O.K. so while I’m at it I might as well rant a bit about global warming too – at least it’s slightly less removed from deep-sky imaging than the topic below.
Whilst the “experts” continue to debate whether climate change/global warming is actually happening (or not) I still see the atmospheric CO2 concentration continuing to rise up an exponential curve. So I really don’t care about “experts” arguing over fine details about what’s happening (or not) and the supposed timescales involved – I can see where we are currently (CO2-wise) and I can see that there’s been nothing like it before in human history.
In World War II people were asked to hand in their iron railings and Aluminium pots and pans for the War effort, which of course they gladly did. Did these offerings actually go into making tanks and airplanes? Well actually no, but it did make the people think they were helping.
Similarly we now have “energy saving” lightbulbs to help us out with our current predicament – you know, the ones that contain Mercury, but it doesn’t say so on the packet contrary to any other product on the market that contains a dangerous substance. So at least we can now all rest safely in our beds knowing we have done our bit to slow down and even (dare I say) reverse Global Warming 🙂
Google “Atmospheric CO2 concentrations” and see for yourself – what do you see?
I believe Carl Sagan was the first to write about Venus and how it had become a “hell” due to a “runaway greenhouse effect” – basically the CO2 level had reached such a high concentration in the Venusian atmosphere that it efficiently and effectively trapped thermal radiation causing the planet’s surface to reach hellish temperatures.
Now look again at the Earth’s CO2 concentration and see how it is increasing exponentially with absolutely no sign of any flattening, drop-off or reduction at all. What does this suggest to you? To me it suggests we’ve already had it, also that our Governments know we’ve already had it, and there’s absolutely nothing that they or we can do about it.
Remember the 3-day week when power was only fed to Industry for 3 days in any week. We were advised (of course) to conserve energy as much as possible during this time. Another tactic would have been to turn on every energy-consuming device at your disposal to bring the already unpleasant situation to a more rapid conclusion.
So – with the current exponential rise in atmospheric CO2 concentration what will be your tactic? A house full of mercury-containing “energy-saving” light bulbs, or several 500W quartz halogens in every room, or something else perhaps?
