Internet technology

[POMMReg]

When the internet first came in it was said to promote less need to travel - as face to face meetings could be done via facetime or some such - now, in 2026 there's even more travel, our government travels all over the world in jets & there's little mention of the cost to the environment.

Demolish half the amazonian rainforest for the G7 meeting?

[svenedin]

That's interesting you should mention this.

Until the Covid-19 pandemic, I travelled a lot for work and I would often drive for hours and hundreds of miles for largely pointless meetings. Then in 2019 we were suddenly given a work laptop and told to work remotely. We changed overnight to doing a lot of work meetings over remote video conferencing (RVC) including meetings that would previously have required me to travel overseas.

We carried on doing this as it worked so well (we are spread out with departments around the UK and overseas) and now I travel very little. However, everybody else seems to travel more than ever! I don't understand it......


Stephen

[POMMReg]

So long as the little people separate the rubbish from the recycling, world will be saved!!

[les]

Did you intend to put that post in the ‘useful tips’ section ?

[POMMReg]

AND what happened to Acid rain - never hear of this now

[les]

Prince put a stop to that.

[Sleeper]

Or was it Princess Diana's Step-mother ?

John ;-)

[stuffedpike20]

Acid rain was addressed by the Clean Air Act…..but might be soon making a come-back.

According to Milankovitch cycles, we should be heading slowly toward an ice age. Because of the industrial revolution and the increased burning of fossil fuels, the ‘greenhouse effect’ means that the planet has heated up faster and more severely than at any time in its history. Co2 from burning fossil fuels, and methane from animal agriculture (and latterly, melting permafrost) means that heat cannot escape from the Earth’s surface, and there is an imbalance between heat coming in from the Sun, and heat not being able to escape.

It has been known for a long time that aerosols (particles suspended in the air) block sunlight and prevent some heat from reaching the surface of the Earth. Volcanic activity can put aerosols into the atmosphere and lower the temperature. President Franklin knew this way back in 1784, and in 1991 the eruption of Mt Pinatubo that put aerosols high into the atmosphere caused the planet to cool by about half a degree for a short time.

The unintended consequence of the Clean Air Act, and other legislation, is that the removal of the aerosols leads to full strength sunlight reaching the Earth’s surface, warming the planet even more. In 2020, legislation removing sulphur dioxide from shipping fuel came into place. This has led to increased warming, especially int the Northern hemisphere where most shipping takes place. The same legislation came into force for the Mediterranean in May last year. This cleaning of the air, coupled with a looming El Nino event, means that there will most likely be high record temperatures round the Med next year, 2027. Another effect of removing the aerosols from shipping fuel is that the aerosols used to seed clouds, which reflected heat from the Sun.

Because no significant action is being taken to combat global heating, (some say it should be called ‘ocean heating’ because 90% of the heat is taken up by the oceans) we are most likely going to have to do some geoengineering. We need to put sulphur dioxide crystals into the stratosphere to block out some sunlight. We know it will work because of the evidence from volcanic eruptions. We will have to do this geoengineering to buy some time to stop producing greenhouse gasses and remove a huge amount of the C02 already produced.

Special planes will have to be built to deliver the sulphur dioxide into the stratosphere, but the whole process will be cheap, about 5 billion pounds, which is extremely cheap compared to what climate change is already costing us. The sulphur dioxide will last in the stratosphere for about a year, before it drops out and falls as acid rain. This acid rain is regrettable but can be neutralised to some extent by dumping iron filings into the oceans. The perceived harm of carrying out this geoengineering is far outweighed by the massive harm that climate change is already doing and will increasingly continue to do. Because of our inaction to date, we have no choice.

The major climate change tipping point that has already started is the collapse of the AMOC. If the gulf stream ‘turns off’ the UK will have winter temperatures of minus twenty degrees, hardly any agriculture and big sea level rises. Solar radiation management (the geoengineering already talked about) can to some extent be targeted. The main cause of the AMOC slowing down and potentially stopping is fresh water melting into the sea from Greenland. Sulphur dioxide could be put into the stratosphere at Greenland’s latitude to slow down or prevent any further melting, thus preserving the AMOC.

For those people who think the UK is not to blame for much of this, remember that we started the industrial revolution. The Co2 that we put into the atmosphere two hundred years ago is still there. We have a responsibility to try to combat climate change. And for those who say , ‘Don’t tell me…tell China’ , last year China’s emissions (although still way too high) plateaued, thanks to the rollout of renewables. The UK has outsourced a lot of manufacturing to China. You cannot buy goods from China and then complain about how they made them.
And for those who do not like the idea of geoengineering….we have already been doing it for two hundred years….putting more Co2 and methane into the Earth’s atmosphere than it can take.

[stuffedpike20]

I am surprised. It's been a few days since my big post, and 60 people have seen it.
I was expecting some discussion, or argument, or suggestions that I hand myself in to the men in white coats.

[KeithL]

Everyone's probably too depressed to get out of bed.

[les]

I think it stunned folk that you were able to write such a long, detailed post, covering many aspects so early in the morning, presumably as soon as you woke up !!

[stuffedpike20]

I think it stunned folk that you were able to write such a long, detailed post, covering many aspects so early in the morning, presumably as soon as you woke up !!

I have a bit of a tendency to wake uo early these days. I think it's an old -age thing. I wrote it between 5am and 6am, and posted it later.
I am interested in climate change. I read stuff and watch too much youtube.

[stuffedpike20]

Everyone's probably too depressed to get out of bed.

I used to be depressed about climate change Keith, and then I found out how many people are working on the solutions.
Yes it is all doom and gloom at the moment because we are choosing to fail. If that changes, there are a lot of practical measures that can be taken.
I watch a thing called Climate Chat on youtube every sunday. One of the co-hosts is a chap called Leon Simons, who is a very smart scientist who co-wrote 'Global Warming in the Pipeline' with James Hansen (the godfather of climate knowledge).
This Country has strange attitudes to the subject....for example some people say we can't afford to go to net zero. Net zero is the absolute bare minimum that we need to achieve in order to survive.
A quote from last week's Climate Chat, 'The Economy is a subsidiary wholly owned by Nature.'

[POMMReg]

James Hanson on LBC?

[stuffedpike20]

James Hanson on LBC?

No. James Hansen climate scientist. He talked to USA Congress in 1988 about climate change. Pretty much everything that he predicted then has come true. He worked for NASA at the time.
David Suzuki talked to the Canadian parliament about climate change at roughly the same time.

The Clean Air Act became law in 1963.
The first scientific paper that suggested that burning fossil fuels and releasing large amounts of Co2 might lead to global heating was written by an American woman called Eunice Foote in 1856. Her husband had to present the paper, because women were not allowed to. She was finally recognised by the scientific community in (Ithink) 2010!

[POMMReg]

Gonna say, makes Jeremy Kyle look like a lefty

[stuffedpike20]

Gonna say, makes Jeremy Kyle look like a lefty

I'm sorry Chris, but not for the first time, I don't know what you mean.

[les]

Join the club !

[POMMReg]

There's a right leaning presenter on LBC with a similar name

[stuffedpike20]

Thanks Chris. That explains it.