Automobile Pollution Consequences

…it is believed that at this growth rate, the number of cars on earth will double within the next 30 years. …

Source: World Watch Institute

Link: http://www.worldwatch.org/node/1537

Michael Renner: Senior Researcher

In 2002, the world’s passenger car fleet hit 531 million. A quarter of these cars were in the United States, a country with just five percent of the world’s population, and a long known love affair for the automobile. The average car in the US travels 10 percent more each year than a car in the United Kingdom, about 50 percent more than one in Germany, and almost 200 percent more than a car in Japan.

And while Americans drive less fuel-efficient cars—the carbon emissions of U.S. automobiles are roughly equivalent to those of the entire Japanese economy – the fourth largest carbon emitter—efforts to raise mandated fuel efficiency standards in the U.S. are hitting constant road blocks.

End of excerpt.

Author’s comment:

I have had Asthma/COPD for the past 9 years. It has changed my life and the way I’m forced to live it 180 degrees, it happened overnight, gasping for breath unable to retrieve any air I expelled…I thought I was dying on the spot. I have survived by using 3 powerful drugs; some may contribute to an early death as a side effect! I was forced to end all sports, walk slowly…like an old man. This may be a result of chemicals from work, air pollution..no one has a definitive answer.

End of comment.

Asthma Epidemic Worldwide

Source: beating-asthma.com

Link: http://www.beating-asthma.com/asthma-statistics.html

Asthma Statistics Just Keep On Rising And Rising!

Asthma statistics show that more and more people have been diagnosed with the condition over the past years – so much so that some researchers state that the incidence of asthma has reached epidemic levels all over the world – and there has been plenty of research to support this evidence.

Because the numbers of people with asthma have risen so drastically, countries all over the world now recognise that this is a concern.

 

Asthma Statistics Worldwide

Approximately 300 million people worldwide have currently been diagnosed with asthma. And this number increases by an alarming 50% every decade!

The UK has the highest number of cases( over 15%), followed by New Zealand (with 15.1%), Australia (14.7%), the Republic of Ireland (14.6%), Canada (14.1%) and the United States(10.9%).

Approximately 180,000 people die every year through asthma related illness. It’s estimated that about 1 in every 250 deaths worldwide are related to asthma (American Academy of Allergy Asthma & Immunology 2004). Overall, death rates have been falling since the 1980s.

Most asthma deaths occur in people over 45 years old and is it thought that many of these could be prevented.

Asthma Statistics USA

It’s estimated that 23.2 million people in the USA suffer from asthma – a figure that continues to rise year on year – Asthma and allergies strike affect 1 out of every 4 Americans according to the American Academy of Allergy Asthma and Immunology.

It’s the major chronic illness of children in the USA. Nearly 9 million children under the age of 18 (that’s 12% of all children) have been diagnosed with the condition and children miss much of their schooling due to chronic illness from the condition (over 12.8 million school days are lost each year according to the American Academy of Allergy Asthma & Immunology).

Comment:

If we as a Society believe, that the weak and inferior will be the first to go, and we accept that as Nature’s way, I say we are wrong! Nature is not the source of the poisons killing the weak and possibly genetically inferior, we are. The first to die may not be genetically inferior at all; they might be the most genetically pure?

Our World and the Environment in which we live is being altered in ways we don’t yet understand. Those that die today may only be the “tip of the Iceberg”, foreshadowing a horrendous future for all of Humanity. We do not know if the environmental toxins, produced by industry, are literally degrading our very genetic makeup, damning mankind to oblivion.

Air Pollution Focus is all wrong..cars.

The level of pollution soon to be placed in the atmosphere by China and India would negate, twice over, all the pollution that North America and Europe currently put into the air!  If North America and Europe closed our entire Societies, producing 0% air pollution it would have 0% effect on the level of pollution produced Worlwide! The emphasis has been on “cars causing air pollution” when the total number of cars, Worldwide is estimated in 2002, the world’s passenger car fleet hit 531 million.

It is believed that at this growth rate, the number of cars on earth will double within the next 30 years. …

Source: World Watch Institute
Link: http://www.worldwatch.org/node/1537

Michael Renner: Senior Researcher

In 2002, the world’s passenger car fleet hit 531 million. A quarter of these cars were in the United States, a country with just five percent of the world’s population, and a long known love affair for the automobile. The average car in the US travels 10 percent more each year than a car in the United Kingdom, about 50 percent more than one in Germany, and almost 200 percent more than a car in Japan. And while Americans drive less fuel-efficient cars—the carbon emissions of U.S. automobiles are roughly equivalent to those of the entire Japanese economy – the fourth largest carbon emitter—efforts to raise mandated fuel efficiency standards in the U.S. are hitting constant road blocks.

Source: Friends of the Earth
Link: http://www.foe.org/air-and-water/ship-emissions

Ship Air Pollution

Authors Note: Number of ships.

**It has been estimated that only 7,000 cargo ships produce as much pollution as every car on Earth. This is 7,000 out of over 50,000.

 
As at 1st January 2008, the world trading fleet was made up of 50,525 ships, with a combined tonnage of 728,225,000 gross tonnes.
The amount of air pollution produced by ocean-going vessels is staggering.   A single cargo ship can produce as much air pollution as 350,000 cars in an hour.  These large, ocean-going ships operate on diesel engines the size of a single-family home, and most burn “bunker” fuel, which is cheap, but much more polluting than fuels used to power vehicles.  Bunker fuel contains high concentrations of toxic compounds banned from use in most other industrial and consumer applications. As global trade increases, global shipping is expected to double within the next decade,   bringing shipping pollution to new highs.  EPA estimates that emissions from ocean-going vessels will double their contributions to the national mobile source inventory of sulfur oxides and quadruple particulate matter—are both of which  major health threats.   According to EPA, by 2030 shipping is expected to grow nearly three-fold over 2000 levels.   This increased level of shipping not only degrades air quality, but also contributes to the acidification and eutrophication of waterways through deposition and carbon dioxide emissions.

Therefore I submit, the easy target of automobile pollution should continue to be improved as quickly as feasible, we should instead focus our attention on the major offenders! Governments have a tendancy to “do the easy thing”, this to give the impression they are actually doing something substantial.

Undersea Gas Hydrates Article

These are excerpts from an article by Alan Boyle of MSNBC, discussing new Energy sources that may be vital to the energy future of the entire Earth. As stated it may allow for the transition from conventional fossil fuels, oil, to a cleaner and abundant source of clean energy.

Source:
Alan Boyle – MSNBC “Cosmic Log” – cosmiclog@msnbc.com
Link: http://cosmiclog.msnbc.msn.com/archive/2009/08/20/2041789.aspx

“A NEW ENERGY FRONTIER?” by Alan Boyle author of “Cosmic Logic”

Excerpt begins:

“Gas hydrate deposits are a big deal because they are so widespread, and yet so mysterious: These undersea deposits form from methane and water at low temperatures and moderate pressures. The methane molecules are trapped within lattices of water molecules, but they can be released by raising the temperature or lowering the pressure.”

Note: my insert***(see estimates below)***
“Boswell cites estimates suggesting that 20 quadrillion cubic meters of methane could be trapped within global deposits. If all that methane could be extracted, it would provide enough natural gas to supply the United States at current levels for more than 30,000 years.”

“That’s an impossibly big “if,” however. First of all, the vast majority of those deposits are either widely dispersed in mud or piled up in mounds on the deep-ocean floor. Getting at those deposits would be an expensive, ugly proposition with potentially catastrophic environmental consequences (more about that in just a bit).”

“A whiff of environmental worry
One of the big questions has to do with how harvesting gas hydrates would affect climate change. Methane is a far more potent greenhouse gas than carbon dioxide, and for a long time, researchers have wondered whether the release of undersea methane could kick off a runaway global-warming effect.” (italics added)

“Here’s how the scenario is set out: Warming oceans cause a thaw in gas hydrate deposits, which liberates methane, which adds to the greenhouse effect, which warms the oceans, which adds to the gas hydrate thaw, which … well, you see where this is going.”

“The “methane apocalypse” often comes up in discussions of past extinctions or science-fiction tales (such as “The Mother of Storms,” a past pick in the Cosmic Log Used Book Club). There’s even a USGS Web page addressing concerns that gas hydrates are to blame for the Bermuda Triangle.” (italics added)

“But you don’t have to turn to science fiction or the fossil record to pick up on the concerns about gas hydrates. This month, Geophysical Research Letters published a study finding that an Arctic sea-temperature rise of 1.8 degrees Fahrenheit (1 degree Celsius) has coincided with heightened release of methane from the sea’s depths.”

“Our survey was designed to work out how much methane might be released by future ocean warming; we did not expect to discover such strong evidence that this process has already started,” the University of Southampton’s Tim Minshull said in a news release from Britain’s National Oceanography Center.” “And the world’s oceans are continuing to warm, according to the latest statistics.” (italics added)

End of Excerpt

Comment:

The previous paragraph mentioned Methane Hydrate deposits are already becoming unstable from Ocean warming and beginning to release gas. Methods to extract this gas and stop it being released into the atmosphere may become critical at some time in the near future. (more later)

I strongly suggest reading the entire article, especially those that may be concerned about so-called “dwindling energy reserves”. The transition from “an oil based economy” to cleaner, renewable sources (i.e. wind, water and Sun) will take decades to centuries, in the interim we will be forced to use new technologies and new energy sources. It is possible, with ever more sophisticated scrubbers and clean burn technology, to eliminate the “dirty fuels” with little or no harm to our environment.

MIT Energy Initiative

MITei

Source: MIT

Link: http://web.mit.edu/mitei/research/global/index.html

Global systems

Focus on the planet

 A major focus of MITEI is addressing global energy systems through a multidisciplinary systems approach that integrates policy design and technology development.

Meeting the world’s growing demand for energy, minimizing related impacts on the environment and reducing the potential geopolitical tensions associated with increased competition for energy supplies represent some of the greatest technical and policy challenges of the next several decades.

Meeting these global energy and environmental challenges requires a multidisciplinary systems approach that integrates policy design and technology development to address a range of complicated and difficult problems.

Fossil fuels supply more than 80 percent of the world’s primary energy but they are finite resources and major contributors to global climate change. The ways and means for their ultimate replacement with clean, affordable and sustainable energy sources at the scale required to power the world are not yet fully obvious, readily available or, in many instances, technically feasible. Also, these alternative sources are not all benign and their impacts on the environment, particularly when deployed at scale, are not fully understood.

Further, existing energy infrastructures in the United States and around the world are complex and very large, represent enormous capital investment and have operational life spans of 50 years or more.

Wholesale or even piecemeal replacement of these infrastructures will be costly, will take time and will be frequently resisted by entrenched interests. In addition, the local, regional and global impacts of climate change require unique understanding of the scientific and technical underpinnings of the problems in order to formulate informed and timely responses at unprecedented national and international levels.

Meeting dramatic increases in energy demand, particularly in the developing world, will compound these problems at the same time that it enables opportunities for enhanced national stability, economic development and improved quality of life.

The coordination of policy, regulation and technology development is critical if we are to meet the energy, environmental, and security imperatives of the 21st century. It is essential that we base our energy policy, regulatory and diplomatic decisions and actions on the strongest, most informed and integrated scientific, economic and social analysis to:

• avoid or minimize the stranding of assets
• optimize the investment of scarce research dollars
• minimize potential economic dislocation during the transition to a sustainable energy future
• preserve the fundamental and desirable drivers and aspects of free markets by internalizing public goods such as enhanced security and environmental stewardship
• reduce geopolitical tensions associated with competition for scarce resources
• maximize the opportunities for successful transformation of global energy systems.

Alberta “Oil sands”

Source: Wikipedia
Site: http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Oil_sands

“Oil sands”
From Wikipedia, the free encyclopedia

“Oil sands, also known as tar sands, or extra heavy oil, is a type of bitumen deposit. The sands are naturally occurring mixtures of sand or clay, water and an extremely dense and viscous form of petroleum called bitumen. They are found in large amounts in many countries throughout the world, but are found in extremely large quantities in Canada and Venezuela.”

“Oil sands were used for waterproofing by the ancient Mesopotamians and Canadian First Nations, among others. In the modern era, they were extensively mined near the European city of Pechelbronn, where the vapor separation process was in use in 1742.”

“The name tar sands was applied to bituminous sands in the late 19th and early 20th century. People who saw the bituminous sands during this period were familiar with the large amounts of tar residue produced in urban areas as a by-product of the manufacture of coal gas for urban heating and lighting. The word tar to describe these natural bitumen deposits is really a misnomer, since, chemically speaking, tar is a man-made substance produced by the destructive distillation of organic material, usually coal. Since then, coal gas has almost completely been replaced by natural gas as a fuel, and coal tar as a material for paving roads has been replaced by the petroleum product asphalt. Naturally occurring bitumen is chemically more similar to asphalt than to tar, and oil sands (or oilsands) is more commonly used in the producing areas than tar sands because synthetic oil is what is manufactured from the bitumen.”

“Many countries in the world have large deposits of oil sands, including the United States, Russia, and various countries in the Middle East. However, the world’s largest deposits occur in two countries: Canada and Venezuela, both of which have oil sands reserves approximately equal to the world’s total reserves of conventional crude oil. As a result of the development of Canadian oil sands reserves, 44% of Canadian oil production in 2007 was from oil sands, with an additional 18% being heavy oil, while light oil and condensate had declined to 38% of the total. Because growth of oil sands production has exceeded declines in conventional crude oil production, Canada has become the largest supplier of oil and refined products to the United States, ahead of Saudi Arabia and Mexico. Venezuelan production is also very large, but due to political problems within its national oil company, estimates of its production data are not reliable. Outside analysts believe Venezuela’s oil production has declined in recent years, though there is much debate on whether this decline is depletion-related or not.”

“Oil sands may represent as much as two-thirds of the world’s total petroleum resource, with at least 1.7 trillion barrels (270×10^9 m3) in the Canadian Athabasca Oil Sands and perhaps 235 billion barrels (37×10^9 m3) of extra heavy crude in the Venezuelan Orinoco oil sands. Between them, the Canadian and Venezuelan deposits contain about 3.6 trillion barrels (570×10^9 m3) of oil in place, compared to 1.75 trillion barrels (280×10^9 m3) of conventional oil worldwide, most of it in Saudi Arabia and other Middle-Eastern countries.”

NOTE:

“Canada is the largest supplier of crude oil and refined products to the United States, supplying about 20% of total U.S. imports, and exports more oil and products to the U.S. than it consumes itself. In 2006, bitumen production averaged 1.25 million barrels per day (200,000 m³/d) through 81 oil sands projects, representing 47% of total Canadian petroleum production. This proportion is expected to increase in coming decades as bitumen production grows while conventional oil production declines.”

*End of Wickipedia excerpts*

Comments:

The use of the oil sands in Alberta has been attacked by many Environmentalists as unnecessary and dangerous to our health. No mention is made of Chinese or Indian pollution that will make the last 200 years of European and North American pollution look like an Environmentalists picnic!

These are strategic resources, both Economic and Military. The Economies of Canada and the United States are already under severe stress, most brought about by corporations moving to “greener economic pastures”, being China and someday India.

To the Environmentalists, with jobs, there are millions of your fellow citizens without work or a severely reduced lifestyle because of the corporate moves to China! Our energy is plentiful. It will take decades to develop entirely “pollution neutral energy supplies”. Until that time we must develop our current resources, continue working on alternative sources (i.e. Sun, wind and wave) and NOT completely destroy our Economies. The fantasy that we “alone” in North America can save the Earth without a Worldwide concensus from all the major economies is nonsensical.

Careers tarnished by Zealots ?

The climate change debate is FAR from over. Respected Scientists with many decades of study and service to Mankind have been ridiculed and silenced by “extremists” bent on furthering their own careers or unwilling to engage in open, honest debate about their “theories.”

I have been watching, reading and considering both sides for at least 4 decades. I have Occupational Asthma from work as a machinist, it will kill me prematurely, I am ANGRY to. Our Environment has NEVER been protected by our Governments, we MUST change that ! The important question is….”do we destroy our already injured Economy” to achieve a lofty goal quickly, or in a more methodical and orderly fashion?

NASA – Severe Space Weather

January 21, 2009: Did you know a solar flare can make your toilet stop working?

That’s the surprising conclusion of a NASA-funded study by the National Academy of Sciences entitled Severe Space Weather Events—Understanding Societal and Economic Impacts. In the 132-page report, experts detailed what might happen to our modern, high-tech society in the event of a “super solar flare” followed by an extreme geomagnetic storm. They found that almost nothing is immune from space weather—not even the water in your bathroom.

The article has a map showing large areas of North America whose Power Grids are particularly at risk of failuer, with the potential to black out most of Canada and the USA. These power grids are antiquities and deserve a long hard look by Engineers to stabilize and protect them from this hazard.

Ice Age ..?

A little know fact seems to be, “just before an Ice Age occurs the Earth gets very warm.” Hmmmmm…..

The age of The Earth is about 4.5 Billion years, our documented temperature change records are about 150 years, do we really have enough information…?? I suspect not. Ice and soil core samples used by Geologists give what we believe are fairly accurate readings regarding temperature, air and other chemical signatures. Ice Ages have occured with frightening regularity over the Millennia.

The radical Scientists, making television and Academic careers by frightening the peasants should be ashamed! The average person has “more than enough angst to deal with now” – what with terrorism, War, unemployment, the price of gas/food and other basic necessities. “Fear is our common enemy”, used by our own and external enemies. The fear engendered by the terrorists in this World is almost their only weapon*** When you may have our own citizens and countrymen using this fear for their own devices is “truly frightening!”

Open request for information..please respond!

I am seeking sources of information, from both sides of the debate, regarding climate change. It seems to me “as a peasant” the discussion/battle has not been balanced, nor civil. It is a destruction of honest opinion by extremists, blaming Mankind for all the evils of “so called Global Warming.” This theory has NOT been proven, far from it! As I understand it accurate temperature records have only existed for 1 1/2 centuries, a “tear drop in the Ocean of Time.”

I ask both sides, of what should be a Scholarly debate, to educate all of us peasants. Do not “brow beat or attack us, this will only force us to question your sincerity.”

 

Green or Black – our choice

This site will be dedicated to Environmental issues and discussions regarding practical energy requirements, needs and a method of supporting our Economy and Society without destroying both. There is absolutely no question we must clean up our Environment, air. water and food supply. We all know that. The question is, “do we ruin our own economy as foolish people, or do we work at a reasonable pace over time to improve the World for the future without reverting to the 1930′s Era Depression times?”

The climate change debate is FAR from over. Respected Scientists with many decades of study and service to Mankind have been ridiculed and silenced by “extremists” bent on furthering their own careers or unwilling to engage in open, honest debate about their “theories.”

I have been watching, reading and considering both sides for at least 4 decades. I have Occupational Asthma from work as a machinist, it will kill me prematurely, I am ANGRY to. Our Environment has NEVER been protected by our Governments, we MUST change that ! The important question is….”do we destroy our already injured Economy” to achieve a lofty goal quickly, or in a more methodical and orderly fashion?