Readers letters
Reading the December 2010 and January 2011 issues of Professional Engineering; I find myself a little concerned at the space given to green issues without balance.
The December 2010 issue for example would suggest that CO2 is driving climate when it is actually doing nothing of the sort.
CO2 is a minor player as a greenhouse gas, yes it is highly taxable but if levels rose to double that of pre industrial level the effect on climate would only be 1 degree F increase. 95% of Earth’s Greenhouse gas is water vapour and in any case, less than 3% of the current total of atmospheric CO2 is actually man made and that includes agriculture. The Himalayan glaciers will not melt by 2032, if at all. Arctic Ice is increasing, as are Polar Bear numbers. South America (July 2010) North America, Europe and the UK saw record low temperatures last winter and that is not what one can call warming.
The January edition looked at the hysteria of renewable energy at any cost, mostly to meet government targets and secondly to capitalise on the huge subsidies available. (We the tax payer must fund to give us ever more expensive energy) Technology such as cold fusion has yet to be developed but it is in areas such as this that the development for the long term future must come, and that does not appear to be happening on the required scale.
I fear the current political problems in the Middle East will be a governmental opportunity to enforce a green, expensive and unsustainable agenda on a public fuelled by propaganda. The fact of the matter is that there is no current shortage of oil or coal and as I state above, CO2 is used as an excuse to drive the Green agenda.
That said, of course fossil fuels will not last indefinitely, considering a growing more consumer conscious population. But that should surely not mean hysterically rushing into bankrupting the nation with imported wind turbines for example. Ever considered where the electricity is coming from to charge the influx of the silent killer (Electric car)? The levels of Ethanol being proposed by stealth will soon mean that carburetted vehicles will become a thing of the past. Again, Ethanol is highly subsidised and several times more expensive than pure petrol. The other problems with Ethanol is that it is an acidic solvent but just as concerning is that it is hygroscopic and therefore cannot even be supplied economically by pipeline. But it does help to meet the all important government Green targets!
In short, there will be little energy available to power a worthwhile engineering industry if we continue to focus on inefficient renewable energy at the expense of reliable and considerably cheaper traditional means of electricity generation. (Not Gas) CO2 is the red herring, but who wants to know?
For sensible climate information: I recommend the work of Professor Bob Carter.
Neil Wyatt
Next letter: Little has changed