Re: Fluorescent Bulbs Are Known to Zap Domestic Tranquillity; Energy-Savers a Turnoff for Wives

["Robert Green" <ROBERT_GREEN1963@xxxxxxxxx>]

"Dave Houston" <nobody@xxxxxxxxxxxx> wrote in message
news:466149bd.762345750@xxxxxxxxxxxxxxxx
> "Robert Green" <ROBERT_GREEN1963@xxxxxxxxx> wrote:
>
> >It may be we discover that commercial jet traffic is the single largest
> >contributor to the greenhouse effect
>
> George Monbiot, in his book "Heat" (which I think becomes available in the
> US this month) says, "On a return flight from London to New York, every
> passenger produces roughly 1.2 tonnes of carbon dioxide: the very quantity
> each of us will be entitled to emit in a year once a 90 percent cut in
> emissions has been made."

Worse, still, IMHO, is that those 1.2 tons are emitted at very high
altitudes where they apparently are able to block a large amount of sunlight
reaching earth.

I was amazed at how surprised scientist were to learn of the effect of jet
exhaust on the amount of sunlight reaching the earth.  That was only 6 years
ago, so there's a lot more to learn.  The jet exhaust, might, paradoxically,
be a good thing. One scientist in the interview posited the planes might
have actually been slowing global warming by reducing the sunlight reaching
earth and robbing the greenhouse engine of some of its potential fuel.
That's just a reminder of  the complexity of the problem.

In the end, it will probably turn out that it's a big change in plankton
levels that is changing the CO2 levels in the air, in the same way such
changes are thought to have altered the atmospheric balance hundreds of
thousands of years ago.

I'm still planning for the next house to have as much solar power as
practical, even if it isn't economical at the moment.  It's the only power
source that doesn't pollute (except at the manufacturing/recycling phase)
and that I don't have to worry about falling into terrorist hands.

--
Bobby G.