbs with Energy star bulbs, which are save (according to the packaging) 75% energy and last 7 years...but failed to mention the bulbs contain mercury and need to be treated as Hazardous waste(I found this out when i opened the box..
And we have been looking at a hybrid vehicle, like a Ford Escape, which after reading todays news i remarked Ford is going to need an escape, since toyota passed them up...
"Toyota beat Ford in 2007 in United States auto sales, putting it behind General Motors, industry statistics showed Thursday. Ford had held the No. 2 spot since 1931, according to the company’s historian."
So much for Buy American...wait, if a Japanese car has parts made in China and Mexico, shipped to the mid west and put together by Americans , thats an American made car, right?Right.
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