New York City/New Jersey subway PM2.5 levels 77 times greater than EPA standards; No bodies found
Huge pollution with no visible effect found
A new study reports on PM2.5 (soot/dust) levels in subway stations. The New York City and New Jersey PATH system had a mean level of 779 micrograms per cubic meter — 65 times higher than the EPA’s outdoor air standard of 12 micrograms per cubic meter.
The highest level measured (1,499 micrograms per cubic meter) is almost 50% higher than the worst air in any Chinese city that we know about. Onboard air quality PM2.5 measurements were lower but still on average 30 times higher than EPA standards.
In 2018, PATH carried 81.7 million passengers, about 280,000 per week day. Keeping in mind that the EPA says that any exposure to PM2.5 can kill you within hours, where are the bodies? Why aren’t governments calling for an immediate shutdown of subway service?
Recall that Harvard researchers just claimed this week that PM2.5 kills more than 8 million people per year and much lower outdoor air exposures. PM2.5 is the biggest demonstrable science fraud of our time.
The abstract:
PM2:5 Concentration and Composition in Subway Systems in the Northeastern United States
David G. Luglio
OBJECTIVES: The goals of this study were to assess the air quality in subway systems in the northeastern United States and estimate the health risks for transit workers and commuters.
METHODS: We report real-time and gravimetric PM2:5 concentrations and particle composition from area samples collected in the subways of Philadelphia, Pennsylvania; Boston, Massachusetts; New York City, New York/New Jersey (NYC/NJ); and Washington, District of Columbia. A total of 71 stations across 12 transit lines were monitored during morning and evening rush hours.
RESULTS: We observed variable and high PM2:5 concentrations for on-train and on-platform measurements during morning (from 0600 hours to 1000 hours) and evening (from 1500 hours to 1900 hours) rush hour across cities. Mean real-time PM2:5 concentrations in underground stations were 779 ą 249, 548 ą 207, 341 ą 147, 327 ą 136, and 112 ą 46:7 lg=m3 for the PATH-NYC/NJ; MTA-NYC; Washington, DC; Boston; and Philadelphia transit systems, respectively.
In contrast, the mean real-time ambient PM2:5 concentration taken above ground outside the subway stations of PATH-NYC/NJ; MTANYC; Washington, DC; Boston; and Philadelphia were 20:8ą9:3, 24:1ą9:3, 12:01 ą 7:8, 10:0ą2:7, and 12:6 ą 12:6 lg=m3, respectively.
Stations serviced by the PATH-NYC/NJ system had the highest mean gravimetric PM2:5 concentration, 1,020 lg=m3, ever reported for a subway system, including two 1-h gravimetric PM2:5 values of approximately 1,700 lg=m3 during rush hour at one PATH-NYC/NJ subway station.
Iron and total carbon accounted for approximately 80% of the PM2:5 mass in a targeted subset of systems and stations.
DISCUSSION: Our results document that there is an elevation in the PM2:5 concentrations across subway systems in the major urban centers of Northeastern United States during rush hours. Concentrations in some subway stations suggest that transit workers and commuters may be at increased risk according to U.S. federal environmental and occupational guidelines, depending on duration of exposure.
This concern is highest for the PM2:5 concentrations encountered in the PATH-NYC/NJ transit system. Further research is urgently needed to identify the sources of PM2:5 and factors that contribute to high levels
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Study warns solar farms could unleash unintended consequences on the environment, including global warming
A new study finds there could be unintended consequences of constructing massive solar farms in deserts around the world. The eye-opening research claims that huge solar farms, such as in the Sahara, could usher in environmental crises, including altering the climate and causing global warming.
The study was carried out by Zhengyao Lu, a researcher in Physical Geography at Lund University, and Benjamin Smith, director of research at the Hawkesbury Institute for the Environment at Western Sydney University. The results of their research were published in a Feb. 11 article in The Conversation.
Solar panels are darker colors such as black and blue to attract and absorb more heat, but they are usually much darker than the ground around the solar panel. The post cites an article that claims most solar panels are between 15% and 20% efficient in converting sunlight into usable energy. The researchers assert that the rest of the sunlight is returned to the surrounding environment as heat, "affecting the climate."
The article notes that in order to replace fossil fuels, solar farms would need to be enormous — covering thousands of square miles, according to this article. Solar farms of this magnitude potentially present environmental consequences, not just locally but globally.
Authors of a 2018 study say that climate models show that installing ample numbers of wind turbines would double precipitation in the Sahara desert, and solar panels would increase precipitation by 50%. The researchers came to this conclusion by determining that the solar panels and wind turbines would decrease the albedo on the land surface. Albedo is the fraction of light that is reflected by a body or surface.
From The Conversation:
The model revealed that when the size of the solar farm reaches 20% of the total area of the Sahara, it triggers a feedback loop. Heat emitted by the darker solar panels (compared to the highly reflective desert soil) creates a steep temperature difference between the land and the surrounding oceans that ultimately lowers surface air pressure and causes moist air to rise and condense into raindrops. With more monsoon rainfall, plants grow and the desert reflects less of the sun's energy, since vegetation absorbs light better than sand and soil. With more plants present, more water is evaporated, creating a more humid environment that causes vegetation to spread.
Turning the Sahara desert into a lush, green oasis could have climate ramifications around the planet, including affecting the atmosphere, the ocean, the land, changing entire ecosystems, altering precipitation in Amazon's rainforests, inducing droughts, and potentially triggering more tropical cyclones.
The good-intentioned effort to lower the world's temperature could potentially do the opposite and increase the planet's temperature, according to the researchers.
Covering 20% of the Sahara with solar farms raises local temperatures in the desert by 1.5°C according to our model. At 50% coverage, the temperature increase is 2.5°C. This warming is eventually spread around the globe by atmosphere and ocean movement, raising the world's average temperature by 0.16°C for 20% coverage, and 0.39°C for 50% coverage. The global temperature shift is not uniform though – the polar regions would warm more than the tropics, increasing sea ice loss in the Arctic. This could further accelerate warming, as melting sea ice exposes dark water which absorbs much more solar energy.
The authors conclude their article by stating renewable energy solutions "may help society transition from fossil energy, but Earth system studies like ours underscore the importance of considering the numerous coupled responses of the atmosphere, oceans and land surface when examining their benefits and risks."
https://www.theblaze.com/news/solar-farms-global-warming-consequences-study
*****************************************Climate Change Keeps Changing
Winter storms…in WINTER?!?! Can you believe it? Next thing you’ll tell me is it gets hot in the summer. It’s clearly climate change, and because of it we need to sacrifice our liberties and economic future on the altar of what really amounts to another hidden space ship hidden in the tail of the Hale-Bopp comet. And Democrats are ready to do just that.
I know you’ve heard it before, but it’s worth repeating that in the last 50 years liberals have gone from warning about the coming ice age to global warming, before settling on the catch-all phrase “climate change.” Curiously, when the “problem” shifted 180 degrees from what they said it was, the “solutions” remained the same – new regulations, higher taxes, and more power to them. Normally, when you find out the problem you’ve been working on isn’t the problem but the exact opposite of the problem, the solution changes too. Not here.
The promise of future doom and gloom is merely a delivery device for policy changes liberals have wanted since the progressive movement started.
You’ve got to hand it to the left; they’re great at marketing – offer salvation from an un-disprovable collective future pain in exchange for some individual liberty today. It’s a bargain at twice the price.
Only, they’ve been wrong about everything. We’ve been through three, ten-year windows where the coasts were supposed to be flooded and all other manner of destruction rained down on us and it hasn’t happened.
That doesn’t stop the left from playing that card every chance they get. Nor has it prevented the media from declaring each new event to be the latest “proof” of a pattern only they get to choose what it’s constituted of, ignoring everything else to the contrary.
Winter weather in Texas is rare, not unique or new. Droughts happen. They always have. Tornadoes have always occurred in the same place, which is why it’s called “tornado alley” and not “a pleasant place where no bad weather ever happens.” Hurricanes have been battering the Caribbean for centuries before the first SUV was invented or the first gallon of gas burned.
In other words, the climate has always changed. Not just with the seasons, but anomalously throughout our history. Do yourself a favor and look up the “tiny ice age” or the “medieval warm period.” Both were curious swings of weather for extended periods of time long before fossil fuels could be blamed for them.
The left has done their best to wipe these events from memory, and they’re rarely, if ever, talked about in the media or academia. But you can find out about them, if you try, and you should.
Now everything is climate change, no matter how absurd. Heavy snow or the lack of it. Heavy rains or none. Some are grumbling that the outdoor hockey game between Colorado Avalanche and Las Vegas Golden Knights being delayed for hours because the ice was too soft is a sign of climate change. But that game was played in Lake Tahoe, right on the water. But the average temperature in Lake Tahoe in February is 45 degrees, and they dropped the puck in the middle of the day.
The level of stupid to which leftists will go to make their case knows no bounds. That so many believe it because so many parrot it is a testament not only to just how successfully the education system has been in transforming into an indoctrination factory but just how committed the left is to get their hands on that power.
Anyone who wants power that badly, who is willing to go to such great lengths to obtain it, should be denied it at all costs.
Until Republicans learn to recognize the scope of the indoctrination and how to counter it (because Republican politicians are horrible at messaging), expect even more naturally occurring events to be blamed on this boogeyman.
But you should also expect cold in winter, heat in summer, rain sometimes and not others. Hurricanes will happen, so will tornadoes. Playing hockey outside between California and Nevada at noon will remain unwise, regardless of the time of year. And you should always remember that our temperature has a lot more to do with that big ball of fire in the sky than it does anything else.
https://townhall.com/columnists/derekhunter/2021/02/22/climate-change-keeps-changing-n2585082
************************************Under Biden, Green Job Lies Flow Instead of Oil; Unemployment May Soon Be the Only Gusher
Even as they are putting people in coal, gas, and oil fields out of work, President Joe Biden and his climate policy team keep telling lies about how their policies will create enough good-paying green energy jobs for the newly unemployed.
For instance, at a Jan. 27 press conference held to announce multiple executive orders (EO) issued by the president to fight climate change, his climate envoy John Kerry said that coal, gas, and oil workers who are being forced out of their jobs because of the EOs should have made “better choices” concerning their field of work. Fortunately, Kerry went on to say that coal, natural gas, and oil workers can “go to work to make the solar panels.”
Kerry’s arrogant, politically tone-deaf statement falsely implies coal miners and oil and gas workers can smoothly transition to jobs in the fast-growing wind and solar power industries. Government reports show this is untrue.
While The Washington Post has been a reliably pro-Biden voice since before the election, even it is calling out Kerry’s green jobs claims. The newspaper gave Kerry’s statements two Pinocchios, a rating indicating that even if Kerry wasn’t outright lying, his statements represent “a great example of how some ‘facts’ can be misleading when taken out of context.”
The U.S. Bureau of Labor Statistics (BLS) reports there won’t be nearly enough green jobs created by Biden’s policies to replace those of coal miners and oil and gas field workers made unemployed due to his inane effort to prevent climate change.
The wind and solar industry have grown at a rapid rate in recent years. However, BLS estimates by 2028, 10,400 new wind turbine technician and solar panel installer jobs will be created in total. During the same time period, Biden’s climate policies are expected to put more than 50,000 workers in the coal industry, and tens of thousands of more workers in the oil and gas industries, out of work. Biden’s Keystone XL pipeline shutdown and his prohibition on new oil and gas leases on public lands has already resulted in layoffs of more than 1,000 workers.
Nor would the switch from jobs in the coal, oil, and gas industries to wind and solar positions be instantaneous. BLS reports solar installers require “moderate-term on-the-job training,” and wind turbine technicians require “long-term on-the-job training.”
Also, wind and solar jobs don’t pay as well as jobs associated with fossil fuel production. The median wage for coal miners in 2019 was $59,000 annually. This is $8,000 above the average annual national private sector salary of $51,000. By comparison, BLS data show the median pay for solar installers in 2019 was approximately $45,000 ($6,000 below the national average), and the median wage for wind technicians was $53,000 annually.
The pay differential between solar and wind jobs and jobs in the oil and gas industry is even greater. The Department of Energy reports that oil and gas industry jobs pay $112,000 per year on average—more than double the average salary of a wind technician, 148 percent higher than that of a solar installer.
So much for jobs in the wind and solar industry representing “better choices” for workers.
This leads us to Biden’s other lies concerning all the new jobs his climate policies will create. Biden said one of his executive orders will “harness the purchasing power of the federal government to buy clean, zero-emission vehicles that are made and sourced by union workers right here in America. … This will mean one million new jobs in the American automobile industry. One million.” One million jobs is more than the total number of jobs manufacturing cars and trucks today!
The Associated Press, which is normally a reliable voice in support of climate alarmism, pointed out that Biden’s claim was false. AP reported that Biden’s electric vehicle job creation claims omit “important context and used fuzzy math” and, as a result, Biden’s policies “probably will mean fewer net auto-making jobs.”
Why? Because as U.S. automakers shift toward making more electric vehicles, they will be making fewer gasoline-powered cars and trucks. Thus, rather than creating new manufacturing jobs, workers will simply shift from assembling vehicles with internal combustion engines to cars and trucks with large battery packs.
However, it’s not a one-for-one job switch. As Kristin Dziczek, vice president at the Center for Automotive Research, explained to the AP, “[As] electric vehicles generally have 30 percent to 40 percent fewer parts and are simpler to build, fewer workers will be needed to assemble them.”
In addition, it’s easier to automate battery pack construction and installation, meaning robotic machinery will replace many workers on the shop floor. And the jobs remaining after Biden’s electric vehicle pipe dream comes to fruition will pay less. The AP discovered “automakers pay workers who assemble batteries less than they pay those who manufacture vehicles.”
To sum up, Biden’s forced shift to electric vehicles from gas-powered cars and trucks, which people evidently prefer based on the numbers purchased absent government coercion in the market place, will result in fewer well-paying jobs in the auto industry, not more.
Biden’s climate policies are a disaster for U.S. energy independence, which former President Donald Trump’s policies brought about, and for workers. Shame on Biden and Kerry for betraying American workers and the public and for lying to them about it.
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My other blogs. Main ones below
http://dissectleft.blogspot.com (DISSECTING LEFTISM)
http://snorphty.blogspot.com TONGUE-TIED)
http://edwatch.blogspot.com (EDUCATION WATCH)
http://pcwatch.blogspot.com (POLITICAL CORRECTNESS WATCH)
http://john-ray.blogspot.com (FOOD & HEALTH SKEPTIC) Saturdays only
http://australian-politics.blogspot.com (AUSTRALIAN POLITICS)
https://heofen.blogspot.com/ (MY OTHER BLOGS)
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Jim Hansen and his twin
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