>
~
































Here I have assembled links to a number of report related to global warming and energy use. I am not associated with any person, organization, corporation or process mentioned in any of these reports. - Dave Palmer, February 2007

C O 2, Weather, Pollution, Fact, Fiction, Folly?
Global Warming is it here to stay?

Here are links to topics on this page:

Greenhouse gas -the who, what, where and why


The first survey in 1971 on the possibility of inadvertent human modification of climate stated that "Methane has no direct effects on the climate or the biosphere [and] it is considered to be of no importance". The gas did not even appear in the index of the major climatology book of the time
Researchers from the Max Planck Institute for Nuclear Physics. have now carefully analysed which organic gases are emitted from plants. They made the surprising discovery that plants release methane, a greenhouse gas - and this goes against all previous assumptions
Many chemical compounds found in the Earth's atmosphere act as "greenhouse gases." These gases allow sunlight to enter the atmosphere freely. When sunlight strikes the Earth's surface, some of it is reflected back towards space as infrared radiation (heat). Greenhouse gases absorb this infrared radiation and trap the heat in the atmosphere.
Greenhouse gases naturally blanket the Earth and keep it about 33 degrees Celsius warmer than it would be without these gases in the atmosphere.
Methane (CH4) is a greenhouse gas that remains in the atmosphere for approximately 9-15 years. Methane is over 20 times more effective in trapping heat in the atmosphere than carbon dioxide (CO2) over a 100-year period
Methane trapped in marine sediments as a hydrate represents such an immense carbon reservoir that it must be considered a dominant factor in estimating unconventional energy resources; the role of methane as a 'greenhouse' gas also must be carefully assessed.
The Discovery of Global Warming CLIMATE CHANGE A hypertext history of how scientists came to (partly) understand what people are doing to cause climate change.
Other Greenhouse Gases While all eyes were turned on carbon dioxide, almost by chance a few researchers discovered that other gases emitted by human activity have a greenhouse effect strong enough to add to global warming. In the mid 1970s, they began to realize that these gases could bring as much damage as carbon dioxide itself.
Scientists at UC Irvine have determined that levels of atmospheric methane -- an influential greenhouse gas -- have stayed nearly flat for the past seven years, which follows a rise that spanned at least two decades.This finding indicates that methane may no longer be as large a global warming threat as previously thought, and it provides evidence that methane levels can be controlled.
Burp vaccine cuts greenhouse gas emissions You cannot stop a sheep belching or farting, but you can make sure its eructations are less damaging to the environment.

Back to top or back to home page

Some older, calm reports on carbon pollution.`


The carbon cycle is a complex series of processes through which all of the carbon atoms on earth rotate.
All life is based on the element carbon. Carbon is the major chemical constituent of most organic matter, from fossil fuels to the complex molecules (DNA and RNA) that control genetic reproduction in organisms. Yet by weight, carbon is not one of the most abundant elements within the Earth's crust.
Carbon Dioxide: One Source of the Problem
Sinks for Anthropogenic Carbon - Physics Today - Issue 8, 2002 We have learned much about the workings of natural sinks like the oceans and terrestrial plants, but are just beginning to understand how their behavior might change as atmospheric CO2 concentrations rise.
Emissions of Greenhouse Gases in the United States 2001
Abrupt Climate Change Did the influx of freshwater 8,200 years ago from large lakes in what is now northern Canada help trigger the coldest climate event in the Earth's climate system in the past 10,000 years?
An Ice Age Slide set
Due to variations in the Earth's orbital process, the planet has experienced a series of Ice Ages over the past 2.6 million years.
NOVEMBER 2000: Sources of pollution over the Pacific
Continental sources, transoceanic transport, and interhemispheric exchange of carbon monoxide over the Pacific
Reducing Emissions from Electric Power The electric power industry emitted approximately 2,252 million metric tons of carbon dioxide in 1999, 40 percent of total U.S. carbon dioxide emissions.
Contributions to Global Warming: Historic Carbon Dioxide Emissions from Fossil Fuel Combustion, 1900-1999
National Institute for Environmental Studies reports on carbon.
The Impact of the Kyoto Protocol on U.S. Economic Growth and Projected Budget Surpluses

Back to top or back to home page

Carbon Neutral? Real or Not - you decide....


If a person produces 1100 kg of CO2 each year during a 100 year period, and each year purchases a tree (as calculated by carbon offset companies) to absorb the carbon dioxide, there will actually over the 100 year period be a net gain of 52.1 tons of carbon dioxide in the atmosphere. Not exactly carbon neutral!
Buy carbo credits here!
A British thought on Carbon Credits
A concerned British Environmental letter
The article "It's no longer emission impossible" published on The Guardian web-site on the 28th April 2006, contains both misleading and incorrect information relating to the environmental benefits of carbon offsets

Talk to me about wind power....


About Wind Power
$53 Billion in New Investment Required to Meet U.S. Renewable State Standards
Has-wind-power-finally-come-of-age?
Do not litter the world with wind power

Back to top or back to home page

Thermal and geothermal any value?


A Practical Thermoelectric Power Generation Module
DOE Estimates Future Freshwater Needs to Meet Thermoelectric Power Demand
The Most Frequently Asked Questions About Thermoelectric Power ...
Mechanism of Geothermal Power Generation
Heat Mining' Backed In Geothermal Energy Report

Back to top or back to home page

More on fuel use and pollution in general:


The nation's big power companies are creating smaller amounts of gases that cause smog and acid rain than they were 15 years ago, but they're producing more greenhouse gases.
One of the largest sources of atmospheric carbon dioxide is through plant and animal decay as microorganisms break down the dead material, releasing carbon dioxide into the air as part of the process.
Worldwide, people and their activities pump 26 billion tons of carbon dioxide .into the atmosphere, he said. The total from volcanoes is about 200 million tons a year - or less than 1 percent of the man-made emissions
China, the world's most populous country, mines a third of all the coal cut from the Earth, providing three quarters of the country's energy requirements. It has made Chinese cities the most polluted on Earth [10] and the country the world's second largest source of CO2.

Back to top or back to home page

Some solar considerations.....


15,000 years ago to 6,000 years ago: Global warming begins. The sheets of ice melt, and sea levels rise. Some heat source causes approximately 37 million cubic kilometers of ice to melt in approximately 9,000 years.
In other words, variations in the intensity and timing of heat from the sun are the most likely cause of the glacial/interglacial cycles.
Precession versus greenhouse gases in global warming
A Serbian mathematician named Milutin Milankovitch was intrigued by this puzzle of climate change,. and in the 1930s he presented a theory that might explain it. Milankovitch studied climate records, noting differences over time. He theorized that global climate change was brought about by regular changes in Earth's axis, tilt, and orbit that altered the planet's relationship to the Sun, triggering ice ages
What follows is a discussion elating to climate change and solar variability.. The first author is Mike Flaugher, who proposes the belief that global climate change is caused by solar variability. The second opinion cautions Mike on his conclusions and some of his references
The Sun is almost certainly implicated in some of the climate changes of the past, and may today affect, to some degree, the weather from year to year.
The mechanism by which the Earth's orbital eccentricity could affect the climate in such a direct and important way is not known, although recent evidence (published in 2000) indicates that atmospheric carbon dioxide may play a leading role in amplifying the orbital effect.

Back to top or back to home page

On the carbon` cycle and sources of carbon dioxide


Historic temperatures Vostok Ice Core to 400 thousand years before present period (BP)
As recorded in ice cores from Vostok, Antarctica, the temperature near the South Pole has varied by more than 20 degrees Fahrenheit during the last 350,000 years. There have been peaks of warmth approximately every 100,000 years. The temperature and the carbon dioxide concentrations at the south pole parallel each other. The rise and fall of temperatures gives rise to the ice age/interglacial cycle.
Is there a solar connection to a warmer world?
Total human contributions to greenhouse gases account for only about 0.28% of the "greenhouse effect" . . Anthropogenic (man-made) carbon dioxide (CO2) comprises about 0.117% of this total, and man-made sources of other gases ( methane, nitrous oxide (NOX), other misc. gases) contributes another 0.163%
186 billion tons of CO2 enter earth's atmosphere each year. 6 billion tons are from human activity. Approximately 90 billion tons come from biologic ...a report: Biomass Gasification and Biodigestion, Chris J. Zygarlicke Deputy Associate Director for Research Energy & Environmental Research Center, Renewable Fuels Action Summit, Bismarck State College, Bismarck, ND, June 11 and 12, 2006
The data indicate that, over the past 250,000 years when glaciers covered land and then retreated, the earth's temperature oscillated, varying by as much as 11øC. Such data remind us that climate change is a relative concept and that wide variations have occurred in the past.
The evidence of periods of several centuries of cooler climates worldwide called "little ice ages," similar to the period anno Domini (A.D.) 1280-1860 and reoccurring approximately every 1,300 years, corresponds well with fluctuations in modeled solar output.

Back to top or back to home page

Sequestering Carbon - practical or not? worthwhile or not?


Carbon sequestration refers to the provision of long-term storage of carbon .in the terrestrial biosphere, underground, or the oceans so that the buildup of carbon dioxide (the principal greenhouse gas) concentration in the atmosphere will reduce or slow
Lawrence Livermore research on geologic sequestration combines fieldwork, laboratory experiments, and modeling and includes scientists and engineers from the Laboratory's Energy and Environment (E&E), Engineering, Chemistry and Materials Science, and Computation directorates.
A carbon dioxide (CO2) sink is a carbon reservoir that is increasing in size, and is the opposite of a carbon "source". The main natural sinks are (1) the oceans and (2) plants and other organisms that use photosynthesis to remove carbon from the atmosphere by incorporating it into biomass
"Not only is geologic [sequestration] showing the potential to account for most of the storage,but also, we already have the experience from the oil and gas industry in dealing with geologic formations and wells," says Scott Klara, product manager for the carbon sequestration program in the U.S. Department of Energy's National Energy Technology Laboratory.

Back to top or back to home page

Melting Glaciers - an end to coastal cities?

Claims are made that melting glaciers (less than 1% of all water on earth) will lead to submerged cities... reach your own conclusions
Where is Earth's water located and in what forms does it exist? .You can see how water is distributed by viewing these bar charts. The left-side bar shows where the water on Earth exists; about 97 percent of all water is in the oceans. The middle bar shows the distribution of that three percent of all Earth's water that is freshwater. The majority, about 69 percent, is locked up in glaciers and icecaps, mainly in Greenland and Antarctica
Ice melting off the Greenland ice cap, shown here, could raise sea level. But the Antarctic ice cap is the big enchilada in sea-level doomsday scenarios.

Back to top or back to home page

River Sediment in the rivers -more impact than glaciers?


A new analysis of data from more than 4,000 rivers around the world indicates humans are having profound and conflicting effects on the amount of sediment carried by rivers to coastal areas, with consequences for marine life and pollution control, according to a University of Colorado at Boulder environmental scientist.
Before the proliferation of dam construction in the latter half of this century, rivers probably discharged about 20 billion tons of sediment annually to the ocean. Prior to widespread farming and deforestation (beginning 2000-2500 yr ago), however, sediment discharge probably was less than half the present level.

Back to top or back to home page

Where is the ice in the Antaractic?


We have used ice-flow velocity measurements .from synthetic aperture radar to reassess the mass balance of the Ross Ice Streams, West Antarctica. We find strong evidence for ice-sheet growth (+26.8 gigatons per year), in contrast to earlier estimates indicating a mass deficit (-20.9 gigatons per year)
The authors note that "the new data confirm that the warmest temperature at stage 7.5 [238,000 years ago] was slightly warmer than the Holocene [the current interglacial]." They also note that the interglacials preceding and following the one at 238,000 years ago were warmer still. In fact, from the graphs they present, it can be seen that all of the four interglacials that preceded the Holocene were warmer than the current one, and by an average temperature in excess of 2øC.
Conclusion: The data clearly show that Antarctica as a whole is seeing increases in sea ice extent in recent decades, in spite of what climate models suggest should be occurring: steady warming. There are regional differences, with Weddell Sea ice extent decreasing and Ross Sea ice increasing, but overall the pattern is clear: there is more ice, not less, surrounding Antarctica.

Back to top or back to home page

Energy decisions-are there other sources of cheap energy


Just The Basics On Hydrogen Researchers admit it would be decades before hydrogen power and its infrastructure are as commonplace as refineries and gas stations
How much Hydrogen can be extracted from a gallon of water? Is there any reason why a fuel cell powered aquatic vehicle (boat, submarine) could not supplement the Hydrogen supplies on-board with Hydrogen extracted from sea water, thus extending their range?
How much energy is required to Convert 1 gallon of water into Hydrogen ? please do not use symbols
Methods of Storing EnergyVarious methods of storing energy are compared. I have come to realize that many people have no idea how much actual energy can be stored in a battery, or in water raised up, or in a hot water tank, or other methods of storing energy. So this presentation was created!

Back to top or back to home page

This page created and maintained by Dave Palmer

(-Back to home page-)