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Climate Change: Not Just CO2

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dunforgiven

dunforgiven

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new news. the us navy has begun experimenting using biofuel (algae) diesel for its ships. the military uses 90% of the u s governments fuel. IF they can start using algae fuel for even a third of their ships diesel and aircrafts, it will reduce the us importaion of fossil fuels by a large percentage. it will also give the algae fuel a much needed boost allowing them to become competative with fossil fuels. frankly my dear, I couldn't give a dam. never had a river to build one on.
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17-Nov-2011 22:10:25

Death Rattle
Mar Member 2023

Death Rattle

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Ok, first of all yes, man-made climate change is a reality, but it is a drop in the bucket compared to the natural processes that affect our climate. Volcanoes put more co2 into the atmosphere than man could ever dream of producing. Also we are actually going into a cooling trend that advanced models are showing will last at least 20-30 years. This is mainly due to the solar cycle reaching a natural minimum (fewer sunspots). Some say this may even be enough to mimic "The little ice age" of 1814?-1815? if my memory serves me correctly, when there was snow in Virginia in July one day.
Sure, someday our production of co2 could possibly begin to accelerate global warming if our population explodes and more 3rd world countries start to industrialize, but there are so many restrictions being put in place that the man made portion is becoming trivial.
The way things stand right now, the talk of global warming is really just a scare tactic to help get carbon taxes passed. The bigger problem is pollution in the form of more harmful chemicals being released that affect the biosphere. Large blooms of cyanobacteria (algae) from chemical runoff of fertilizers, nitrates, and phosphates from improperly maintained septic systems are a huge problem in some areas.
When you see rivers that are turning green, that is what I am talking about. Too many phosphates and nitrates from runoffs that cause large blooms of algae turn these rivers green. You may think, well cyanobacteria (algae) produce oxygen for the atmosphere and consume co2 right? Well they also deplete the water they are in of oxygen and cause large areas of water to become uninhabitable by fish and you see lots of dead fish floating to the surface. This is just one example.
TL;DR:
***The bottom line is yes we need to make some changes, but contrary to popular belief - our co2 production is really not that big of a worry - its just a drop in the bucket. Other things are much more serious***

07-Dec-2011 11:32:48 - Last edited on 07-Dec-2011 11:37:29 by Death Rattle

Abbem 20

Abbem 20

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"[..], but it is a drop in the bucket compared to the natural processes that affect our climate. Volcanoes put more co2 into the atmosphere than man could ever dream of producing. Also we are actually going into a cooling trend that advanced models are showing will last at least 20-30 years. This is mainly due to the solar cycle reaching a natural minimum (fewer sunspots). Some say this may even be enough to mimic "The little ice age" of 1814?-1815? if my memory serves me correctly, when there was snow in Virginia in July one day."
I've studied quite a bit of scientific literature on the subject and this doesn't return in any of it. If you want to challenge the thesis of global warming, you need to come up with good *scientific* sources (preferably peer-reviewed).
Btw, the snow in summer 1815 was caused by a massive volcanic eruption.

"The way things stand right now, the talk of global warming is really just a scare tactic to help get carbon taxes passed. The bigger problem is pollution in the form of more harmful chemicals being released that affect the biosphere. Large blooms of cyanobacteria (algae) from chemical runoff of fertilizers, nitrates, and phosphates from improperly maintained septic systems are a huge problem in some areas."
Talking of scare tactics is an easy way to deny the need for regulation. While I don't support severe carbon taxes, I have noticed that the emphasis on carbon reduction has paid off. In many sectors, like transport, construction and chemistry (which this thread deals with), emissions have been reduced significantly. Not just of CO2, also of other harmful chemicals. The emphasis on CO2 does not mean there is no emphasis on pollutants. Pollutants were an important focus of policy before CO2, but the problem isn't easily solved, so the focus remains.
Agriculture remains problematic though, but we get more and more experienced in making better regulation.

07-Dec-2011 20:04:19

Abbem 20

Abbem 20

Posts: 2,557 Adamant Posts by user Forum Profile RuneMetrics Profile
On another note:
I have recently finished a paper about the relation between greening of the chemicals industry and the government policies in Europe. Europe has the largest chemicals industry and the toughest regulation on it.
I was inspired to write it because of this thread by Helios. He is no longer with us, but his legacy lives on. :)
Final conclusions of the paper is this:
Governments and industry often have different things in mind when it comes to greening of chemistry. Although governments seek to stimulate innovation, they make no policies that actually achieve this goal. Instead, they take the safer route and set simple regulation. If a company wants to innovate and asks for subsidy, governments will often ignore this.
Chemical companies are taking a different course though. They actively innovate their products and processes to become more sustainable. Both because this saves money and because it's a way to market their products. Companies go much further in this than regulation forces them to do. Governments could stimulate this process by subsidising certain green innovations, but they rarely do this, as there is a risk attached to it and because they won't gain any short-term profit from it.

07-Dec-2011 20:12:39

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