Blog Action Day is today.

That means all the participating blogs write about the given subject. And on this day we’re blogging about the environment.

I did a Chemistry degree way back in the 70′s and even then we were told in great detail about global warming, its consequences and what was causing it. It made me stop using a spray deodorant. And I’ve kept up with what’s been happening ever since.

I don’t intend jumping on the hysteria bandwagon. Because we really don’t know whether what we’re doing is affecting the world in the ways some politicians or scientists say it is.

For example global warming could be attributed to the largest series of solar flares we’ve had over the years since a thousand years ago.

Also we should note that the Mars southern icecap is receding too. And Martians don’t have many power plants or airplane flights per year.

It’s interesting that the Nobel Peace Prize was jointly won by Al Gore for his movie on climate change and that he retains it despite the allegation that there are a number of factual errors in it.

World Methane Levels

I think the major problem with the environment is that there are so many factors affecting it. If you look at the amount of methane produced by just one variety of volcanoes: The mud volcano.

In 2003 Achim J. Kopf estimated that 1.97 × 10¹¹ to 1.23 × 10¹⁴ m³ of methane is released by all mud volcanoes each year.  That converts to 141–88,000 Tg/yr from all mud volcanoes, of which 0.033–235 Tg is from surface volcanoes. (Tg is a Teragram which is 10¹² g, and compares to a kilogram which is 10³ g).

That is a massive amount of methane!

A piece in the Opinion Journal (from The Wall Street Journal editorial ) by Pete Du Pont looks at a variety of facts and how they relate to reality.

One example is:

British environmental analyst Lord Christopher Monckton says that from 1993 through 2003 the Greenland ice sheet “grew an average extra thickness of 2 inches a year,” and that in the past 30 years the mass of the Antarctic ice sheet has grown as well

In a more recent piece from the Opinion Journal Pete Du Pont says:

The National Center for Policy Analysis’s new Global Warming Primer  shows that over the past 400,000 years, “the Earth’s temperature has consistently risen and fallen hundreds of years prior to increases and declines in CO2 levels” (emphasis added). For example, about half of the global warming increases since the mid-1800s occurred before greenhouse gas emissions began their significant increases after the 1950s, and then temperatures declined well into the 1970s when CO2 levels were increasing.

Interesting, eh?

Another site that looks at global warming with a more objective eye is Global Warming Hysteria.

And back home in Manchester, or even in the UK, we’re contributing a tiny amount to the volumes of carbon dioxide or methane sent into the atmosphere each year.

Let’s Reduce Fossil Fuel Use Anyway

There are other reasons than global warming to reduce fossil fuel use. The main one being that it’s a finite resource. Once it’s gone we’re not getting anymore.

I’m also a strong believer in not using any kind of propellant as it’s manufacture simply wastes energy and its use may release chemicals which have unknown effects on the environment or the people using them.

Energy Inspectors

And while we’re on the subject. Energy inspectors… Why?

Well I talked to one over the weekend and it seems pretty conclusive that their report will only be used by the buyer to beat down the price set by homeowner (who commissioned the report).

He suspects, and I agree, that people will still buy the house they want anyway.

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