global warming – The Daily Opinion

Kent Airport Development Causes Concern

The proposal to expand a small Kent airport into a “regional hub”, which has just been approved by the government, has caused great concern for environmental campaigners.

LyddAirport in Romney Marsh has now been granted permission to expand its runway and to build a new terminal building, and about half a million more passengers could potentially be accommodated by this new development. However, although there is a prevailing optimism about the new airport, as it would certainly give the area a higher profile, there is growing anger that the local area – where there is an abundance of wildlife – will be endangered by the encroachment of a much bigger airport. For many species, the “Garden of England” is a natural refuge.

Green Party MEP, Keith Taylor, has commented on the new development, saying that there are “huge concerns about the impact these proposals would have in terms of the increase in pollution for local residents and the threat to important wildlife.”

This development has emerged amid worldwide concerns that the progression of low-carbon energy is not happening quickly enough to offset global warming. The International Energy Agency has reported that there has only been a 25% growth in non-fossil fuel generation, compared to 45% of fossil fuel generation.

New developments that would help offset the still-excessive CO2 emissions, such as carbon capture and storage, while still being developed and built, are simply not appearing fast enough to counteract the growing worldwide damage.

While countries such as the US are pioneering ways to generate environmentally friendly energy (such as shale gas technology), the majority of Europe is still, allegedly, falling far short of targets which need to be met to see a maximum rise in global temperature of 2 degrees celsius by the end of the century.

The new airport development at Romney Marsh will certainly be an economic asset for the region, and will create much-needed jobs, however it is important that it tries to remain environmentally responsible, so that it can help the region to uphold the reputation of being an ecological haven.

Did Dinosaur Farts Cause Global Warming?

It seems strange to be talking about heating the world on your own, but there may be something to it as another group of animal has already managed to do it: the dinosaurs. The dinosaurs supposedly managed to heat the planet through their flatulence.

The Liverpool John Moore’s University, the University of London and the University of Glasgow came together to carry out a study on this, and they published their results in the science journal Current Biology.

They investigated the wind output of the cows of today, came up with a figure, and then scaled it up to match the Sauropods from millions of years ago. For those not in the know, Sauropods are the type of dinosaurs with long necks, large bodies, and small heads; just think of the brontosaurus.

They then compared the output of one Sauropod and scaled it up to match the estimated population of the dinosaurs. This then led to their final figure that the dinosaur population produced a massive 520 million tonnes of gas each year; which is handy for heating the world.

This may seem like a massive figure, but what we have to remember is that these animals were simply gigantic. They were taller than most of our buildings and the tops of trees could barely reach a Sauropod’s shoulders.

But why do these gases supposedly heat up the earth?

The answer is that whilst the gas produced from one’s rear-end is filled with many things, it also contains traces of methane. And methane is a greenhouse gas that heats up the earth. If you have lots of this then, in theory, the whole planet can be heated up by a population of dinosaurs. And its effects are well-documented as the Earth was supposedly ten degrees Celsius hotter than it is today, previous studies demonstrated, even if they didn’t know exactly why this was the case.

Furthermore, what we have to remember is that livestock and its methane emissions have been shown to have an impact on the global temperature. Granted, it pales in comparison to the impact that humans and their technology have on the environment, but it’s still there.

520 million tonnes a year is what they produced back then, and an estimated 500 million tonnes are what we have now. This may seem like there was very little difference between the two, however the difference is in who is producing it. The 520 million tonnes came purely from the dinosaurs themselves, whereas the 500 million tonnes is from everything currently on the earth. This can only mean that there would have been millions and millions more tonnes of unaccounted emissions in the time of the dinosaurs.

Obviously technology isn’t the only method used when heating the world. There are going to be more questions than ever now, though. If the dinosaurs could eclipse our emissions with all our technology then surely the potential impact of global warming isn’t as large as we initially feared? Perhaps there really is something to the argument that the current weather patterns are only as a result of the natural environment cycle of the Earth?

Yes, it’s Global Warming All Over Again

If there’s a topic that makes people sigh it’s certainly global warming. On one side you have the ones who believe that it’s a conspiracy, and on the other side you have the ones who feel that it’s their duty to have a fight with all those who dare disagree with them. But regardless of whether you are on the side of the conspiracy theorists or have nothing better to do than have a fight for no reason, some scientists have claimed to have evidence which indicates that the world is actually heating up faster than anticipated.

To put this study into terms we all understand, it says that by 2050 the average temperature could have risen 3 degrees Celsius at the worst and 1.4 degrees Celsius at best. The shocking thing is that this is much higher than what previous studies have predicted. Obviously, we will never know whether these are stupid or smart figures until it actually happens, but it’s still a cause for concern.

Man on Fire — This will happen to your children!

The University of Oxford team led by Daniel Rowlands carried out the study, but even they acknowledged the massive amount of factors associated with predicting climate change. To name just a few factors, we have to take into account the impact of greenhouse gases, and the growth or reduction of said gasses in the future, the activity of the sun, atmospheric pollutants that can scatter light, and general heat transfer across land, sea, and air.

However, what does all this mean for us? Well this depends on if these results are true. As already mentioned, the amount of factors means that there is a high margin for error so this study could be just utter tripe for all we know. But if it’s true, which we will assume it is for now, then it means that the average temperature around the world will rise, which won’t be good for our rapidly growing population.

Yes, it’s a good thing if you love the sun and you want to get a tan, but the problem is that there will be less rain. And less rain means less water for the planet. Less water for the planet means drought in certain areas and more deaths. So it means that areas of the United Kingdom, some of which are already in drought, could face increasingly strict restrictions on the usage of water, and that’s inconvenient for all of us.

Furthermore, there will no doubt be an increase in taxes because we may be left with no option but to start purifying the water of the sea. This can be done and the salt can be removed to make sea water safe to drink, but the problem is that it’s quite an expensive process which is just not viable in the modern world economy. If it was then we would be pumping out sea water and sending it off to the third world, would we not?

Many of you may respond to all this information by saying that it doesn’t matter because we will all be dead or just too old to care. But the fact is that if all of these unfortunate things occur then our world will be changed forever. And if those figures are true then what’s to stop our laissez-faire attitude from speeding up the process again in the next few years? That’s the question, and even if there is a high margin of error when predicting these things, I wouldn’t like to take any chances.