Originally posted by miko2d deSelys: - There wasn't any climatic (big hurricane like El Nino in 97-98) or geologic (earthquake, awakening of a volcano) event previously this year to explain those disturbances in world's climate. First, the effects of the abovementioned disturbances may be felt for years - due to ocean and athmosphere buffering effects.
Second, haven't you heards of a enormous three-miles high cloud of locally-produces soot hanging over the large portion of East Asia and cutting their sunlight by 15%? Not a large event for you?Mmmmokay the effects can be felt over years....but logically they shoud have a lower intensity each year, no?
About the 'brown cloud'....this isn't a 'natural event' as it is the result of human pollution.
Global warming is a fact. Even the most radical scientists predict that global warming will occur if we continue pollution - not that it should be noticeable now except by most precise scientific methods.Come on...you agree that a local hurricane can have global effects on climate over years...How wouldn't have any effect even a 0.1°C increase of average atmosphere temperature?
Ozone layer destruction is a fact.There is a lot of disagreement about that. The less ozone in the athmosphere, the more UV rays get in, the more UV-rays get in, the more ozone is created - it's self-balancing.
There has been detected about 10% variations in the ozone level in Antarctica - but you get 10% ozone level drop if you move 6 miles further from the equator from the point you are in.If I recall correctly, high alt ozone is much more stable than at low alts because of the conditions up there. Sun and pollution create ozone at ground level (which can be troublesome for persons with a diminished breathing capacity) BUT...this ozone is very rapidly decayed and almost never reaches the stratosphere. However, I agree that we don't have much data history (a couple of decades at most)...
BTW - I am a proponent of conservation.
Note - US steel industry has been suffering in competition with heavily subcidised steel industries of other countries - partly because of too strong dollar due to all that money being invested into US stock market by foreigners and partly due to lower expences of those manufacturers on the environment protection.
I am pretty sure that the emission standards of our steel industry are at least as much better than european ones as our car emission standards better than those of european cars. They are much better than those of less-developed countries (and into which Kyoto agreement would push more production from developed countries).
So while the tariffs imposed by Bush on steel imported into US were protective and contrary to free trade, should not have environmentalists praised them for being good for environment? Or did I miss that?I want to discuss this: indeed the emissions of your cars are better...but it depends on which emissions you're talking about. A lot of american cars have a much bigger engine than affordable here in Belgium because
1 Fuel is cheaper, and bigger engines generally consume more fuel
2 Our taxes system penalizes big engines
For instance, I own a Mitsubishi Carima Turbo-Diesel (diesel is cheaper than gasoline here):
Engine: 1900 cubic centimeters
power: 102 HP
consumption: 6 Liters /100 Kilometers
Exhaust Catalysor installed.
(I let you do the math to convert it because it is already late here
)
I agree that diesel produces more microscopic ashes than gasoline, but less other toxic emissions (sulphur if I recall correctly). However, I'm sure you'll agree than using 6 L /100 Km is better for the environment than a big GMC truck which will happily gobble 20 L of gasoline to cover the same distance.
Finally, but I can't honestly be certain about it, I've read that your steel industry
in general was less competitive than our (read european, not belgian that's a fact
) because we faced the same crisis 10 years ago. I don't know if it means that our factories have better or worse emissions tho. What is certain is that Bush's move about the steel taxes was a wrong one...look at the ratio Euro - Dollar...we're almost on par again now...
