Saturday, November 29, 2008

A Purpose of the Fixing Air Blog

After much thought, I have arrived at a function for the Fixing Air Blog. It shall function as an educational resource for those wishing to educate themselves about the complex phenomenon of Global Warming, Ocean Acidification and their many ramifications. To do this, it will become a categorized list of links to web pages that have solid information on this and related subjects. I must admit that I have not yet been able to read all of these articles in depth. I am using sources that I believe can be trusted for the quality of it's scientific and/or journalistic integrity. However, if you find something that seems to be of questionable verity, then please let me know so that I can check it. I am going to update this list simply by editing this post, so check back often.

"Environmental injury is deficit spending. It is spending for short-term gain..."
-- Robert Kennedy, Jr.

Plundering our environment for short-term gain with no thought to the future is but theft, criminal theft of the worst and most thoughtless kind. It is stealing from the future--stealing from our future selves, from our children, from our children's children. It is to leave of ourselves a thoughtless legacy of naught but obscene greed, a heritage of naught but the selfish degradation of our souls.
J. Marcus

LINKS
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Global Warming Basics:
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Primers and Overviews on Global Warming/Ocean Acidification:
11/29/08
12/03/08
1/11/09
02/04/09
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Ocean Acidification Sites
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Global Warming Sites
1/11/09
1/09/09
As a result of my researches into the CO2 problem, I have become convinced that solutions to this problem already exist. What we lack is the political and economic will to put these solutions in place! Check this site out--if you agree with it, then join and participate!
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Latest NOAA Climate Report - 2008
~Climate of 2008 - in Historical PerspectiveAnnual Report ~
1/05/09
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Basic Issues of Global Warming:
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Global Carbon Budget:
11/29/08
1/11/09
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Studies Bolster Global Warming Theory:
11/29/08
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Effects of Global Warming:
11/29/08
11/30/08
12/01/08
What will be the effect of rising sea levels on the salt water pearl farming areas of the world?
12/02/08/
12/03/08
Follow the menu on the left to see various effects:
1/11/09
The Physical and Chemical Basis of Biological Production in the Seas
02/04/08
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Deforestation and CO2 Pollution:
1/14/09
2/01/09
02/04/08
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Carbon Sequestration:
11/29/08
2/01/09
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Ocean Acidification:
This is the heart of the problem as I see it. Diatoms and other organisms that make up plankton build shelly structures. If the acid level of the oceans reaches a critical point, then it may threaten the very foundations of ocean life. Here is a quote from Phytoplankton Dynamics by Ulrike Feudel of Universität Oldenburg (http://www.icbm.de/~feudel/) :
"Phytoplankton are tiny floating plants (algae) that live in the ocean and in lakes. In the process of photosynthesis, phytoplankton produce half of the world's oxygen. Moreover, by primary production, death and sinking they effectively transport carbon from the ocean's surface layer to marine sediments, a process by which phytoplankton exert a global-scale influence on climate (carbon dioxide and the greenhouse effect). Phytoplankton constitute the bottom level of aquatic foodwebs. There are many species of phytoplankton that can be distinguished by their morphology."
11/29/08
11/30/08
12/01/08
12/03/08
12/07/08
This may scare the hell out of you. Hopefully it will motivate you to usefull action:
1/11/09
03/11/09
A recent report on the state of ocean acidification--It's dire:
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Alternative Energy:
11/30/08
Perhaps the best, most exhaustive resource on the subject of the state of energy resources and alternative energy is "The Energy Blog." It's author gave us quite a scare when he ceased posting a few months ago. Fortunately he has resumed updating his blog. He reports that medical problems were the reason for his hiatus and that he is much better. We wish him well. Find his blog at:
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An Overview Comparison of Alternative Energy Systems:
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2/01/09
2/12/09
2/18/09
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Solutions, General:
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Monday, April 28, 2008

SOLUTIONS

Things are happening fast. Just tonight I heard a report on NPR that we may have open sea with no sea ice at the North Pole before 2009! It seems that we just don't have much time to bandy this about in a theoretical and/or rhetorical manner. There has been a lot of research done that we can draw upon for answers. I've listened to climatological pundits discuss at length what the very best method of turning back climate change might be. I've also come to the conclusion that what we should do is: EVERYTHING WE CAN and ALL AT ONCE. I dont' mean to sound trite, and I don't think that this is. Hearing "experts" tell us that one or another way of combating Global Warming isn't worth doing because doing it would only help a very small amount, and by itself would have no measureable impact misses the point. We're all individuals and almost nothing that any one or a few of us does will have a very large impact. However, the impact of millions or even billions of individuals each doing their little bit to help might and probably will make an important difference.

Given this point of view, I'm going to list everything I can think of that might help. Here goes:

1. Reflective roofs on our buildings. In the late 1970's, in Phoenix, Arizona where I lived then, I heard of reflective roof coatings that one could buy and apply to ones roof. The developers of this coating had researched white pigments and had come up with one that was particularly effective at reflecting a high percentage the light that fell upon it. It would help in two ways. A. It would lessen the energy needed to both cool and heat buildings. Reflective surfaces serve to reflect heat both in and out. It would help keep buildings warm in winter and cool in summer. B. By reflecting sunlight back out into space, it would help cool the earth. It might also just happen to extend the life of ones' roof covering. I've wondered just how great a surface area the buildings of the USA and even the world add up to. I'd love to hear from anyone who knows how to get a reasonably accurate estimate of this.

Beyond the simple issue of roofs, I was very impressed by the way that cities or rather the things that cities are constructed of, such as concrete and black top, had of soaking up and slowly giving off heat in such a way as to warm up its' entire environs. I lived in a house that, when I was very young, was out in the country. In fact, until I reached age of six, my grandfathers' mostly-organic dairy farm was located at the end of my street, less than a quarter of a mile away. At night in the summer, by around 9 or 10 PM a cooling breeze would come in off the surrounding rural and desert land. As the city grew around us and passed us by, the cooling breezes were replaced by the heat that was soaked up all day and given off all night. I think that there are other elements of our city environments that could benefit from more reflective surfaces. Roads and parking lots come to mind. White might cause too much glare to be safe, but could blacktop be somehow lightened to reflect a portion of the light that strikes it? It's something to think about.
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THE EXTENT OF THE PROBLEM

I've come to realize that to properly address the Global Warming problem, there are some very fundamental questions that need to be answered. Perhaps the answers have been found and are written somewhere but I've never seen or heard them. So--I'll lay these out as they come to me.

1. What is the total amount of carbon in, on and around the earth?
2. In what forms and percentages does this carbon exist?
3. What sort of natural carbon cycles exist?
4. What chemicals are there that will bind easily to carbon and hold it in a form that sequesters it from the atmosphere.
5. How available are these carbon-binding compounds and elements and where are they?
6. How easily are they obtained and used to sequester carbon?
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Thursday, January 31, 2008

FIXING AIR

FIXING AIR is my attempt to stir thought, discussion, exploration, brain-storming, argument and, just maybe, uncover, find and/or devolop solutions to what is probably the greatest danger and challenge that the human race has ever visited upon our earthly environment and, ultimately, ourselves. This is, of course, global warming. I do not claim that this blog is unique, original or that it has or will have all or even some of the answers. I do not even claim that everything that is posted here is useful, true or has any practical merit. It is simply my personal and hopeful attempt to get at some answers to this folly of our own making.
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