• Welcome to BirdForum, the internet's largest birding community with thousands of members from all over the world. The forums are dedicated to wild birds, birding, binoculars and equipment and all that goes with it.

    Please register for an account to take part in the discussions in the forum, post your pictures in the gallery and more.
ZEISS DTI thermal imaging cameras. For more discoveries at night, and during the day.

Pollution (1 Viewer)

birdman

Орнитол&
Not really sure where to put this, so I've decided on here on the very general grounds of "conservation".

I post it for information, opinion and comment, but not for the purpose of opening a party political debate... so let's ensure all public opinions are kept out of the specific politics arena.

****
PHYSICS NEWS UPDATE

The American Institute of Physics Bulletin of Physics News Number 696 August 12, 2004 by Phillip F. Schewe, Ben Stein

THE MASSIVE NORTHEAST BLACKOUT of a year ago not only shut off electricity for 50 million people in the US and Canada, but also shut off the pollution coming from fossil-fired turbogenerators in the Ohio Valley. In effect, the power outage was an inadvertent experiment for gauging atmospheric repose with the grid gone for the better part of the day. And the results were impressive. On 15 August 2003, only 24 hours after the blackout, air was cleaner by this amount: SO2 was down 90%, O3 down 50%, and light-scattering particles down 70% over "normal" conditions in the same area. The haze reductions were made by University of Maryland scientists scooping air samples with a light aircraft. The observed pollutant reductions exceeded expectations, causing the authors to suggest that the spectacular overnight improvements in air quality "may result from underestimation of emission from power plants, inaccurate representation of power plant effluent in emission models or unaccounted-for atomospheric chemical reactions." (Marufu et al., Geophysical Research Letters, vol 31, L13106, 2004.)

 
Hello Birdman,

What's the betting that the US and Canadian Governments are covering up the true figures about power station emmissions as well.

Harry
 
harry eales said:
Hello Birdman,

What's the betting that the US and Canadian Governments are covering up the true figures about power station emmissions as well.

Harry

The US government never lies or covers up anything. ;)

Interesting Birdman. I still can't believe we're using fossil fuels. The combustion engine is so outdated. Coal power plants the same thing. I wonder why we haven't made bigger strides in solar energy and batteries for electric cars? I think I saw were (I think it was Greenland), was pushing hard for hydro cars. Any word on how that's going?

Mike
 
weather said:
The US government never lies or covers up anything. ;)

Interesting Birdman. I still can't believe we're using fossil fuels. The combustion engine is so outdated. Coal power plants the same thing. I wonder why we haven't made bigger strides in solar energy and batteries for electric cars? Mike

Simply because the oil lobby has far greater influence, and a deeper pocket.
 
birdman said:
Not really sure where to put this, so I've decided on here on the very general grounds of "conservation".

I post it for information, opinion and comment, but not for the purpose of opening a party political debate... so let's ensure all public opinions are kept out of the specific politics arena.

****
PHYSICS NEWS UPDATE

The American Institute of Physics Bulletin of Physics News Number 696 August 12, 2004 by Phillip F. Schewe, Ben Stein

THE MASSIVE NORTHEAST BLACKOUT of a year ago not only shut off electricity for 50 million people in the US and Canada, but also shut off the pollution coming from fossil-fired turbogenerators in the Ohio Valley. In effect, the power outage was an inadvertent experiment for gauging atmospheric repose with the grid gone for the better part of the day. And the results were impressive. On 15 August 2003, only 24 hours after the blackout, air was cleaner by this amount: SO2 was down 90%, O3 down 50%, and light-scattering particles down 70% over "normal" conditions in the same area. The haze reductions were made by University of Maryland scientists scooping air samples with a light aircraft. The observed pollutant reductions exceeded expectations, causing the authors to suggest that the spectacular overnight improvements in air quality "may result from underestimation of emission from power plants, inaccurate representation of power plant effluent in emission models or unaccounted-for atomospheric chemical reactions." (Marufu et al., Geophysical Research Letters, vol 31, L13106, 2004.)


Well, it is only one study. Even the authors write: "may result from underestimation of emission from power plants"

Even scientest sometimes have an agenda. I would like to see if there were any other studies done, and what thier findings were, before speculating. Can you find anymore Birdman to back this up?

Mike
 
weather said:
Can you find anymore Birdman to back this up?

Mike
Not looked, to be honest... although I'd be surprised if there has been a similar study, due to the nature and cause of the "model".

I think it is fair to raise the comment that scientists also work to an agenda.

When reading this, I wasn't sure whether I should be horrified at the amount of pollution that we cause, or comforted by the swiftness at which airborne pollution drops in a very short time.
 
Warning! This thread is more than 20 years ago old.
It's likely that no further discussion is required, in which case we recommend starting a new thread. If however you feel your response is required you can still do so.

Users who are viewing this thread

Back
Top