More contrail panic

Contrails (short for "condensation trails") are line-shaped clouds produced by aircraft engine exhaust. They are composed primarily of water, in the form of ice crystals, but also include some fine particulate matter.

There is quite a history of panic about them. They are supposed to do all sorts of bad things.  Even some conservatives get sucked in. But it is primarily the Green/Left who obsess about them. The latest spasm is below, by Warmist hack, Michael Le Page.  He claims that contrails produce global warming.

But contrails are just a type of cloud and it is now generally accepted that clouds have an overall  COOLING effect. The very latest theory is in fact that an ABSENCE of cloud cover that will cause global warming.  "You pays your money and you take your choice", as the showman said.

We have met author Michael Le Page before and he was profoundly silly on that occasion too


The contrails left by aeroplanes last only hours. But they are now so widespread that their warming effect is greater than that of all the carbon dioxide emitted by aeroplanes that has accumulated in the atmosphere since the first flight of the Wright brothers.

Worse still, this non-CO2 warming effect is set to triple by 2050, according to a study by Ulrike Burkhardt and Lisa Bock at the Institute of Atmospheric Physics in Germany.

Altogether, flying is responsible for around 5 per cent of global warming, the team says, so this figure will soar even higher – and no meaningful actions are being taken to prevent this.

“Lots of people talk about the need to stop air traffic increasing all the time, but this is not taken that seriously,” says Burkhardt.

And the discussions that are taking place focus almost entirely on the associated CO2 emissions. “That’s a problem if the non-CO2 effects are larger than the CO2 ones,” she says.

“The non-CO2 warming is the elephant in the room,” says Bill Hemmings of Transport & Environment, a Belgium-based campaign group.

All aircraft that burn fuels leave behind a trail of exhaust fumes and soot. At high altitudes, water vapour often condenses on the soot particles and freezes to form a cirrus cloud that can persist for seconds to hours, depending on temperature and humidity.

Clouds can have both a cooling and warming effect. They reflect some of the sun’s rays back into space, but also block some of the heat radiated by Earth’s surface. On average, both thin natural cirrus clouds and contrails have a net warming effect.

Burkhardt and her colleagues used a computer model of the atmosphere to estimate how much warming contrails caused in 2006 – the latest year for which a detailed air traffic inventory is available – and how much they will cause by 2050, when air traffic is expected to be four times higher.

The model accounts for not only of the change in air traffic volume, but also the location and altitude of flights, along with the changing climate.

The team concludes that the warming effect of contrails will rise from 50 milliwatts per square metre of Earth’s surface in 2006 to 160 mW/m2 by 2050.

In comparison, the warming due to CO2 from aviation will rise from 24 to 84 mW/m2 by this time.

In a scenario in which the airline industry increases fuel efficiency and reduces the number of soot particles emitted by improving fuels and engines, the warming from contrails by 2050 is limited to 140 mW/m2 and the warming from CO2 to 60 mW/m2.

SOURCE





Study: Climate change can be reversed by planting a forest nearly double the size of the U.S.

Pleasant to contemplate but it aint gonna happen

A new study suggests that human beings could save themselves from the worst ravages of climate change by planting a forest nearly double the size of the area of the United States.

Compiled by the Crowther Lab at ETH University in Zurich, and published Thursday in the journal Science, the study is the first undertaken to map the areas where trees can flourish despite rising temperatures, and calculate how much carbon they could store through photosynthesis. It concludes that a global reforestation effort on up to 6.9 million square miles of land not currently utilized could produce forests capable of storing about 205 tonnes of carbon, which is roughly two-thirds of the excess carbon human beings have added to the atmosphere since the Industrial Revolution.

“We’ve modeled, with very high accuracy, where trees can exist on the planet,” Thomas Crowther, the study’s senior author, told Yahoo News. “Essentially, by making that map, we can then get an understanding of where, under today’s climate, trees can exist.”

Because global temperatures have risen by nearly 1.8°F since the dawn of the Industrial Revolution, dense equatorial forests have become less optimal for growing trees, Crowther said, while areas once too cold for tree growth have become viable. The problem is that new forests don’t naturally spring up fast enough to compensate for the habitat lost to climate change. With an eye toward speeding the process along, Crowther’s study identifies the available land where trees can now flourish. In the United States, for instance, new forest could be planted over approximately 400,000 square miles. The catch, however, is that even if a massive effort were undertaken immediately, it would take between 40 and 100 years to realize peak carbon intake.

“It’s certainly not an immediate-fix situation, but it is, by far, the biggest solution that we’ve got,” Crowther said. “There’s no other technology that would be faster.”

SOURCE





Brazil president rejects European criticism over environment

Brazilian President Jair Bolsonaro rebutted European criticism over his commitment to the environment on Thursday, saying that foreign leaders have historically influenced decisions that are hindering Brazil's progress.

The president said he had flown over Europe twice and hadn't seen "even a square kilometer of forest."

"They have no authority to discuss the environmental issue with us," Bolsonaro said during a breakfast with rural lawmakers at the palace of Planalto.

His comments came two days after French President Emmanuel Macron threatened to boycott a recently signed free trade agreement between Mercosur and the European Union if Brazil abandoned the Paris climate accord and his environment minister said the South American country must respect its commitments to protecting the Amazon rainforest.

The trade agreement needs the endorsement of each signatory country's congress.

Bolsonaro said after meeting with European leaders in Osaka at the G-20 summit last week that he had the impression "they thought they were dealing with previous administrations... They thought that they would come here, demarcate dozens of indigenous areas, expand protected areas and hinder our progress."

He dismissed a proposal by Macron to have a joint meeting with Raoni, an indigenous leader of the Amazon known for defending indigenous peoples' rights.

"I gave him a resounding no. I do not recognize him as an authority. (Raoni) is a citizen like any other," Bolsonaro said.

European criticism comes amid ongoing questions from members of Bolsonaro's administration over the effectiveness of the Amazon Fund, which was created in 2008 to contain deforestation.

Norway is the fund's main contributor, having given $1.2 billion between 2008 and 2018, and Germany is another major backer. But Brazil's environment minister has cited numerous alleged contract irregularities, challenging a belief among scientists and climate change experts that the fund efficiently contributes to anti-deforestation efforts.

SOURCE





UK: Sales of hybrid cars plummet after subsidy cut

Odd, that

Sales of pure electric cars rose sharply but this was offset by a huge decrease in the number of hybrids

The number of green cars sold in Britain has fallen for the first time in two years after the government cut subsidies.

Last month 13,314 “alternatively fuelled” cars were registered, 12 per cent less than in June 2018. Sales of pure electric cars rose sharply but this was offset by a huge decrease in the number of hybrids, which run on a combination of battery power and a conventional petrol engine.

The Society of Motor Manufacturers and Traders (SMMT) said that it was the first time since April 2017 that the eco-friendly car sector had seen a decline.

The figures will come as a blow to the government’s ambition to promote clean alternatives to traditional petrol and diesel cars.

SOURCE





Australia: Commuter chaos as militant climate change protesters shut down Sydney streets to protest the controversial Adani mine

Queensland already has massive coal mines.  Why is another one so different?  Is it racial prejudice against its Indian owner?  The claims of environmental damage are pure hysteria.  We already know well what actual threats to the environment come from coal mines and have had plenty of practice in preventing them

There is no unaddressed problem with the mine and both major parties at the Federal and State level have approved it.  So why is this small group of fantasists protesting?  It's just virtue signalling.  They are publicity hounds and want people to think how good and kind and wise they are.  The unfortunate Mr Adani has just been chosen as a symbolic target.  His brown skin probably helped single him out


Parts of Sydney have been shut down as demonstrators march through the streets in protest of the Adani mine.

Hundreds of activists have brandished placards as they walk along Bathurst Street in Town Hall. 'Coral not Coal,' one sign reads.

A child could also be seen amid the crowd waving a sign that read: 'Adani you have kids... think about our children.'

Parts of Brisbane have also been brought to a standstill with protests across the city kicking into high gear. Protesters could be heard chanting throughout Brisbane Square: 'Palaszczuk hear us say, we’ll fight Adani all the way.'

Organiser Catherine Robertson said the protest intended to put pressure on the Queensland Government. 'We're stopping the city again because we can't afford to let the Adani coal mine become a reality,' she said in a statement.

'The mine is going to destroy the Galilee Basin, lead to mass extinctions and push us to a point of no return on the climate.'

She said she was expecting a crowd of 2,000 people as they pressured the state government to 'rip up' contracts with the Indian mining company. 'We want to disrupt the city so the Labor government takes notice,' she said.

'Adani will result in the extinction of that entire part of the state.'

In anticipation of the protest public order and riot squad officers were deployed to parts of Sydney to prepare for the oncoming flood of protesters.

The protest on Friday follows a string of demonstrations held in Queensland in June. Five protesters glued themselves to a street while more than 700 marched through Brisbane Square on June 21. Only a few days earlier protesters glued themselves to a busy street and caused commuter chaos.

After eight years, the Adani coalmine was given its final environmental approval in early June.

Queensland's government said it had accepted a groundwater management plan for the Indian-owned Adani Carmichael mine -- the last major legal hurdle before construction can begin.

The vast open cut mine is slated to produce up to 60 million tonnes of coal a year, boosting Australia's already vast exports by around 20 percent.

Coupled with the construction of a railway link, it could open up a swathe of Queensland to further exploitation and new mining projects.

'If all the coal in the Galilee Basin is burnt it would produce 705 million tonnes of climate pollution each year, which is more than 1.3 times Australia's annual pollution from all sources, including cars, industry, energy and agriculture,' the Australian Conservation Foundation said.

While some locals are thankful for the jobs the mine promises to create, others have been opposed to the environmental impact of a new coal mine.

Adani originally promised to employ 10,000 news jobs, but this figure has since been cut back to just 1,500 with a potential 6,750 indirect jobs, Mining Monthly reported.

SOURCE 

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