Winds could spread diseases

Times 30 Sept 2004. Paul Simons writes .............

THE extraordinary bout of hurricanes in the US this year has left a nasty legacy which could make steak, vegetarian burgers and many other foods more expensive.

A fungal disease called Asian soybean rust appeared in Louisiana this month. It is thought that the fungal spores were spread from Colombia on the battering of hurricane winds and rains in August and September (The Times, November 27).

The virulent disease is spreading rapidly into neighbouring states and could be easily swept on winds across the US. The damage it causes could send the price of soya bean foods and cattle-feed soaring.

The fungal spores spread across South America in just two years. But many other diseases also blow in the wind, often carried on clouds of Saharan dust. In 1978, an outbreak of sugarcane rust appeared in the Dominican Republic and spread rapidly through the Caribbean. The outbreak coincided with the arrival of wind-borne dust from West Africa.

Human health is also under threat from Saharan fallouts. Clouds of dust laden with bacillus bacteria have been linked to high rates of asthma, allergies and other lung ailments in Florida and the Caribbean.

In Britain, there are suspicions that the foot-and-mouth epidemic of 2001 began with a shower of Saharan dust that wafted over northeast England, washed down on a weather front.

More fuel burnt in a warmer world

Paul Simons writes in the Times (Thursday, 25 November, 2004)............

A READER asked if global warming will benefit mankind by cutting heating bills in winter, saving on the use of fossil fuels (The Times, November 20).

The answer is yes — and no. Yes, our heating bills are already being reduced by milder winters, and savings of perhaps 20 per cent or more could be expected this century.

But no, any benefits could be outweighed in summer by the huge amount of power needed to cool buildings and cars during increasingly severe heatwaves.

This July, a ferocious heatwave in Italy led to the biggest electricity consumption on record, which was caused by an unprecedented use of air conditioning systems. Previous heatwaves have been blamed for power blackouts.

Air conditioning is inefficient and uses up huge amounts of energy. If electricity continues to be generated from fossil fuels, that increased power demand will pump out even more carbon dioxide, and so increase global warming.

Britain’s building industry is concerned that most of our houses will roast as indoor temperatures soar above 25C (77F), a key threshold at which people feel very uncomfortable.

Carbondioxide emissions from airconditioning in the UK have already quadrupled over the past 20 years, and the growth is likely to continue.

New houses need to be designed to be much cooler, using better natural ventilation, more shading, and denser walls and floors that can absorb heat more easily.

Volcano Types Diagram

Volcano Types Diagram
Originally uploaded by cogdogblog.

This is a really useful volcano diagram created in flickr with pop-up notes

Click Here for original pic

US is betting on a hydrogen future

Times 9 November 2004 - Paul Simons



President Bush has said that America needs to become a hydrogen economy, in which vehicles, homes and businesses are fuelled by hydrogen instead of fossil fuels. His reasons are simple — oil prices are spiralling, the US oilfields are in decline, and foreign supplies of oil and gas are increasingly volatile, threatening America’s economic security.

President Bush may also recognise that the new technologies for alternative energies are big business, and he may not want the US to be left behind in a lucrative world market.

And whatever the Federal Government’s views, many US states already are ploughing on with their own CO2 reduction schemes, many of which put the UK to shame.

California has some of the toughest vehicle exhaust pollution standards in the world, which led to the development of new hybrid cars driven by electrical and petrol power. And Arnold Schwarzenegger, California’s Governor, is proposing to add solar power to a million homes in the next ten years.

In contrast, the British Government has made vague statements that new homes should have solar panels, while our transport policies seem bereft of any initiatives to cut CO2 emissions, apart from small grants for buying hybrid cars.

Autumn harvest

115-1589_IMG
Originally uploaded by John Harris.

The autumn harvest of squashes is safely gathered in.

Flickr

This is a test post from , a fancy photo sharing thing.

Germany climate change conference

BBC News 6 November, 2004



There is a chance America could change its stance on global warming despite George Bush's re-election, the UK environment secretary has said.

Margaret Beckett said public opinion was bringing change regardless of who had won the presidential election.

Mrs Beckett was speaking at a climate change conference in Germany.

But Myron Ebell, from a Washington based think tank, said US policy would not change and accused the UK's chief scientist of being "alarmist".

The climate change conference at the British embassy in Berlin was opened on Wednesday by the Queen, who has reportedly told Tony Blair of her personal concern on the issue.

Russia's upper house of parliament has now backed the Kyoto Protocol, which means it could come into force next year despite the US refusal to ratify the agreement.

But UK Government chief scientist Sir David King said that if any country could get the G8 group of leading industrialised nations to make progress on global warming, it would be the UK.

But Mr Ebell, the director of global warming at the Competitive Enterprise Institute, said he did not think there would be a change, especially as there were also more conservative Republicans in both Houses of Congress.

"The whole tissue of argument that makes climate change into the greatest problem facing humanity is based on a long series of improbabilities," he said.

Mr Ebell said Sir David had no expertise in climate science and was "alarmist" and denied the world was going through an unprecedented period of warming.

UK daily weather from the BBC

Click here for more information

Latest earthquakes

Click here for more information

Helvellyn - daily weather recording

And you thought your job was an uphill struggle..........
Times November 06, 2004
By Russell Jenkins



THE job requirements are simple: the stamina of a mountain climber, the skills of a weatherman and, Lakeland villagers would insist, at least one “screw loose”.

Only the hardiest of souls need apply for the post of fell top assessor, a role which requires a daily trek to the top of Helvellyn, the Lake District’s second highest peak, to monitor weather conditions.

Applicants must be prepared to work a seven-day rota lugging a 40lb rucksack full of equipment to the 3,114ft summit. The contract runs from December to Easter, and Christmas is a working day. The pay for a four-hour day is a maximum of £7.58 an hour. The employers, the Lake District National Park Authority, acknowledge it is one of the most bizarre jobs.

But they insist that the information gathered above the clouds, where the Met Office cannot reach, has helped to save thousands of lives. Figures for wind speed, temperature, snow and ice are fed into the authority’s Weatherline service which is used by 200,000 walkers each year.

Helvellyn is one of the Lakes’ most popular peaks offering spectacular views from its flat summit. The average walker, starting off from Glenridding, would complete the walk in around six hours. Conditions, however, can deterioriate rapidly. In September a man aged 59 fell to his death.

Helvellyn is chosen because of its position, close to the centre of the Lakeland peaks, making weather conditions representative for the region. Peter Collins, 36, has been doing the job for the past two years. He starts his day around 11.30am and expects to reach the summit within 70 to 90 minutes. “If the conditions are bad, if there is deep snow, in particular, it can take longer,” he said. “I am doing the assessments of ground conditions all the way up. What I am looking for is, ‘Is there snow or ice? What sort of condition is it in and where is it?’ ” Sometimes the conditions defeat even the professionals. Mr Collins said there have been two days each year when it would have been foolhardy to persevere. He has recorded gusting winds of up to 82mph and a wind chill factor on the summit of minus 32C. Nick Chetwood, his fellow assessor, is bowing out after three years. Interviews are being held later this month.

Robert Teesdale, 31, a villager in Glenridding, who works in Shaman’s, the main store, said: “You would need a screw loose to do this job, or be seriously determined.”

Bonfire night - weather hazards

Times November 5, 2004



By Paul Simons

BONFIRE Night could be a dry night, delivered on a large high-pressure system anchored over the UK. But the clear skies and calm air may bring their own problems as the whiz, bang and smoke of thousands of firework displays leave behind a trail of air pollution.

Bonfires and fireworks give off smoke particles and noxious gases, and although they usually get blown away, there is a chance that the calm conditions could trap the pollution in cool air held close to the ground under a lid of warmer air — a temperature inversion. The list of pollutants includes dioxins, nitrogen oxides, ozone, sulphur dioxide and tiny soot particles called PM10s — these can be breathed deep into the lungs and are thought to trigger asthma, bronchitis and many other problems.

In some ways this is reminiscent of an old-fashioned peasouper smog, when coal smoke created a choking blanket of soot and sulphur with the acidity of a car battery.

London bore some of the worst smogs because it lies in a shallow basin, where air pollution can stew under a temperature inversion. In December 1952, a week of smog grew so dense that it remained dark all day, and tons of airborne soot and acid were reckoned to have killed 12,000 people — a disaster which led to the Clean Air Act banning dirty coal fires in cities.

Iceland volcanic eruption 4 Nov 2004

Iceland’s Grimsvotn Volcano began erupting on November 2, 2004, forcing officials to divert air traffic from the region to prevent ash from damaging aircraft engines. The volcano sits beneath the Vatnajokull Ice Cap, Europe’s largest glacier, and is Iceland’s most frequently active volcano. This eruption may be connected to the draining of a glacier lake in the volcano’s caldera. Buried under a 200-meter thick ice shelf, the lake is under extreme pressure. Melting water fills the lake, and when levels are high enough, the water lifts the ice dam, draining the lake. Grimsvotn Lake drained in mid-October, lifting some of the pressure from the volcano. The flood was followed by a series of earthquakes, and on November 2, an eruption. As of November 3, the eruption was still occurring, and ash was reported to have drifted as far northeast as Finland.

Radley College Geography Dept website

Lots of useful geography links



Click here for Radley Geog Dept website

MetLink Weather Project

MetLink is an online weather project.

Registration is easy and free: why not join..........?



Click here for more information