Author Topic: Climate Change  (Read 19506 times)

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Offline SteveH

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Re: Climate Change
« Reply #30 on: April 08, 2020, 11:46:39 am »
Air pollution levels in the UK have dropped significantly in the two weeks since the country went into lockdown to stop the spread of coronavirus.

Some cities have seen nitrogen dioxide (N02) levels fall by up to 60% on the same period last year, analysis shows.
N02, released from car exhausts, is a serious air pollutant and also indirectly contributes to the warming of the planet.

https://www.bbc.co.uk/news/uk-england-52202974


India Savors a Rare Upside to Coronavirus: Clean Air
Delhi residents are stunned by how blue the sky really is as a strict lockdown cuts back drastically on air pollution.
https://www.nytimes.com/2020/04/08/world/asia/india-pollution-coronavirus.html


Himalayas visible for first time in 30 years as pollution levels in India drop
https://www.sbs.com.au/language/english/audio/himalayas-visible-for-first-time-in-30-years-as-pollution-levels-in-india-drop?fbclid=IwAR1vBO5JOG1_7SbaF01HW8kEk6dqNd6YyAW_hUqMef_NqON7k1_0t4LT8Tc


Offline SteveH

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Re: Climate Change
« Reply #31 on: April 09, 2020, 10:36:28 am »
After reading this piece in the DP   "Giant tanker anchored off Anglesey for days as coronavirus 'super-contango' hits oil market
The Maersk Promise has been moored off island's east coast for around 10 days" I checked out the Marine traffic site, the air and roadways might be a lot quieter these days but, quite surprising to see how busy our waters are.

click to enlarge


Offline SteveH

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Re: Climate Change
« Reply #32 on: June 04, 2020, 10:12:52 am »
Air pollution in China has climbed back to pre-pandemic levels, and scientists say Europe may follow suit.

Air pollution causes at least 8m early deaths a year, and cleaner skies were seen as one of the few silver linings of Covid-19. Experts have called for action to help retain the air quality benefits of lockdowns, and measures taken to date have included expanding cycle lanes and space for walking in cities.

Data from the Centre for Research on Energy and Clean Air (Crea) shows concentrations of fine particles (PM2.5) and nitrogen dioxide (NO2) across China are now at the same levels as one year earlier. At the height of the country’s coronavirus response in early March, NO2 levels were down by 38% from 2019 and levels of PM2.5 were down by 34%.

"Gary Fuller, an air pollution expert at Kings College London, said: “Rather than let this time be forgotten, the United Nations and environmental campaigners are urging governments to ‘build back better, to invest in the future not the past’, to ensure that our global recovery has sustainable legacy.”

Air pollution has been linked to heart and lung damage and many other conditions including diabetes and damaged intelligence. It is likely to affect virtually every organ in the body.

There is growing evidence linking exposure to dirty air to increased risk of death from Covid-19, prompting calls to keep air pollution low to help avoid the dangers of a second wave of infection. "

Full report   https://www.theguardian.com/environment/2020/jun/03/air-pollution-in-china-back-to-pre-covid-levels-and-europe-may-follow


Offline Hugo

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Re: Climate Change
« Reply #33 on: June 04, 2020, 10:22:02 am »
Air pollution in Llandudno seems to be on the increase too

Offline SteveH

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Re: Climate Change
« Reply #34 on: June 05, 2020, 02:49:17 pm »
Air pollution in China has climbed back to pre-pandemic levels, and scientists say Europe may follow suit.

Air pollution causes at least 8m early deaths a year, and cleaner skies were seen as one of the few silver linings of Covid-19. Experts have called for action to help retain the air quality benefits of lockdowns, and measures taken to date have included expanding cycle lanes and space for walking in cities.

Data from the Centre for Research on Energy and Clean Air (Crea) shows concentrations of fine particles (PM2.5) and nitrogen dioxide (NO2) across China are now at the same levels as one year earlier. At the height of the country’s coronavirus response in early March, NO2 levels were down by 38% from 2019 and levels of PM2.5 were down by 34%.

"Gary Fuller, an air pollution expert at Kings College London, said: “Rather than let this time be forgotten, the United Nations and environmental campaigners are urging governments to ‘build back better, to invest in the future not the past’, to ensure that our global recovery has sustainable legacy.”

Air pollution has been linked to heart and lung damage and many other conditions including diabetes and damaged intelligence. It is likely to affect virtually every organ in the body.

There is growing evidence linking exposure to dirty air to increased risk of death from Covid-19, prompting calls to keep air pollution low to help avoid the dangers of a second wave of infection. "

Full report   https://www.theguardian.com/environment/2020/jun/03/air-pollution-in-china-back-to-pre-covid-levels-and-europe-may-follow


A recent article, highlighting the above problem ..............  Coronavirus pandemic 'has helped two million Britons with lung conditions'
As a result of stringent lockdown measures, road traffic use plummeted to its lowest levels in recent history.

The British Lung Foundation's (BLF) survey of 14,000 patients found that 16 per cent had noticed an improvement in symptoms. The charity extrapolated the figures to estimate how many people are likely to have enjoyed better health as a result of far fewer people travelling in cars during the lockdown.

Air pollution has been likened to worsening of symptoms for some lung patients, including those with asthma or chronic obstructive pulmonary disease. As a result of stringent lockdown measures, road traffic use plummeted to its lowest levels in recent history.

The BLF poll found that one in five parents of a child with a lung condition said they noticed an improvement to their child's symptoms. The survey also showed that a quarter of people with asthma noted an improvement in their symptoms.

Full article  https://inews.co.uk/news/health/coronavirus-lockdown-helped-two-million-britons-lung-conditions-2874025?fbclid=IwAR16jDvGD9Nsb55NPu__pfMTCM5MWbpLi64_O4nS4wWxavDNHr7-qq-2ads

Offline SteveH

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Re: Climate Change
« Reply #35 on: January 14, 2021, 09:58:22 am »
Tolls on Welsh roads like A55 and A483 moves closer - and hefty fines for drivers leaving engines running
Burning traditional coal and undried wood would also be banned under Clean Air plans put forward by the Welsh Government

Air pollution has been blamed for causing conditions like asthma and COPD, and is thought to be responsible for 1,000-1,400 deaths in Wales each year.

“Breathing clean air and having access to a healthy environment is a right, not a privilege,”

https://www.dailypost.co.uk/news/north-wales-news/tolls-welsh-roads-like-a55-19621424

Offline SteveH

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Re: Climate Change
« Reply #36 on: May 03, 2021, 10:25:04 am »
How North Wales business' incredible invention could help replenish polar ice caps
The ice-making machine powered by renewable energy has caught the attention of the United Nations Development Programme

A North Wales company has invented a revolutionary ice-making machine powered by renewable energy to replenish melting polar ice caps in the battle against climate change.

The prototype developed by Real Ice, formed by a team of graduates and current students at Bangor University, is being sent out to be tested in the icy wastes of Northern Canada.

The Bangor team’s ice-maker, christened the Real Ice Re-Icing Machine, will pump water up from under the ice cap to the surface where temperatures as low as -50C quickly freeze it, creating new layers of the sea ice the wildlife and the people of the region need to survive.

The plan is for the indigenous Inuit people to own the machines, maintaining them and moving them to new areas regularly

cont  https://www.dailypost.co.uk/news/north-wales-news/how-north-wales-business-could-20495890?IYA-reg=49560bcd-5a9c-47f0-8fc5-ba2e71710589

Offline Nemesis

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Re: Climate Change
« Reply #37 on: May 03, 2021, 02:01:00 pm »
Air pollution in Llandudno seems to be on the increase too

Don't worry, our smelly neighbour has been lighting his bonfires again. Another neighbour has had a go at him and threatened legal action .
Mad, Bad and Dangerous to know.

Offline Hugo

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Re: Climate Change
« Reply #38 on: May 03, 2021, 03:19:23 pm »
At least it will keep those smelly Goats away

Offline SteveH

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Re: Climate Change
« Reply #39 on: June 01, 2021, 12:54:52 pm »
Rising sea levels threaten North Wales roads and coastal railway links, warn Bangor University academics

RISING sea levels could cut North Wales main A55 road link, wash away railways, swamp holiday resorts and threaten businesses along the coast by the end of this century, according to leading ocean scientists.

That’s the warning from two Bangor University academics who have just published a major new work on the future of the world’s seas, 30 Second Oceans, as World Oceans Day, June 8 approaches.

Oceanographers Dr Yueng Dern Lenn, .from Chester, and Dr Mattias Green, from Glan Conwy, edited the book which has eminent contributors from around the world and covers 50 topics about the world’s oceans, their weather and climate and the challenges faced by the communities which live on their shores.

That includes the threat of rising sea levels, higher tides and more frequent storm surges to the North Wales coast including to the region’s key transport routes, the A55 and the North Wales Coast railway to Holyhead.

cont  https://www.northwalespioneer.co.uk/news/19341196.rising-sea-levels-threaten-north-wales-roads-coastal-railway-links-warn-bangor-university-academics/


Offline DVT

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Re: Climate Change
« Reply #40 on: June 01, 2021, 04:47:53 pm »
Rising sea levels - my theory!

As some of you know, as a child I lived in the cottage by the Old Mill at Bodnant Garden.  I used to play in the river.  Just downstream from the stone bridge by the Mill there are two small weirs - I think it was where they moored barges in the 1800's when the Mill was operating as a corn mill - but that theory has not been proved, or disproved.

My point here concerns the level of the river at high tide.  When I was there as a child (1950's) the river would rise to near the top of the weir nearest the stone bridge.  Only on spring tides would it come over.

Now, at high tide, the level of the river is well above that weir, certainly by a few inches - and it happens every time, not just spring tides.

Why has the level risen?

We hear lots of claims of global warming, melting the ice caps which add to the water already making up 2/3rds of the world's surface.

But ... ever ince time began there have been streams and rivers that start on high ground and flow down to the seas and oceans ... carrying with them fine grains of earth, slowly eroding the landscape.  You only have to compare the Conwy Estuary sandbanks to how it used to be.  All those grains will have slowly dropped to the bottom of the ocean so causing the sea level to rise.  Didn't Archimedes come up with something about that?

Add to the trillions of fine grains, rocks and vegetation that have difted seawards, as well as all the rubbish that is being deposited in the sea, ranging from modern plastics to numerous ship wrecks carrying cargo round the world, and you wll realise that they must be displacing the water.  Eureka!

No mention of global warning above - just my theory ... !!!

Offline Ian

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Re: Climate Change
« Reply #41 on: June 01, 2021, 07:52:54 pm »
Remember, N Wales and N W England are slowly rising, while the E coast and the SE are slowly dropping.
Nothing is so firmly believed as that which we least know.  ― Michel de Montaigne

Si hoc legere scis, nimis eruditionis habes.

Offline SteveH

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Re: Climate Change...Carbon dumping scheme NW
« Reply #42 on: June 11, 2021, 09:55:09 am »
Massive carbon dumping scheme off North Wales coast in the pipeline
The technology is called carbon capture storage (CCS) and mirrors a project being developed on Humberside

North Wales is set to play a major part in dumping waste carbon off its coast, via pipelines from a massive planned hydrogen production facility in north-west of England.

A scoping document submitted to Denbighshire council is inviting the authority to comment on the ambitious scheme which will see 30TWh/yr of hydrogen power generated at Stanlow in Cheshire by 2030.

To give an indication of the scale of the operation, it equates to 30 trillion watt hours of energy annually - enough to power the whole of Scotland for a year with some to spare.

Waste carbon dioxide from the hydrogen extraction process plus more from industrial sites in north-west England and North Wales, will be ferried along pipes via Flint to a new purpose built facility at Point of Ayr.

There it will be pressurised, compressed and stored within existing oil fields in Liverpool Bay off the Flintshire coast.

The technology is called carbon capture storage (CCS) and mirrors a project being developed on Humberside.

cont  https://www.dailypost.co.uk/news/north-wales-news/massive-carbon-dumping-scheme-north-20785340

Offline SteveH

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Re: Climate Change
« Reply #43 on: June 19, 2021, 09:51:40 am »
Large parts of Conwy could fall below sea level and flood without defences

SWATHES of Conwy would be submerged in sea water if sea levels continue to rise until 2050, according to new research.

Llandudno Junction railway station, parts of Rhos-on-Sea, Conwy Caernarvonshire Golf Club and areas along the River Conwy could fall below sea level and be at risk of flooding.

The coastal flood map compiled by science organisation Climate Central are based on peer-reviewed science in leading journals and global-scale datasets for coastal elevation, sea levels and tides to conclude the likelihood of coastal flooding.

Areas lower than the selected water level and with an unobstructed path to the ocean are shaded red.

full article   https://www.northwalespioneer.co.uk/news/19383265.large-parts-conwy-fall-sea-level-flood-without-defences/?ref=rss&IYA-reg=49560bcd-5a9c-47f0-8fc5-ba2e71710589

Coastal flood map link https://coastal.climatecentral.org/map/13/-3.8405/53.2741/?theme=sea_level_rise&map_type=year&basemap=roadmap&contiguous=true&elevation_model=best_available&forecast_year=2050&pathway=rcp45&percentile=p50&refresh=true&return_level=return_level_1&slr_model=kopp_2014

Offline SteveH

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Re: Climate Change
« Reply #44 on: July 04, 2021, 10:01:16 am »
Makes sense, and every little helps.

A new environmental labelling system for food is being piloted this autumn - and it could be a game-changer both for consumers and farmers

When sheep and cattle farmers Glyn Roberts and daughter Beca audited their Conwy hill unit for carbon, the results told them what they already knew – that traditional meat production in the Eidda valley is relatively low in emissions.

However the audit also revealed the farm was still some way short of achieving carbon neutrality, highlighting areas where further climate mitigations were needed.

The list was long – lowering feed costs, upping growth rates, tackling disease and reducing fertiliser and fuel use.

https://www.dailypost.co.uk/news/north-wales-news/north-wales-farmers-race-save-20962797?IYA-reg=49560bcd-5a9c-47f0-8fc5-ba2e71710589
cont