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Environmental News

Discussion in 'Environmental Discussion' started by tochatihu, Oct 22, 2015.

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  1. fuzzy1

    fuzzy1 Senior Member

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    Here are a bunch of pmpg figures, for different aircraft at different trip distances:
    Fuel economy in aircraft - Wikipedia

    For any given aircraft, best fuel economy is at an intermediate distance -- long enough to amortize the fuel cost of initial climbout, but not so long that the required fuel load is so heavy that it seriously increases consumption during the first portion of the flight:
    Fuel economy in aircraft - Wikipedia
     
    #221 fuzzy1, Jul 26, 2017
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  2. tochatihu

    tochatihu Senior Member

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    Venerable 747 is now called fuel-inefficient but she does not look so horrible on that chart.

    Jet A is pretty darn cheap now at wholesale.
     
    #222 tochatihu, Jul 26, 2017
  3. tochatihu

    tochatihu Senior Member

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    You perhaps use a sponge or cloth for kitchen cleaning. It is old news that impressive bacterial communities develop therein. Now has been examined in detail

    grossout

    The linked article in Scientific Reports says that microwaving is not fully effective but I still say that's your best approach. Just make it very wet and make with the radar.
     
    #223 tochatihu, Jul 31, 2017
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  4. Trollbait

    Trollbait It's a D&D thing

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    Disinfecting cleaners with quatenary ammonias are also a good choice to soak the sponge in after the bombardment. They tend to leave a germ killing residue behind after rinsing.
     
    #224 Trollbait, Aug 1, 2017
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  5. tochatihu

    tochatihu Senior Member

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    There is a draft 4th National Climate assessment. In a manner of speaking it was 'leaked' by NY Times. Or one could say leaked is wrong verb because it is available on (some) US govt website for reading and public comment.

    Going from draft to final document may involve changes, which is apparently why NYT wanted current version to remain in public view. But the final is some time away. Govt. is still looking for review editors to work on it:

    Federal Register :: United States Global Change Research Program

    Schedule is presented there. Also one short quote that might not have been in for NCA3:

    "ensuring that significant scientific uncertainties are reflected adequately in the text"

    Those words as such do not particularly trouble me. Although I'd like it better if editors were also charged with ensuring that significant scientific concordances are reflected adequately in the text.
     
    #225 tochatihu, Aug 8, 2017
  6. bwilson4web

    bwilson4web BMW i3 and Model 3

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    I picked up an earlier draft a week or so ago and have no problem with dealing with a 'draft'. But something new has shown up: Has James O’Keefe Accidentally Stung Himself Again? | The New Yorker

    James O’Keefe III, the conservative activist famous for undercover stings, has dedicated his life to exposing the “misconduct” of others. But he’s developed a side business in accidentally exposing his own. In the latest chapter of his strange career, the League of Conservation Voters, a national environmental-advocacy group, has filed a complaint against three individuals who infiltrated its operations, at least two of whom, the group alleges, “could be associated with” O’Keefe and have past ties to him. The group’s leaders recently began to suspect that they were being scammed, and decided to go to the authorities before O’Keefe or his alleged associates released any material on their own.

    In a six-page letter of complaint sent to the California Department of Justice on Friday, the League of Conservation Voters, or L.C.V., asked the state’s attorney general, Xavier Becerra, to open a criminal investigation into the operatives for potential fraud, racketeering, unfair business practices, trespassing, invasion of privacy, and possible violation of the state’s two-way-consent eavesdropping laws. The environmental group filed the letter in California because the “imposters,” as it labelled the operatives, first made contact with the organization through its state branch in the San Francisco Bay Area. A spokesperson for the California Department of Justice declined to comment, as is its policy on potential criminal investigations.
    . . .    ​

    Not unusual, actually expected, these characters are notorious for selective edits and omissions to try and reverse the facts and data. This isn't the first time they've been caught 'red handed.'

    Bob Wilson
     
    #226 bwilson4web, Aug 9, 2017
  7. tochatihu

    tochatihu Senior Member

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    EPA is planning to relax future fuel economy standards. Now begins a 45 day public comment period:

    EPA, DOT Open Comment Period On Reconsideration of GHG Standards for Cars and Light Trucks | U.S. EPA News Releases | US EPA

    EPA Administrator Scott Pruitt: “We encourage the public to submit the best-available and most up-to-date information..."

    Well, don't disappoint the guy. If you think public interests are served by energy efficiency, or US international interests are served by being technology innovators, let Team Pruitt know.

    Or if you think inefficient overweight vehicles are best goal for US, say so. They do offer higher profit margins for manufacturers, so there's that. They look good in TV ads. Lord knows we all have something that needs to be compensated for, and manufacturers want to be there to help.
     
    #227 tochatihu, Aug 11, 2017
  8. tochatihu

    tochatihu Senior Member

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    #228 tochatihu, Aug 13, 2017
  9. tochatihu

    tochatihu Senior Member

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    Media account on links between agricultural productivity and soil microbes

    To restore our soils, feed the microbes - Salon.com

    Author Matthew Wallenstein is very active in this research area.

    I am frankly too close to see whether it is constructed appropriately for general readers. So I solicit opinions. Is he telling things you want to know? Should there be pictures? Other thoughts?
     
    #229 tochatihu, Aug 13, 2017
  10. tochatihu

    tochatihu Senior Member

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    #230 tochatihu, Sep 17, 2017
  11. bisco

    bisco cookie crumbler

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    difficult to discern the right thing without personal historic knowledge. maybe time to bring in the mittster.
     
    #231 bisco, Sep 17, 2017
  12. tochatihu

    tochatihu Senior Member

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    We remember Barry Goldwater (R) for many things. Perhaps not often enough for his staunch protection of the Grand Canyon. Plans to construct another reservoir there were serious in their day.
     
    #232 tochatihu, Sep 17, 2017
  13. tochatihu

    tochatihu Senior Member

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    News to me: this impressive water filtration system

    MVP Filter | Waves For Water

    They are now being delivered to Puerto Rico by at least one humanitarian group.
     
    #233 tochatihu, Oct 1, 2017
  14. tochatihu

    tochatihu Senior Member

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    In Nature Energy, a new publication about consequences US preferential financial treatment of oil industry:

    https://www.nature.com/articles/s41560-017-0009-8#author-information

    This is described in science-interpreting websites as a few $billions/year of market distortion. As always, hoping folks might read it for themselves and perhaps even engage authors in discussion.
     
    #234 tochatihu, Oct 3, 2017
  15. tochatihu

    tochatihu Senior Member

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    #235 tochatihu, Oct 4, 2017
  16. tochatihu

    tochatihu Senior Member

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    ...
     
    #235 tochatihu, Oct 4, 2017
  17. tochatihu

    tochatihu Senior Member

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    Country-level emissions of infra red absorbing gases:

    https://www.sciencedaily.com/releases/2017/10/171020105341.htm

    2016 was the third year of global flatness.

    Scrolling through, it was interesting to see which countries have more methane than CO2 emissions. Bear in mind CH4 is multiplied by a factor (25) accounting for absorbance and atmospheric lifetime.
     
    #236 tochatihu, Oct 23, 2017
  18. Trollbait

    Trollbait It's a D&D thing

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    Does that include the methane breaking down into CO2 and water vapor?
     
    #237 Trollbait, Oct 24, 2017
  19. bwilson4web

    bwilson4web BMW i3 and Model 3

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    I saw that too but when I checked Mauna Loa, my old man eyes see a slightly steeper slope:
    ESRL Global Monitoring Division - Global Greenhouse Gas Reference Network

    Mauna Loa is a point source so we can't be sure it is just a sampling issue. It would help if the Aussi metrics or other existing series could be checked.

    Bob Wilson
     
    #238 bwilson4web, Oct 24, 2017
  20. tochatihu

    tochatihu Senior Member

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    breaking down@237. This is methane emissions from natural, agricultural and industrial sources. An important sink for atmospheric methane is oxidation by hydroxyl radical. Products are CO2 and H2O as stated.

    In troposphere methane is <2 ppm and CO2 >400. So any country where methane is larger emission, even with that 25X equivalency, sticks out a bit.
     
    #239 tochatihu, Oct 24, 2017
  21. tochatihu

    tochatihu Senior Member

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    #240 tochatihu, Oct 25, 2017
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