René O'Deay gBlog

Dirty snow may warm Arctic as much as greenhouse gases

Burning cleaner fuel would brighten snow and lower temperatures.

If you are really worried about the Arctic Ice melting, Scientists suggest measures everyone can use right now to prevent the Arctic Ice from melting so fast! With much faster results than trying to reduce carbon dioxide.

Irvine, Calif., June 6, 2007 The global warming debate has focused on carbon dioxide emissions, but scientists at UC Irvine have determined that a lesser-known mechanism 'dirty snow' can explain one-third or more of the Arctic warming primarily attributed to greenhouse gases.

“When we inject dirty particles into the atmosphere and they fall onto snow, the net effect is we warm the polar latitudes,” said Charlie Zender, associate professor of Earth system science at UCI and co-author of the study. “Dark soot can heat up quickly. It’s like placing tiny toaster ovens into the snow pack.”

Since the Industrial Revolution, in the past 200 years, the Earth has warmed about .8 degree Celsius, dirty snow caused the Earth’s global temperature to rise .1 to .15 degree, or up to 19 percent of the total warming.

In the past two centuries, the Arctic has warmed about 1.6 degrees. Dirty snow caused .5 to 1.5 degrees of warming, or up to 94 percent of the observed change, the scientists determined. 94 percent!

Zender said. “A small amount of snow impurities in the Arctic have caused a significant temperature response there.”
Reported June 7, 2007: Today@UCI: Press Releases

Zender suggested we could see immediate results in the Arctic from consumers reduction of energy use, using more energy-efficient appliances, use of cleaner fuels, and limiting outdoor burning and fires. (putting out forest fires?)

Less airborne soot from industry and fuel combustion would yield brighter snow, less melt. Especially since it only takes a small amount to cause a significant temperature response in the Arctic.

Here's news: NASA has been warning about the effects of black soot and dirty snow on climate for years now. NASA also reports black soot is causing an increase in the flooding and droughts in China recently.

Source: NASA/Goddard Space Flight Center Date:December 23, 2003: Black Soot And Snow: A Warmer Combination
New research from NASA scientists suggests emissions of black soot alter the way sunlight reflects off snow. According to a computer simulation, black soot may be responsible for 25 percent of observed global warming over the past century."

Source: NASA/Goddard Space Flight Center Date: September 27, 2002:
A new NASA climate study has found large amounts of black carbon (soot) particles and other pollutants are causing changes in precipitation and temperatures over China and may be at least partially responsible for the tendency toward increased floods and droughts in those regions over the last several decades.

You can blame governments for reducing the emission limits on industrial pollutants or not even imposing or enforcing them. The heaviest-polluting coal-burning Four Corners Power Plant on Navajo lands located near the junction of Arizona, New Mexico, Colorado and Utah, has operated with impunity and absolutely no controls since 1960! Sierra Club Clean Air Lawsuit against the EPA

Why does the Environmental protection Agency have to be sued to force them to do their job? And even when the EPA loses, why do they still drag their feet at enforcement?

I suggest everyone help hold their feet to the fire: EPA and Congress and the President!

What I have a hard time figuring out is what those small Celsius degrees represent in fahrenheit degrees?
Surely 1 degree of Celcius is NOT 33 degrees F ?!

Maybe one of my readers can give us a clue.


René O'Deay

"Locked within two cores of ancient ice is evidence of unprecedented swings in Earth's climate throughout the ages. These icy archives tell us that large, rapid, global change is more the norm for the Earth's climate than is stasis.
according to
R. Alley, The Pennsylvania State University, University Park;
P. Mayewski, University of New Hampshire, Durham;
D. Peel, British Antarctic Survey, Cambridge, England;
and B. Stauffer, University of Bern, Bern, Switzerland in Earth in Space, Vol. 9, No. 2, October 1996, pp. 12-13. © 1996 American Geophysical Union. on the Twin Ice Cores From Greenland Reveal History of Climate Change and More !

So scientists have known about this for 9 years, that rapid large global climate change is normal over the aeons, not stasis.

Wait a minute! Maybe you don't know what stasis is.

It's not in the dictionary.

Wikipedia on Stasis, it refers to a state of 'hypersleep' or 'suspended animation,' both terms of science fiction! A Fictional term!

And this is what the fearmongers of Global Warming want to try to induce on our planet!
Stop Global Warming? And how do you think us puny humans are going to do that? I don't care how many of us try.

It's not going to happen and will undoubtedly cost trillions, and the lives of many deprived of the necessities of life us civilized countries have come to take for granted. Disinformation is Dangerous and Deadly

In 2002, the US Geological Survey in the Arctic Refuge Coastal plain reported the polar bear population was near historic highs. Biologist Mitchell Taylor of the Arctic community of Nunavit who tracks 13 of those colonies, says 11 are stable or thriving with populations that have increased 25%.

There are approximately 19 worldwide polar bear populations, the Fish and Wildlife action was based solely on reviewing data for only one of those populations in western Hudson Bay which has declined by 259 bears in last 17 years. The decline is due to hunting to prevent overpopulation and ironically the Canadian government is looking to increase the quota. (US Geological Survey in Arctic Refuge Coastal Plain 2002, and Dr. Mitchell Taylor, Polar Bear Biologist, Department of Environment, Government of Nunavut , Igloolik , Nunavut , Canada “Last Stand of our wild polar bears” 5/1/06)

IceCap.com for FAQs and Myths.

Climate change is having an effect on the west Hudson population of polar bears, but really, there is no need to panic. Of the 13 populations of polar bears in Canada , 11 are stable or increasing in number. They are not going extinct, or even appear to be affected at present.

It is noteworthy that the neighbouring population of southern Hudson Bay does not appear to have declined, and another southern population ( Davis Strait ) may actually be over-abundant.

I understand that people who do not live in the north generally have difficulty grasping the concept of too many polar bears in an area. People who live here have a pretty good grasp of what that is like to have too many polar bears around.

This complexity is why so many people find the truth less entertaining than a good story. It is entirely appropriate to be concerned about climate change, but it is just silly to predict the demise of polar bears in 25 years based on media-assisted hysteria.

Dr. Mitchell Taylor
Polar Bear Biologist,
Department of the Environment,
Government of Nunavut , Igloolik , Nunavut , Canada

May 1, 2006

ScienceDaily: Microbial Fuel Cell: High Yield Hydrogen Source And Wastewater Cleaner
Penn State environmental engineers and a scientist at Ion Power Inc., a company involved in development of fuel cells, have developed a process to produce hydrogen and clean wastewater.

Hydrogen-producing MFC, a BioElectrochemically-Assisted Microbial Reactor or BEAMR. The BEAMR not only produces hydrogen but simultaneously cleans the wastewater used as its feedstock. It uses about one-tenth of the voltage needed for electrolysis, the process that uses electricity to break water down into hydrogen and oxygen.

Although this method will not produce huge amount or usable hydrogen, it can help reduce the costs of wastewater treatment and contribute to renewable energy.

Penn State Report on Hydrogen and fuel cells.
Fuel cells not an engine, not a battery, an electromagnetic device that directly converts water into electricity. The trick is to make them cheaper.

Part of the expense of fuel cells is the use of platinum in producing them. platinum is very expensive, but so far a necessary part of fuel cells, for its hardness and heat resistance.

Fuel cell research is very complicated, and those involved find it necessary to form teams from many diverse disciplines and institutions for successful outcomes.

Penn State Institutes of Energy and the Environment

René O'Deay, March 15, 2007
A report from Purdue University Scientists on a new process of creating biofuels could lead to the US becoming an exporter of oil, instead of an importer.

"Hybrid hydrogen-carbon process," or H2CAR, will enable us to use the current fuel delivery infrastructure and internal combustion engine tech, a huge economic advantage. The method can be used to produce liquid gas from coal without the production of Carbon Dioxide, eliminating the need for proposed dangerous carbon dioxide "sequestering."

The process uses biomass mass more efficiently, can use diverse biomass, reducing the stress on the land, less pesticides and fertilizers, less CO-2 released, for a more efficient fuel that could potentially produce more fuel than needed for transportation.

The process, gassification, uses hydrogen, now expensive to produce. Advances in more economical production and use of hydrogen are also under research by the Universities of Minnesota, Nevada and Wisconsin-Madison, among others around the world.

...making the concept economically competitive with gasoline and diesel fuel would require research in two areas: finding ways to produce cheap hydrogen from carbon-free sources and developing a new type of gasifier needed for the process.

"Having said that, this is the first concept for creating a sustainable system that derives all of our transportation fuels from biomass," said Rakesh Agrawal, Purdue's Winthrop E. Stone Distinguished Professor of Chemical Engineering.

And that biomass can include wastes of all kinds, even manure. Conversion techniques use the more energy efficient solar power. No CO-2 is produced while producing the fuel or using it, and H2CAR can be used by conventional engines: autos, trains and planes.

Take heart, Global Warming freaks. Help is on its way.

But. It would behoove us all to keep a sharp eye on developments, lest certain corporations or foreign entities try to derail these projects, or deep six them.


Purdue University News Online

For Breaking News in Science: Science Daily

Thanks to nukegingrich for the tip on NowPublic.

Nuke asked, "Is this big?"

I'd say this is really BIG.