Showing posts with label global warming. Show all posts
Showing posts with label global warming. Show all posts

Thursday 3 November 2016

Air-conditioning treath and HFCs extremely powerful heat-trappers

Ozone layer gmt de
Ozone layer gmt de (Photo credit: Wikipedia)
One day the West had thought to have found the solution against an escalating threat to the climate and were pleased to change the refrigerators gases with hydrofluorocarbons (HFCs) to save the ozone layer.

So when nations signed the Montreal Protocol in 1987 – which aimed to save the ozone layer by banning ozone-eating chlorofluorocarbons (CFCs) from use in aerosols, refrigerators and air-conditioning units – few questioned the idea that ozone-friendly hydrofluorocarbons (HFCs) would make a great substitute.

But although HFCs did not destroy the ozone layer, they were potent greenhouse gases.
After almost 30 years, and with the manufacture of HFCs rising globally by 7 per cent each year, that mistake is about to be put right.

Seven years and requiring many determined advocates — major Western governments, the small island nation of Micronesia, poor African nations that fear drought and even starvation and persistent environmental groups reached an accord in Kigali, Rwanda, in October following the ratification by enough countries of last year’s Paris agreement broadly reducing greenhouse gases to allow it to take effect, as well as a narrower agreement to limit emissions from aircraft. It completes a trifecta of diplomatic accords aimed at keeping the rise in global temperatures below 3.6 degrees Fahrenheit (two degrees Celsius) over the average preindustrial temperatures — a point beyond which the manifest consequences of climate change, including rising sea levels and droughts, are likely to become exponentially worse.

Despite obvious threats to their populations from rising sea levels and droughts, some developing countries like India pushed back hard, in part because their people were on the verge of being able to afford air-conditioners powered by HFCs.
Although they now make up only a small part of the greenhouse gases in the atmosphere, HFCs are extremely powerful heat-trappers and, if left unchecked, would make it hard not to exceed the 3.6 degree threshold. One factor driving the negotiations was the rapid growth of air-conditioning in nations like China and India.

HFCs were once seen as a technological godsend. They were developed in response to the 1987 Montreal Protocol, a global agreement requiring nations and manufacturers to find a substitute for chlorofluorocarbons, or CFCs, then the dominant refrigerant, which was destroying the planet’s ozone layer. The chemical industry replaced that chemical with HFCs, which don’t harm the ozone layer but, as it turned out, added greatly to global warming.

The richest countries, including the United States, will freeze production and consumption of HFCs by 2018; much of the rest of the world, including China, Brazil and all of Africa, will do the same by 2024; and a few nations, including India, will have until 2028. Several newer and less harmful refrigerants are available, although they may be more expensive in the short run. The timetable will allow poorer countries to wait until prices come down. But unlike the Paris agreement, which consists of voluntary pledges, this one will be mandatory, with trade sanctions for nations that do not comply.

Mattlan Zackhras, the minister-in-assistance to the president of the Marshall Islands, said in a statement
"It may not be entirely what the islands wanted, but it is a good deal," 
and expressed his hope
"We all know we must go further, and we will go further."
Erik Solheim, executive director of the UN Environment Program, said
"This is about much more than the ozone layer and HFCs. It is a clear statement by all world leaders that the green transformation started in Paris is irreversible and unstoppable."
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Wednesday 28 August 2013

Temperatures rising



July 28 – August 3, 2013:

Temperatures in parts of China have hit record highs, prompting an emergency level-two nationwide heat alert for the first time. In Shanghai, at least 10 people have died from heatstroke, as the city experiences its hottest July in 140 years, reports say.
I call this Fire In The Sky. A sunrise from th...
I call this Fire In The Sky. A sunrise from the workshop at the Hotel Lafayette in downtown Buffalo, New York on January 8, 2008. Photo was captured at roughly 7:30 a.m. (EST). That morning was followed by a day of record temperatures with the highs reaching nearly 70 degrees Fahrenheit (21 degrees Celsius) despite it being in the dead of winter. (Photo credit: Wikipedia)
Local journalists have demonstrated the heat by frying meat on the pavement.

The national heat alert covers nine provinces, including Anhui, Jiangsu, Hunan, Hubei, Shanghai and Chongqing. According to figures from the Shanghai Meteorological bureau, Shanghai has seen 24 days with temperatures at or above 35C in July. "It should be a new record since Shanghai had its own weather recording," said chief service officer Wu Rui."Also, in July of this year Shanghai reached 40.6 degrees Celsius, its highest ever temperature. So the highest temperature in July also broke a record."

Temperatures have hit all-time highs in Austria and neighbouring Hungary as a stubborn heat wave nears the end of its second week.  Thursday's 40.5 degrees Celsius (105 degrees Fahrenheit Thursday eclipsed the previous record of 39.9 degrees Celsius (104 Fahrenheit) set just five days before. In Hungary, temperatures were fractionally lower at 40 C Thursday. Officials there have issued a heat warning, while some government ministries have relaxed dress codes. For men, that means ties and jackets can be left at home. For women, pantyhose is optional. Croatia sent two water-dropping planes to Bosnia earlier in the week to help battle wildfires set off by drought and sweltering heat that threatened several villages. A Russian aircraft was dispatched to fight blazes in Serbia. Temperatures also nearly broke records in Poland.

More temperatures reaching record highs in Europe in the last few weeks.
Global Temperature Map for Exoplanet HD 189733b
Global Temperature Map for Exoplanet HD 189733b (Photo credit: Wikipedia)

Creation is groaning. Hardly a week goes by without some new record being broken in some part of the world. The hottest, the wettest, the driest etc.
Amazingly a BBC report out today links increasing temperatures to a rise in violence.
The report shows that shifts in climate are strongly linked to increases in violence around the world. US scientists found that even small changes in temperature or rainfall correlated with a rise in assaults, rapes and murders, as well as group conflicts and war! The team says with the current projected levels of climate change, the world is likely to become a more violent place. They show that weather influences behaviour. There are numerous instances of God controlling the weather to change events and bring about his plan and purpose. We are told the earth would be full of violence at the time Christ returned. The weather is contributing to this….

The world is heating up in more ways than one.
We see it physically heating up with temperatures rising around the world and breaking new records. But we also see it heating up in the Middle East.

The situation north and south of Israel is incredibly volatile and it might not take much for there to be conflict.

But are we looking for a time of peace or a time of war? I believe we are looking for a time of war. There is conflict coming not peace. Yes there will be talk of peace (there is at the moment)– there may even be a peace agreement – but it won’t be real peace. There is great conflict coming between Israel and Syria. It could start anytime. It will involve the inner ring of people’s around Israel leading to an even greater conflict….


CLICK HERE FOR THIS WEEK'S WWW  11-17 August

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